movie needed more mirrors IMO
― Neanderthal, Friday, 29 April 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link
i love Sparks, him Jerome and Morris are so great
Morris kind of doesn't get much more good material in the last ~30% of the film though.
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Friday, 29 April 2016 22:03 (eight years ago) link
fucking love P's lair full of dolls
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Friday, 29 April 2016 22:04 (eight years ago) link
people were clapping, singing along, laughing, probably crying too. It was a nice crowd to be in right now
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Friday, 29 April 2016 22:05 (eight years ago) link
cab driver very easily hoodwinked by Apollonia
― Neanderthal, Friday, 29 April 2016 22:08 (eight years ago) link
i also like the idea of getting revenge on a lover that spurned you via a conveniently timed setlist choice
― Neanderthal, Friday, 29 April 2016 22:10 (eight years ago) link
haha yeah it does build up this mythology of performance, where things that are happening onstage are actual parts of a larger melodrama
― Οὖτις, Friday, 29 April 2016 22:11 (eight years ago) link
other highlights
Apollonia foisting a fancy-assed guitar upon Kid and then saying "I'm joining Morris's band" like she expected any kind of positive reaction to that news.
only thing that woulda improved Prince's "whAAAAaaaaT?" woulda been a record skip sound effect.
― Neanderthal, Friday, 29 April 2016 22:21 (eight years ago) link
this is playing here now. should i see it tonight?
― wizzz! (amateurist), Friday, 29 April 2016 22:26 (eight years ago) link
went to a showing last night. yes.
― dc, Friday, 29 April 2016 22:29 (eight years ago) link
Go see it. It is almost an audience participation movie, like Rocky Horror.
― Radio Free European Son (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 29 April 2016 22:54 (eight years ago) link
yeah I was kinda sad that my crowd didn't make more noise last night.
― Neanderthal, Friday, 29 April 2016 23:11 (eight years ago) link
FUCK'S WRONG WITH YOU KID
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 29 April 2016 23:34 (eight years ago) link
yeah it's weirdly regressive gender-wise, which is weird in the context of Prince's music, except for Wendy and Lisa as noted
― Οὖτις, Friday, April 29, 2016 5:36 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Some but not all of the regression is there to characterize Morris as the heel, but its regression is not in fact particularly "weird in the context of Prince's music," which is not as progressive as has been claimed recently.
― Comprehensive Nuclear Suggest-Ban Treaty (benbbag), Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:05 (eight years ago) link
I do love the implication in the film that Wendy and Lisa are the ones that actually wrote the song "Purple Rain"
― Οὖτις, Friday, April 29, 2016 5:44 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Well they, or, more properly, the band as a whole, did, if not exactly in the way they movie indicates - he, not they, came up with the basic chords, but the band and Wendy especially fleshed the music out before he wrote the lyrics and presumably vocal line.
― Comprehensive Nuclear Suggest-Ban Treaty (benbbag), Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:07 (eight years ago) link
(some of which incorporated bandmember vocal contributions)
And that's true of a lot of his stuff, something else under-discussed since his death
― Comprehensive Nuclear Suggest-Ban Treaty (benbbag), Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:08 (eight years ago) link
I think the movie itself is a pretty good guide to just how seriously or not you're supposed to take it
― Comprehensive Nuclear Suggest-Ban Treaty (benbbag), Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:10 (eight years ago) link
the scene where he tricks apollonia into skinnydipping in lake non-minnetonka and then leaves her in the dust of his motorcycle peel out
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:17 (eight years ago) link
He is such a fucking dick in that scene
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:20 (eight years ago) link
the way he frames it as "oh I triiiied to tell ya" despite the pregnant pause between his last sentence and her striptease and then him standin there all like "ok yeah i wanted to see some titties. WHAT?!"
― Neanderthal, Saturday, 30 April 2016 00:26 (eight years ago) link
I like this movie because it look intersting
― MatthewK, Saturday, 30 April 2016 01:11 (eight years ago) link
I saw this movie when it came out and I was in 10th grade. At the time I thought it was both ridiculous and amazing. The only thing that's changed in the intervening years is that when I saw it I didn't like Morris Day's music at all, and now I do, a lot.
― dlp9001, Saturday, 30 April 2016 01:17 (eight years ago) link
Does Morris Day still perform?
― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 30 April 2016 01:20 (eight years ago) link
Nah, he doesn't have the time
― Vinnie, Saturday, 30 April 2016 03:01 (eight years ago) link
fp me if you must
― Vinnie, Saturday, 30 April 2016 03:02 (eight years ago) link
Boomboom
― Mark G, Saturday, 30 April 2016 08:49 (eight years ago) link
Saw Purple Rain for the first time last summer. People were ecstatic, very much an audience participation movie. I remember a big laugh when the blonde girl looks at the slip of paper and said "Apollonia??" Saw it again last night, that didn't get a laugh. Oddly, it was pretty much the same mood, the giddiness of a rock concert. Not somber at all, which was really surprising. Amazing moment when Prince and Apollonia first have sex: woman behind me screaming "HUSBANDS! BOYFRIENDS! LESBIAN PARTNERS! WATCH THIS. WATCH THIS. TAKE NOTES." But it was mostly the same innocent excitement and cheering as the screening I saw last year, both capacity crowds in huge auditoriums. I don't know what I was expecting, though. People were happy. It was fun.
