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Rating Averages
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Not rated. () |
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All Flixster |
(12955) |
3843 |
19698 |
Female |
(8009) |
2376 |
12177 |
Male |
(4946) |
1467 |
7521 |
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Plot:
A young man with a talent for music has begun a career with much promise. He meets an aspiring singer, Apollonia, and finds that talent alone isn't all that he needs. A complicated tale of his repeati...( read more 
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:August 6, 2008Based loosely on his REAL LIFE - some of the story line changed for entertainment purposes. Loved to see into his life and hear him speak. He has a air about him that scream ROYALTY from the get go - I have to date watched this movie 145 times and never bore of it ! Wonderful movie to just lay about on a lazy day and enjoy the music and the sights of the Purple One in action. Although I know there would never be a Purple Rain 2 - I would loved to have seen it attempted to catch us up on the ins and outs of his life. Love ya <-)-O
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MCT:July 29, 2008
A really great movie, with excellent music by Prince. I've loved this movie ever since I first saw it when I was 6 (even though I was probably too young to see it then, haha). This movie is kind of nostalgic to me, since it brings back memories of when I was a little kid.
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MCT:July 26, 2008
This movie moves me to tears, I love everything about it! The music, the plot, and this opened my eyes to how great musicals can be.
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MCT:June 26, 2008Really wanted to give this a lower rating just out of principle but despite a lot of the movie being uneventful and slow it picks up and just becomes too cheesy and 80s that I can't give it any less.
Prince is an 80s mess of a guy in this movie and Morris Day looks like some kind of pimp superhero, the soundtrack is fantastic and the domestic abuse is carried out like comedy because of the facial expressions of Prince after it.
Makes me want to see his other films now. -
MCT:June 25, 2008Prince is my favorite musician. He knocked it out of the park with his first movie. Outside of Sign of the Times, He couldn't keep it up.
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MCT:June 5, 2008
I LOVE THIS MOVIE!! It is a movie that came out when My husband & I were dating and the music was awesome. "Purple Rain", is our song. ALOT of Memories when listening to this soundtrack or watching the movie. =)
I love anything Prince, actually. -
MCT:June 3, 2008
The story was weak, the acting was amateurish, but there were two really bright spots...Morris Day and the soundtrack!
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MCT:June 2, 2008
i may have gone overboard with the 5 star rating. but this is PRINCE, and this has so many childhood memories associated with it. Classic flik. Great music.
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MCT:May 25, 2008
I use to love Prince, and I watched this movie so many times because of my infatuation. But I lost interest as years went by and I grew up some. But I still like this movie.
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MCT:April 13, 2008
The plot is a little bizzare, but most music movies are for some reason. Hey, the music is good and its watchable at least once.
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MCT:March 20, 2008I?ve been a fan of Prince?s music for a while now, and as such I?ve listened to the soundtrack to this movie many, many times. Still I hadn?t seen the film, and when I saw it was available for streaming over Netflix I decided it would be interesting to see what the original context of all these songs was supposed to be. This is a really cheesy movie, really cheesy. Prince is a terrible actor, and the rest of the cast isn?t much better. Still the great music gives the film a real energy and all the live performances are really fun to watch. The music is almost too good, as one begins to wonder why everyone is saying he ?isn?t good enough to make it? when the music is really great. I?ll give Prince a lot of credit for putting such a personal story up on screen, but I think I?ll stick to listening to the soundtrack.
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MCT:March 1, 2008
great movie. prince is pretty cool and i just loved this movie because it shows him becoming something.
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MCT:January 23, 2008
THE GREATEST MODERN MUSICIAN AND HERO TO MILLIONS ON PLANET EARTH,AN INSPIRATION,SOMEONE I ADMIRE A LOT.
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MCT:December 14, 2007
I work hard not to get too personal in my movie reviews, bringing up relevant facts at most that establish a background from which I review, to sort of help any readers see what angle I'm coming from, but in this case it's going to prove difficult to completely separate. I am going to do my best, but my apologies for what will inevitably at least dip into my personal life, somewhat unavoidably.
While most movies hang around my apartment for a while after I buy them, some wait longer than others. Sometimes it's a massive undertaking to dive into them--such as those in the three to four hour running time bracket--sometimes I'm hoping for or expecting new editions, or even find them arriving (An Officer and a Gentleman, The Grapes of Wrath, etc), sometimes I just can't bring myself to give in to what is likely the only release they'll see (the original Star Wars films, which I won't watch infected with Lucas' retconning stupidities, and hope for at least an anamorphic transfer of the original cuts), and sometimes I intend to watch them with people. Heavenly Creatures is still sitting around waiting as I intended to view it with my parents, New York, New York was suffering a similar fate--then got re-released, and this one, Graffiti Bridge and Under the Cherry Moon were all waiting to be viewed with my then-girlfriend, a massive Prince fan. I put it off and put it off and now I have to use that little prefix "then-," and suddenly it became an issue of not needing to open old wounds, rather than simply waiting for the right time or for her to be around. Finally, I've felt I'm in a safe enough place to deal with it that I decided to sit down and do it.
