UTCM was, in my mind, a vision into prince's more comedic side, more open and honest human side.

Alot of those lines sounds like something he would say just joking around with friends. you saw bit instances during that time period (1985-1986) where prince was becoming a lil bit more laid back publically.

since UTCM bombed, do you think prince closed back up, thinking the public wouldnt accept his more human/ comedic side of him? think about it. came SOTT there was barely an interview and he drifted behind his music for awhile.


is there a coordination with this or am i thinkin too hard?

i think UTCM was a better glimsp inside of Prince than PR, which was nothin more than pouts imo.

Maybe the poor reviews lead Prince to be a little shy about movie making, although Prince kept turning out great songs one year after the next.

Nvncible1 said:

I've seen UTCM... honestly... 65 times. I can recite this movie inside and out.

This movie was a much more fun movie than Purple Rain, and it showed us Prince's comedic and fun-loving side.

I don't think that because this movie bombed, Prince closed back up. I just think that the man takes musical journeys, and changes directions... but I can see where you're coming from.

And think about it... SOTT was his most critically acclaimed work. If anything, you can argue that the failures of UTCM didn't slow him down one bit, and perhaps made him more caring. SOTT is arguably his most sensitive, thought-provoking, and "caring" album.

After that came The Black Album... before Lovesexy. Those are both intense albums... filled with creativity and spirituality.

Prince is a comedian kind of a guy. He gave us that glimpse, and that personality still shows up on occasion... but I think he's more passionate (on many levels) than comedic by nature.

It maybe cheezy, but he is cute in the movie. His humor and infectious smile was great. I love the bath scene where Tricky drops him.

I think you've WAY over thought a movie that even Prince hated.

UTCM, very funny and stylish too,

I love it

ernestsewell said:

How do you know Prince hated it?

muirdo said:

He doesn't.

I like UTCM, i think it's well directed for what it is, and it's really not that bad at all, but you have to be a fan to get it.

Imo, UTCM was one of the best movies. I adore that movie. Very Comical Prince...
Loved it!

Prince did hate the last product of the movie....
So i herd...

but I love it...so I don't care what he thinks...lol

I don't know if there's truth to that, but I can see where you're coming from.

I love the movie. P and Jerome had decent chemistry, despite the bad acting.


One thing I do know is that NOBODY can flirt like Prince! The way he looked at Mary Sharon at the party? It just SCREAMED "come over here and give me them drawls"!

Marrk said:

Yeah he did, and you're not Prince.

nyse said:

Yes he did. When the movie was being edited and put together by Prince and other, he was highly disappointed with what was shot. He knew he had to deliver a product, but regretted doing any of it. His vision was NOT coming together as he thought, and he couldn't go back and do reshoots by that point. There's one point when he was at home and Susannah was there w/ him. They were laying in the floor, and Prince was literally hitting the floor with his fists in frustration and saying "I hate this movie. I hate this movie!"

The tour wasn't even called The Parade Tour. It was called Hit N Run. He rarely referenced the movie after the fact. There's that one MTV interview where he talks about being a painter, etc etc, but that was about it. Even at the UTCM premiere on MTV, he didn't mention the movie as much as he talked about music. Kristin Scott Thomas' "love" of it was quite phony as well. But in her defense, you can't show up at a movie premiere in the middle of bumfuck Egypt and say "I hate this movie."

So yeah....he hated the movie. And he seems SO disinterested in anything from his past, it's no surprise that he had zero involvement with it coming out on DVD. I mean, wasn't the movie shot in color? Why NOT release a color version on the DVD, just for shits and giggles?

I like the movie. I can quote it like I can Purple Rain too. It's funny, cute, and campy. It was the Showgirls of its day.

ernestsewell said:

Stop being a tit.

The movie is cute, and IMO is funnier and more quotable than Purple Rain was. But really, it wasn't all that good. That had more to do with its' lack of success than anything else.

I have heard too that Prince didn't like the final product. It's too bad he didn't have the time/money/resources to have a do-over. I wouldn't mind finding out what he'd originally meant to create.

Marrk said:

No one's being a tit, you flop sweat. It's the truth. You think I'm pulling stuff out of my backside for shits and giggles or something? Read up on your Prince history, mmkay?

I like this movie.The critics were brutal.I think of this film as a fun,romantic comedy with some great music.It wasn't meant to be 'Gone With The Wind' I feel the same way about Madonna's 'Who's That Girl'.....another funny little film that didn't deserve all the bashing it received.In both of these films,Prince and Madonna were showing a different side of themselves.They were showing their comical side.It was refreshing to see.