― flappy bird, Saturday, 30 April 2016 12:36 (eight years ago) link
Even worse than I remembered. Siskel and Ebert both including it on their year-end lists in 1984 is a true WTF moment. Like, this is basically Rick Springfield's Hard To Hold with better music.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 04:17 (eight years ago) link
I like the Day-Benton teamwork, a couple of concert sequences, the rest is garbage.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 10:29 (eight years ago) link
saw it a few weeks ago at the ICA in london. slightly too snarky crowd maybe, but lots of LOLs all the way through. maybe without that, i might have been more forgiving. but it hasnt aged well. some great scenes with morris and jerome (why didnt they get to do more movies?). interesting for how closely the revolution in the movie seem resemble the real dynamics of the band. but i found the performances to not be as good as remembered - by prince that is. the time and other groups seem to be fine. but prince's performances on the PR tour video are much better. in the film, they look a bit over-acted in a way the songs dont really need (though computer blue is great). also confused at the weird grasp of sense of time/continuity on the montage for the very first song (lets go crazy). best moment though is hearing fathers song (the computer blue bridge) on the piano. amazing.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 11:53 (eight years ago) link
saw it in a sold out screening in Manchester in one of the biggest screens last week. people went nuts; standing, cheering, singing, crying, the whole bit, a very youthful stylish crowd. the only time i can recall being drunk in a cinema thanks to the 'purple cocktails' on sale. biggest crowd lols were for his Dad's 'don't get married' speech, and at the bizzare leg moves from Apollonia during the start of the sex scene. it seemed creaky but better lit and shot than i remember.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 12:07 (eight years ago) link
and yeah the piano bits were great.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 12:08 (eight years ago) link
there were lots of whoops and cheers too. but mainly just lots of 'LOL!'
in the cast/crew interviews on the DVD, the director actually gets teary about the 'dont get married' scene. apparently princes dad gave him the same speech.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 12:27 (eight years ago) link
Morris Day has charisma as an actor, I'll admit, but his whole "Who's on First" bit with Jerome was agonizing.
Is it worth pointing out that the plot makes no sense? Like, his character is this struggling musician who lives at home but he still exerts this Prince-like control over his band where its a big deal if he does or doesn't consider performing one of Wendy and Lisa's songs?
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 13:01 (eight years ago) link
It's weird you almost have to watch it as several phases of the characters life palimpsested into one
― scarcity festival (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 13:52 (eight years ago) link
in the cast/crew interviews on the DVD, the director actually gets teary
― Hang On To Your Evol (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 13:58 (eight years ago) link
Like, his character is this struggling musician who lives at home but he still exerts this Prince-like control over his band where its a big deal if he does or doesn't consider performing one of Wendy and Lisa's songs?
Is it hard to believe that Prince was like this even when he lived at home?
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 14:11 (eight years ago) link
it hasnt aged well.
nnnnnnnnnno, no perceptive viewers thought the non-musical shit was good in '84
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 14:15 (eight years ago) link
there are certain movies that i just hold to a lower standard. this, dirty dancing, point break...patrick swayze's whole filmography, basically.
― dc, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
Dirty Dancing is a better movie than PR, but, you know, Prince.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 14:20 (eight years ago) link
i love this movie, of course it isn't good, but it's great
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 14:35 (eight years ago) link
its basically like prince's spin on all those terrible youth/teen pics of the 50s etc
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 18 May 2016 14:48 (eight years ago) link
OK, so I re-watched it for the first time in many years and I have to say …It still sucks. Even worse than I remember. The plot doesn’t make a bit of sense, the story’s self-pitying and pretentious — not to mention misogynistic — and the acting sucks all around. Yeah, I know the musical sequences are good BUT IT’S PRINCE, after all.
― Jazzbo, Monday, 23 May 2016 17:11 (eight years ago) link
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Tuesday, May 17, 2016 9:17 PM (6 days ago)
so wrong. intentionally or not, it's one of the funniest, weirdest, most fucked-up movies ever made. plus prince. can't imagine any sensible person not loving it.
― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer), Monday, 23 May 2016 17:18 (eight years ago) link
Really, you can't? Had I seen it when I was 15 or 16, I probably would have enjoyed it. But I was 20 or 21. I thought it was pretty embarrassing as a film, although I loved the music. Now that I’m much older it seems lamer than ever. I mean, take the fanboy glasses off and watch it as a film, not as a 90-minute music video. It’s awful. And there’s nothing even remotely weird or “fucked up” about it. It’s just bad.
― Jazzbo, Monday, 23 May 2016 17:22 (eight years ago) link
yeah, it's one of the funniest movies ever made, except for a couple thousand made by good comedians.
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 May 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
I watched it a couple years back fully expecting to hate it. I'd hated it when I last saw it, back in the 80s, as a teen. But no. I loved it. Each image and line is perfect (and, yes, perfectly terrible). People are often at their funniest when they're trying to be something else.
― da vinci beaver testicles (contenderizer), Monday, 23 May 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
I'm assuming the people itt saying Purple Rain is awful haven't watched Under the Cherry Moon (etc).
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Monday, 23 May 2016 17:39 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I'm not getting where this is so bad/funny/fucked up/whatever that its good. It's basically a severely underwritten melodrama that has some fantastic songs in it.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Monday, 23 May 2016 17:41 (eight years ago) link