Prince movies (Purple Rain, Under the Cherry Moon, Graffiti Bridge)

I have a foundness for PURPLE RAIN as it came out back in High School. It is also a great soundtrack.

Paul, admit you choked up during "The Beautiful Ones"!

PURPLE RAIN is the ultimate MTV movie. All flash, but at times the sound + vision is as memorable as JAILHOUSE ROCK/ A HARD DAY'S NIGHT.

Morris Day is Prince's not-so-secret weapon. A truly funny presence in PURPLE. He's the only sign of life in GRAFFITI BRIDGE (That's not fair-besides young sensation Tevin Campbell).

Always wanted to have a sidekick like Jerome--someone handy with a mirror; able to run interference on overly aggressive ex-girlfriends; or if the situation's called for, even a toss into the dumpster . (Not sexist at all!)

As a Prince fan, I find these movies strangely compelling in spite of their awfulness. Purple Rain is undeniably the best and most well-conceived, even though it's lit and shot like a slasher movie.

Cherry Moon has moments of camp zaniness that I enjoy, but it feels too long and the many misfired attempts at humor don't help the pace. Graffiti Bridge is a stunningly inept piece of work, but musically I think it's fantastic and the decision to go for small sets and a pastel early '90s color scheme gives the movie an art-house feel. It's still awful, but I can find things to appreciate about it.

That said, there are a myriad of highlights across all three of these gems, but I'll add a few of my favorites:

Purple Rain
- Prince stomping around his house yelling "WHERE ARE U?! ANSWER ME MOTHERFUCKER!"
- Prince and Jill Jones' awkward 'chemistry.'
- The incredible moment where Appelonia gives Prince that white guitar, immediately informs him that she is defecting to Morris Day's group, only to have Prince immediately hop to his feet and smack her down. Drama!
- "You should see my house, it's so exciting." Ah, so smooth, Morris Day.

Under the Cherry Moon
- Jerome Benton bawling toward the end. "He was just a baby!!"

Graffiti Bridge
- The aforementioned stripping scene, which grinds the flick to a total halt for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
- The Thieves in the Temple sequence, which is actually pretty excellent.
- The bizarre potted shrubbery that populates the wilderness around Minneapolis.
- Prince's war paint. Dude knows how to rally that NPG.

Yup, I love this movie to death. In college, this was me and my friends' 4 am dorm room flick where we'd just put it on in the background while we drank and/or smoked. I've seen it so many times I can quote it verbatim.

Nothing beats the music, and I jump up on my couch and sing along every time. But I also love the stupid humor: Prince telling Appollonia she had to jump in Lake Minnetonka, which she did, only to tell her that wasn't the lake; Morris Day's "The password is 'What'" bit always makes me laugh.

And your slasher movie reference is totally on point. I will never understand the scene where Prince talks to himself via a puppet. So bizarre and completely random.

I've seen the other two flicks only once and a very long time ago so I can't comment on them. Maybe I'll add them to my Netflix queue.

I still think "Release It" kicks ass.

My favourite bit of Purple Rain is just how unlikeable Prince is. He's just a prick throughout the film. When he's not being a petulant Child he's smacking bitches.

Yeah, but you learn its because he's starving for attention from his dysfunctional parents. Though, it is amazing how large his ego is for such a tiny guy.

On a related note, Wendy and Lisa were interviewed by Out Magazine and said Prince is not gay, but he is a fancy lesbian.

So this is a video of my friend (the one from college who used to watch Purple Rain with me every freaking night) singing "The Beautiful Ones" during karaoke just a few months ago. My favorite bit is him emulating Prince by writhing on the floor towards the end. Hilarious!

