Prince Movie Collection (Blu-ray Review)
Purple Rain is without a doubt one of those quintessentially 80’s movies. Whenever you think of musical films from this era, Purple Rain is ALWAYS at the top of the list! But what sets it apart from it’s neon-colored counterparts is the fact that it truly revels in all of it’s over-the-top absurdity. The characters are larger-than-life and the personalities stand right up there with them. Prince stars as “The Kid”, a musician and songwriter trying to make if big with his band “The Revolution”. Along the way he encounters Apollonia; an aspiring singer and dancer hoping that The Kid will consider adding her to his fledgling ensemble.
Purple Rain
Now, by today’s standards if someone was able to pack a nightclub like The Revolution, most would consider that to be quite a success. But you gotta remember that this was during a time when there weren’t TONS of bands fighting for the spot light, and there was no such thing as YouTube. This was back when you actually had to go OUT to find new and exciting music. There was no “Live Nation” or venue website that allowed you to browse through the live acts coming to your town. You either had to BE there or be SQUARE.
It goes without saying that every single musical performance is next level awesome! But that’s just what you get when you literally have “music royalty” in your film. And I’m not just talking about the “Purple One” himself. Morris Day and the Time practically steal the show whenever they hit the stage. Morris is simply magical whenever he’s on camera. But alas, for all of Prince’s incredible talents, I must say that performing dialogue just isn’t one of them. The stage performances are one aspect of the film that completely holds up, and at times exceeds today’s standards. You just can’t help nodding your head and tapping your toe to those immortal grooves. We can attribute this transcendent level of quality to Prince himself. As it was his innovative mind that gave us all of the original songs, including those performed by “The Time”.
I will say however that the female members of this 80’s classic aren’t exactly pillars of feminine strength and independence. I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say that there are a couple moments where The Kid acts in a less than gentlemanly manner. But instead of telling him to kick rocks, Apollonia runs right back to him as soon as he shows his softer side. Now, I’m not saying that this is something that doesn’t actually happen in real life. It’s just unfortunate when the main female in a film ends of being just a doormat without any sense of a backbone. But then again, this was also around the same time when Asian characters where given colorful names like “Long Duck Dong”. So we shouldn’t be TOO surprised when the women folk end up getting less than VIP treatment here.
Prince is one of those rare artists whose influence stretches far beyond the realm of music. You can see shades of his style in fashion, music videos, and even movies. The most important obstacle he overcame with this film was showing the world that black musicians are capable of producing so much more than just Rap and R&B. That black folks can in fact put on a damn good rock show! And he didn’t even stop at Rock. He also went on to write Folk, Pop, and R&B hits for big time artists such as Sinead O’Connor, Sheryl Crow, and Chaka Khan, to name a few. Combining all of this with his uncanny ability to appear feminine and yet powerfully masculine all at the same time, and you get an entertainment icon whose legend will live on for years to come.
Purple Rain – Summary
So this definitely ranks as one of those classic music films that you just HAVE to see at some point in your life. There isn’t really much to the story. But if you have even the slightest interest in what Prince was like around this time, then it’s definitely worth a watch. Plus you’ll get to SEE where these iconic songs originated from. In a way, it gives a little more context for the stories behind these tunes. Songs like “When Doves Cry” seem almost like a fairy tail. But when there’s a visual backdrop supporting them, that isn’t just a music video, it gives them a whole new meaning.
Under the Cherry Moon
This time around Prince decides to get a bit more ambitious with his foray into the film world. But unfortunately his attempt to recreate the quirky silliness we loved in Purple Rain falls painfully flat. It’s almost as if he had some kind of fever dream whilst visiting France – but instead of crafting a coherent story-line, he tried to recreate it verbatim. Including all of the bizarre imagery and dialogue that usually occurs in a dream-state.
I’m a huge Prince fan, but I must confess that up until now, I’d never seen Under the Cherry Moon. And to be honest, I’m kinda glad I didn’t. This movie shows us a whole new side to the “Man in Purple” that we’re all so familiar with. I mean the dude is straight up slapstick and goofy. We follow Christopher (Prince) a Miami native who’s taken up residence in the Mediterranean. With the help of his brother Tricky (Jerome Benton), they plan to seduce the local socialites and debutantes out of their vast fortunes.