Prince Rogers Nelson, also known as Prince and O(+>, plays "the Kid," an otherwise unnamed musician based at least in part on Prince himself, who plays at First Avenue (a real club in Minneapolis, MN where Prince, indeed, played in reality) to shrinking crowds, his band, the Revolution, constantly competing with Morris Day and the Time for stagetime and the chance to make it big, as they say. One Apollonia (for the record, Prince and his "parents" are the only ones who do not go by their real names on film, so I'm not going to bother with credits from now on, except for those two) enters with dreams of becoming a star, skipping back and forth between the Kid and Morris Day for whichever will treat her right and get her what she wants. He contends with Wendy and Lisa, two members of the Revolution who have written a song (the titular one, in fact, but they in fact did not write it--though they did contribute, as they themselves admit in the special features on this anniversary DVD) and want the band to play it.
What I think is possibly most interesting about the plotting of this movie is it does not paint the notoriously controlling, egocentric and eccentric that Prince is as a perfect or wonderful guy--he is told repeatedly that he is like his father, something he has to slowly realize. He is not a fan of his father, who abuses his mother. He loves them both anyway, but clearly it's a love/hate sort of relationship with his father. Some of his parents' relationship worms its way into how the Kid interacts with Apollonia, which is not a good thing and not portrayed as one, or as an acceptable one. His ego is directly addressed in fact, as the crowds dwindle and he's told that his music only makes sense to him (of course, this was right after "Darling Nikki," leading me to believe the manager of First Ave was on drugs) and he viciously tears Wendy and Lisa down repeatedly. It was rather surprising and a "happy" surprise at that.
As far as his acting, well, I tend to hear "Wow, he's surprisingly good," (fans) or "God, he cannot act," (apologetic fans, critics and snobs). The truth is somewhere inbetween. Like many of the band members and other real people playing their actual roles, there's an awkward, amateurish feel to most of the acting. That sort of adds a thrill, to me, though. It makes me think, "Hey, these are the ACTUAL people!" and sort of pushes us into the territory that reminds us that--yeah, this is about the music. Purple Rain (the album, that is) is a great album. The performances here are fantastic, Prince in top form on his feet, on his axe and vocally (I do believe at least some of it was recorded live audio-wise as well), and the rest of the band does not laze about at it either.
I should note, though, that I feel this period in Prince's career--musically--was a sidestep between where he had been (actually my favourite period, those full-on funky, R&B albums like For You, Dirty Mind and Controversy) and where he was going, to a more refined and diverse musical palette that he ended up moving into afterward and sort of continued in to this day (with great variation under that umbrella, certainly). I felt 1999 and Purple Rain were sprawling excess--not bad excess mind you, but bringing a full band, increased experimentation and production over curling, synth stings and hooks, which I loved. But that's irrelevant. It doesn't mean this music is bad. Far, far, far, far from it. It's fantastic. And hiding in all of this we have Clarence Williams III as the Kid's father--who I know as Samson Simpson in Half-Baked and I believe a handful of tv spots, always with an intensity and violence in him, but certainly a control of his being and character that does create a contrast with everyone else who has not acted constantly.
So, it's exciting, it's engaging, it's flawed (maybe not deeply flawed, Mulder*) but it's good. Thankfully I made it through without losing my mind and enjoyed myself along the way.
*If you get the SPECIFICS of that reference, holy crap, you are quite a geek. -
MCT:November 27, 2007
OMG watching this movie was the official beginning of my long term crush on the artist that will always be known as Prince
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MCT:October 29, 2007If you don't have a massiv boner for Prince's music, it's unlikely you'll like this ego-centric suck fest.
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MCT:October 24, 2007
A blast for fans of the Purple One. But those who are not fans will be quick to point out the lack of storyline and the music video production.
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MCT:October 22, 2007
Not a great movie but still a very unique one. Though mostly for Prince fans, which I am. The scene where he plays a tape with a laughing girl to girlfriend Vanity was a very erotic one: 'She's not laughing, but crying backwards'. Oh..then they had sex..that must have made it erotic..ehm..
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MCT:October 12, 2007
Kate Hudson twinkles as the heroine of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a magazine writer assigned to date a guy, make all the mistakes girls make that drive guys away (being clingy, talking in ...( read more )baby-talk, etc.), and record the process like a sociological experiment. However, the guy she picks--rangy Matthew McConaughey--is an advertising executive who's just bet that he can make a woman fall in love with him in ten days; if he succeeds, he'll win a huge account that will make his career. The set-up is completely absurd, but the collision of their efforts to woo and repel creates some pretty funny scenes. McConaughey's easy charm and Hudson's lightweight impishness play well together and the plot, though strictly Hollywood formula, chugs along efficiently. At moments Hudson seems to channel her mother, Goldie Hawn, to slightly unnerving effect. --Bret Fetzer
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MCT:October 12, 2007
I was 14 yrs old when I first saw the movie, I loved it then,I love it now. whoopi and oprah are wonderful!
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MCT:October 10, 2007
Prince is his moodiest playing a young misunderstood musician with a troubled family life adding to the pot. His first film and quite promising.
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MCT:October 8, 2007
I saw this when I was really young with my sister, cousin an daunt.
I liked it and thought the songs for the film played well with what the film was about. -
MCT:September 21, 2007
Favorite "musical" of all time (although I hate musicals). Morris Day is great, he steals every scene with his complete lack of subtlety.
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Comments
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IluvmemyselfandIposted 61 days ago -
Saw this movie when i was 16-17 and was so obsessed i watched it 5 times after the first weekend... nutter, but what great songs. Morris Day and Jerome are easily the highlight of the film apart from its superb soundtrack.
posted 600 days ago