Paul, you should try to find the two-disc special edition of PURPLE RAIN. It includes the opening night MTV premiere party. You get to see Prince show up in a limo with his contest-winning date--a chubby, midwestern mallrat. Goes without saying that it wasn't love at first sight. (In fact, don't think there was any eye contact at all)

You get to see a lot of A-list celebrities like Eddie Murphy, Rick James, and John Cougar Mellencamp--talk about what a genius he is. But the highlight is a deranged Little Richard showing up with an evangelical fervor and out of control ego. He goes back and forth between saying he wants to give Prince his Bible and save his soul and going off on how he's the true originator and Prince completely stole his act. The VJs don't know what to do but they can't cut him off. It is gloriously awkward. You'd love it!

(Probably on Youtube somewhere)

Under the Cherry Moon has the awesome scene where Jerome (not Jesse) gets Prince's bath ready, right? And his love interest's name is Mary. Yeah. Awesome. Parade has a ton of great songs, including anotherloverholeinyourhead.

Why would women want to sleep with Prince in Purple Rain? Cause he wrote and played Let's Go Crazy. And that's enough.

Grafitti Bridge looks like a early 90's music video, with the same sort of slightly washed out 35mm look.

And it goes well beyond Purple Rain, too. I think I've met two women of my generation who don't get Prince's sexual appeal; they're both boring and have terrible taste in music.

ETA: I was surprised to see how small the First Ave in Minneapolis was when I finally saw a show there in person in 2000 or so. If nothing else, Purple Rain did a fantastic job of making it look pretty big.

I sold Prince and his (then wife) Mayte a CD at the store that I used to manage.

He's tinier than you think he is; he's also VERY quiet and shy when dealing with people. Mayte was GORGEOUS.

My first r-rated film was Purple Rain. So I have tremendous mammories of this film. Excuse, memories of this film.

My wife is also a huge Prince fan, and from Minnesota.

speaking of which...

He was interviewed last week on Tavis Smiley.

The AV Club's Nathan Rabin reviews Under the Cherry Moon; deems it a fiasco.

Cherry Moon is my favorite because it's the Prince-iest Prince movie.
"Honey y'know I love yer drawers!"

The correct answer is Sign O the Times.

of ice cream?

A woman who does not like prince songs is like a woman who does not like Curtis Mayfield songs. don't date them as they are no fun at all.

Quoted for truth. EASILY the best moment in all of Graffiti Bridge.

I've got "3 Chains" on VHS- fucking horrendous. Truly the beginning of the end for Prince. It's the video accompaniment of the Symbol album/era. Without getting too nerdy, FUCK anything that has Tony Moseley on it. Sweet christ- him dancing in "Purple Rain" is bad enough. He makes T.C. Ellis in "Graffiti Bridge" sound like Mos Def.

The MTV premier party is a special gift from the people who put together the PURPLE RAIN dvd. Other than the aforementioned Little Richard segment, my favorite part has to be Mark Goodman asking everyone if the film is autobiographical, including Weird Al and John Mellencamp at the same time!

I decided to watch UNDER THE CHERRY MOON and GRAFFITI BRIDGE last night, I regret one of them. I actually like GRAFFITI BRIDGE mainly because it tries to mask the fact that it's shit with some pretty fun musical performances. "Thieves in the Temple" is a highlight as well as "Release It". CHERRY MOON sucks though, and what bothers me most is that I like PARADE quite a bit and it would've been nice to hear some songs in their entirety.

Also, I just found out that The Music Box in Chicago will be having a screening of PURPLE RAIN on August 13th. I will be the guy in the Detroit Tigers hat, white rimmed glasses, and track suit, if any Chicago chewers are going.

Me and Carly will almost certainly be there.

Nice! I'm looking forward to seeing Appolonia's breasts on the big screen. The way they were meant to be seen.

I think my favorite part of Purple Rain is when Clarence Williams III beats the shit out of Prince while he's all dolled up in his music gear towards the beginning.

By the way, I unashamedly own this on Blu-ray.

Edit: Nevermind.

They're not showing up for me.

Interesting. Thank you, my friend! Oh, to live in that alternate universe where the Prince/Blankman crossover movie happened!