The film opens with Christopher playing piano in a “ritzy” French restaurant. Meanwhile his accomplice Tricky scours the room for their next highfalutin target. A comely lass enters and sits directly across from Christopher as he plays casual dinner music. What comes next between them is a series of tawdry and over-the-top glances and alluring looks. While intermittently Tricky has the waitress drop off napkin notes to encourage him to pursue this woman. Now, this would have been a cute little way to bring us into this world, but the whole thing goes for so long that you end up not caring how the evening ends for our musical hero. I’d say it was at about the fifth napkin that I started to loose interest. Now bear in mind, we’re only about ten minutes into the movie and I’m already falling asleep!
Thankfully when Mary Sharon arrives, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, we’re given a bit of a reprieve from the dull and dry comedy that opened the film. But such a blissful moment is ripped from us when once again Christopher and Tricky enter the scene. I mean god love him for his amazing lyrics, but the man just has no concept of how to write dialogue. The whole thing is like watching the most expensive school play ever produced. This is pretty much how the rest of the film plays out with little to redeeming qualities as the story progresses.
I would love to tell you that once Prince’s brilliant music starts playing that it will distract you from the visual “cringe-fest” that plays before you. But for some reason the mixing of the music and dialogue is horribly unbalanced. Which is pretty shocking considering Prince not only wrote all of his own music, but he also produced and arranged it as well. So the man knows how create a good audio mix! All I can assume is that Prince opted to let someone else take 100% control of the sound mixing for this film. Which again doesn’t really seem like something he’d allow as he was ferociously controlling when it came to his art. So much so that he demanded that YouTube remove all of his music videos!
I really had high hopes for this one. Especially considering it came only a year after Purple Rain. Which, despite it’s flaws, was still an entertaining musical ride! But that unfortunately cannot be said about this half-heated attempt at a European romantic comedy. It tries SO very hard to be clever and witty. But it does so in the same way a child would try to impersonate a famous comedians stand-up routine. The intention is there, but the words and timing cause everything to fall apart.
Graffiti BridgeLadies and gentlemen we have officially entered the 90’s! Thankfully Prince has returned to his “Purple” roots and abandoned any notions of making a traditional film. Because one thing Graffiti Bridge is NOT, is traditional. Much like Purple Rain, this film is basically just one long music video. Now don’t get TOO excited. This isn’t some visual epic that could stand toe to toe with some of Michael Jackson’s ground breaking short films. This is much more along the lines of mid-90’s L.L. Cool J or Boyz 2 Men; lots of intense glances shared across the room combined with borderline militaristic outfits. ALL in black of course.
Morris Day returns with hair taller than the Empire State Building and a yellow suit that would make the Joker jealous. Because of the Hip-Hop music boom of the time, both Morris and Prince have taken to rapping most of their songs rather than singing them. Which I suppose isn’t the worst thing in the world. But neither of them seem particularly comfortable with this style of performance. This is most evident with Morris. You can just see in his eyes that he is out of his element. We’re also treated to a few guest appearances from the great George Clinton and s young Tevin Campbell! It was pretty cool to see this little guy back before he made it big. I loved his singing from the early 90’s and was always bummed that he kinda ended up as a one-hit-wonder. Hopefully we’ll see more from him one day.
Overall I’m glad that I finally saw this film. Like I said, it doesn’t really live up to the greatness of it’s predecessor. But as far as 90’s movies go, it’s at least worth checking out. If for no other reason than to be reminded of the bizarre fashions of the time. I mean come on! Who thought it was a good idea to put militaristic symbols on woman’s pant suits!? But now that I think about it, without all of the stage performances, I’m not so sure that this film would’ve been that much better than Cherry Moon. In a way, these films test just how much of Prince fan you truly are. In that if you’re more of a casual listener, than you might not be able to make all the through these musical gems.
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Spanish
German: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
- Purple Rain Commentary – Albert Magnoli, Robert Cavallo, and Donald E. Thorin.
- First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty – Musicians and Minneapolis locals discuss the history of the real life First Avenue showcase nightclub and it’s profound effect on their lives and careers.
- Purple Rain: Backstage Pass – This behind the scenes featurette discusses the making of Purple Rain. They explain how difficult it was to convince people that this film was going to be a success. At the time everyone thought a film based on Prince’s life, who at the time wasn’t the megastar that we know him today, would be a flop.
- 1984 MTV Premier Party.
- Music Videos – Let’s Go Crazy, Take Me with You, When Doves Cry, I Would Die for You/Baby I’m a Star, Purple Rain, Jungle Love, The Bird, Sex Shooter.
The Prince Movie Collection is now available on Blu-ray!