SoulAlive said:

That might be, but Prince isn't Felini, and he wasn't making some masterpiece of a movie. Or even a great romantic comedy. I agree there are some really fun parts in it, but even in those times, there are still minor cringe moments of bad acting, or just bad dialog. The music is too loud sometimes, and drowns out the dialog (eg. "What's this?" "Soul. What's this?") Siskel and Ebert described it as Prince "trying to combine a Fred Astaire movie with a perfume commercial." They were spot on.

You also have to remember as big as Purple Rain was in its day, for two years (spending six months at #1 on the charts), and the movie making truck loads of money, people expected a lot from Prince's 2nd movie venture. It was a let down, the way ATWIAD was a let down to those fans who loved Purple Rain. Parade was an overall weak project to them by that point. To the fan base, it was just another in a line of records.

The first hour of the movie is great, the rest of it suffers greatly at times. Prince is running in a car to find Mary...why can't the police or Isaac's men literally be on his tail? COuld have been a great car chase, but it's Prince busting through a gate to the airport. Whoopie.

I still enjoy the movie though.

ernestsewell said:

Oh,I agree,the film has alot of obvious flaws and some of the acting is horrible.I cringe at the part where Prince puts his hands over his eyes and "cries" when Tricky exposes his deception to Mary I think Prince made a huge mistake in firing the director.A skilled,talented director would have gotten better performances from the actors.It's no coincidence that Prince's only successful film ('Purple Rain') had a director.

Still,I enjoy the movie.If people could watch it and don't take it too seriously,they can have alot of fun with it.

SoulAlive said:

Agreed. Someone else besides Prince or Mary Lambert should have directed it. Mary had that diva attitude, and Prince did near everything in one take only. He doesn't know how to nurture an actor and walk through a scene and get it right, and really craft a story. I don't know how could have directed it, but it should not have been Prince.

SoulAlive said:

Exactly. Even the very basics of filmmaking are not that easy, i.e., shooting a simple scene that makes sense to the viewer. How much more difficult is it to make something that paints a complex emotional picture, strikes the right tone in terms of design, and does everything else you can imagine getting across in your film? Being able to imagine it and making it come across correctly are worlds apart -- that's what amateur directors discover when they somehow find themselves holding the reins. And the result is often only a little better than what you'd get walking around your home with your video camera in your hand.

Prince knew next to nothing about filmmaking and may have figured it would come to him as easily as music. But not everyone's Michelangelo and can do it all. Purple Rain is not God's gift to cinema, and a lot of the performances are amateur, but it certainly had a competent, experienced director who created a solid, compelling story.

I can understand if Mary Lambert didn't work out, Prince did the best he could, saw the result wasn't great, but plowed ahead with it anyway because he had to. Fine. The movie's kind of cute in places.

But why, O why, did he not learn his lesson?

Why, God, did he decide to direct Graffiti Bridge himself? That movie is the true travesty.

UTCM suffers from one critical flaw... he killed himself in the end. The whole of the movie was fun, funny, cute, and filled with prince sort of poking fun at himself.. his more shallow self. Comedy often comes out well without much direction, especially if in some part you are playing yourself. But you cannot kill off the character and expect the actors to naturally play off that drama without training. In PR prince did an incredible job brooding and acting with only his face. But in UTCM the whole scene were "Oh Please God don't let him die" kills the movie. Cut out the death scene and go straight through to the letter from Mary and you have a decent fun movie. I, in fact, edited my own copy just like that and although it does end abruptly and inexplicably, I do not get people sickened by the acting when I show it.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...6C&index=2

Anotherwontdare said:

It has its funny points but the main issue is its too much of a vanity project and an ego trip.

ernestsewell said:

Only after the critics hated it ...he woulda loved it if it had gotten rave reviews.Prince´s body of work and whole career would be totally different if this little gem had gotten the praise it truly deserves.

ernestsewell said:

Sylvester Stallone ? Remember he helped Jon Trevolter and directed Staying Alive.
Plus both , him and Prince,were really into fitness at that time.

RudyIsBackForGood said:

I believe it was before, no? Scroll up. I explained my thoughts more a few replies up from here.

ernestsewell said:

I once read a fantastic review of it on www.salon.com

and it wasnt meant as comedy

Anotherwontdare said:

This is truth.

I loves me my Under the Cherry Moon, but I understand it was a fun experiment, and it's a guilty pleasure. Graffiti Bridge is guilty pain...

eyewishuheaven said:

ooooh... I can't tell whose acting was worse, but I know who annoyed me worse than anybody in the movie... ROBIN. She shoulda kept her mouth closed and just danced. I find myself always skipping the dialogue and going directly to the music numbers. As much as I love Shorty, I couldn't hack the acting. Not so much his, but the supporting cast kind of made it worse than it should have been.

ernestsewell said:

Listen ernest you dangleberry, it was Parade he wasn't happy or satisfied with, not UTCM.