Reminder to all Chicago chewers that this coming Friday is the midnight screening of Purple Rain. If you are not there, you are in fact, a square.

Patrick, I was there, and square. Where did you sit?

So sorry, my girlfriend had to get to bed early for tomorrow morning, so we're going tomorrow night. How was the print?

Good enough.Wish it would have been louder. I'm probably going with my roommate again tomorrow. It's a lot of fun. We'll be the guys clapping " I would Die for You". See you there!

One of the worst screenings I've ever been too. There were approximately 4 teams of cunts, working in shifts, collaborating to create the worst experience possible. Each team of cunts would laugh at the other team's jokes, strengthening their resolve and giving them confidence to get louder and louder.

The worst team of cunts was a girl and boy who sat right next to me and Carly, who were very drunk, very loud, and clearly all they knew about Prince came from Chappelle Show. I told them to keep it down, but the other three cunt teams were strategically located around the small theater (about 80 seats), making it impossible to silence them all without becoming disruptive myself. At one point during the song Purple Rain, when Prince tells the audience to put their hands up, they actually stretched their arms up and swayed with the movie, effectively blocking the view of 70% of the people there.

I understand it's a silly movie. I understand the need to laugh at points, to react to the screen, and I like that. I could even tolerate the occasional smug comment made quietly to your friend. But the yelling at the screen was fucking shitty. Carly was FUMING at the end, and had to physically restrain herself from pouring her drink all over the drunk cunt team next to us.

Tim, I do hope that you weren't a member of any cunt team there, because it'd be a bummer to have to hate you.

Also, you were right, they didn't turn up the volume nearly loud enough. Even without the comments, you need a movie with a soundtrack like this to be LOUD.

I went again tonight. This movie is my TDK. I laughed and had fun with my roommate, but I don't think I was disruptive. I sat towards the front, and I admit that I cheered loudly when the guy with the Detroit Tigers hat appeared on screen, but I was kind of upset when a beer bottle rolled up against my foot. It does suck that the screening wasn't fun for you, I sincerely hope I had nothing to do with it (I might have, although I don't think I was a cunt).

And yes, this is a movie that should be played loud enough to drown out assholes like me.

Shit, that was me. I'm so sorry.

Ah, I know who you were. You were fine. That was the drunken lady's beer bottle. The other awful people were all behind us.

EDIT: You were in the front corner, and the people in the three rows behind you also had their hands up, so I don't think you were blocking anyone's view. Again, I don't mind the cheering, the laughing, any of that. It's the people in the row behind me to my left who were having a running coversation throughout, the girl next to us screaming stupid nonsense at the screen, that kind of stuff.

Maybe I'm too sensitive and should expect this stuff at a midnight screening of Purple Rain, but not to the extent I experienced tonight.

Yeah I don't think there was anybody directly behind me, I like to think that no matter what sort of state I am in, I would show some common decency. Were you towards the back of the theater?

Also, I really love the Music Box. The show last night was in the bigger theater where they were having some sort of musical tonight, they raised the red curtain and everything

I would say we were in the middle, but probably closer to you in front than the back of the theatre.

I seriously could not believe how rude the audience was. Like Patrick, I know that Purple Rain is really silly movie and silly movies encourage conversation and other silliness, but that shit was ridiculous. Especially the drunk woman next to me. The most annoying part was that Patrick, knowing that noisy theater goers are something that really sets me off, leaned over and asked her nicely to keep it down a bit. She said sorry, but then continued to talk to her male companion about how she got yelled at and how sorry she was at almost the same volume. If she why sincerely sorry, why wouldn't she just shut her fucking mouth? And if it was something SO uncontrollable as she made it seem, then she should have left like a respectful adult woman.

I don't expect theatre audiences to be emotionless. The best audiences I've experienced have been a little talkative in fact. But last night was a whole new level. It would be one thing if it was an audience participation thing, but it wasn't. I just have zero tolerance for people who are older than I am acting like nosey schoolchildren. Absolutely fucking zero.