I will present these and you all can riff on them. Tell the critics why they are wrong. I am board with loving the movie, mostly because Prince asks so much like a fool in it. He actually does direct it really well--it's funny, goofy, a decent b-movie.

http://movies.nytimes.com...A960948260

http://www.slantmagazine....erry-moon/

http://www.film.com/movie...3CNmT-C1vh

Its a ridiculous film. Just because purple fanatics are obsesed with it doesnt change the fact.

Try watching it with regular people if you dare...to me that'd be a 'hell no'

even Prince hated it:

DMSR The First Decade-the books greatest hits

From the book DMSR The First Decade,..these passages trip me out a bit hehe:

Pg195-
Later in April, Prince and Susannah separated after living together for only a few months. Some insiders blames pressures brought on by problems with the new movie. “Prince had a lot of things going on, but he wasn’t happy with his life at that time”, says Susan Rogers. “He knew he had made some serious judgement errors in making UTCM. I came to the house one morning and Susannah said, ‘Oh, we had a terrible night last night. He was lying on the floor, face down, all night, repeating repeatedly that he hated the movie’. He was miserable. It was after the film was done, but it hadn’t been released yet. He knew it just wasn’t happening”

Still enjoyed the film, though, except for the freaky stares in that loooong opening scene.

The critics were not wrong.

this review is COMEDY:

Summer of '86: Prince's Cherry Bombs: Under the Cherry Moon

by Odienator on July 6th, 2011 at 11:00 pm in Film

[Editor's Note: This is the latest entry in our annual "Summer of…" series, co-presented by Aaron Aradillas of Blog Talk Radio's Back By Midnight and Jamey DuVall and Jerry Dennis of Blog Talk Radio's Movie Geeks United! Under the Cherry Moon was released in theaters on July 2nd, 1986.]

Under the Cherry Moon opened on a Wednesday in 1986, well before Wednesdays became the go to weekday for "urban fare." It opened July 2, 1986, to be exact. I'd been out of high school 5 days when a classmate of mine invited me to a movie in Times Square with some of her friends. The group was split down the middle on cinema choice: the women wanted to see Prince's Purple Rain follow-up, and the men wanted to see something we erroneously thought would be scarier, Psycho III. The deciding outcome is easy to predict because, as luck would have it, women have vaginas. And if we didn't do as they said, certain teenage boys would not GET those vaginas. So His Purple Badness won handily. While we were at the UA theater in Times Square with Moon's main character, Christopher Tracy, the ceiling fell in at the theater showing Psycho III. No one was killed, but several people got chunks of plaster in their Jersey Hair and mullets. If I had to do it over again, I would rather have my fade flattened by shoddy architecture than sit through Under the Cherry Moon.

But sit through Under the Cherry Moon I did, and not just twice that day, but 12 more times over the next several years, all under what I will politely refer to as "pussy-inflicted duress." In fact, the only time I watched Under the Cherry Moon of my own volition occurred just before I wrote the first words in this piece. The things one does for Love…and for The House Next Door.

Under the Cherry Moon is terrible, and it really didn't have to be. With a less egotistical, more talented director and a streamlined script, this could have been one hell of an intentionally funny buddy comedy. The male leads play off each other nicely, and a scene of mistaken identity pays off hilariously. Maybe that charming picture would have resulted if Pet Sematary's Mary Lambert got to keep the directorial reins assigned her by Warner Bros. Unfortunately, she was replaced by the film's star. The results are a script that has no idea what it wants to be, and a director who keeps finding ways to put himself into every frame like a celluloid virus.

"A Film By Prince," the opening credits tell us. This would be all fine and good if Prince did what you pay to see Prince do. But outside of one short number and the end credits, the only thing coming out of Prince's mouth is bad dialogue. Songs from the Parade album, including the title track, play in the background, creating an odd disconnect between us and the film. The soundtrack, which is excellent, begs the question: Would you rather see Prince sing Parade's best song, "Kiss," or watch him deliver one of the most overdone, disgusting kisses while the song plays in the background?

The recipient of that kiss scored to "Kiss" is Kristin Scott Thomas, here making her debut as a 21-year old trust fund baby in Nice, France. Thomas has gone on record with her intense dislike of this picture, presumably because it must be a bitch to owe your career to Prince. But she took the role and cashed the check, so she gets no sympathy here. Thomas enters this picture flashing (unseen) full frontal nudity before performing a kick-ass drum solo. This is her only good scene, so savor it. As the object of affection, Thomas is supposed to be a cold fish set afire by the touch of her leading man, but her performance is flame-retardant. The love scenes are hilarious, especially when you realize that Prince must have had a shitload of candles in his pockets every time he went out to get laid. The characters are screwing outside, and there are more drippy ass candles around than in Catholic church. Where the hell did they come from? It's like that scene in ZAZ's Top Secret where the parachuting, kissing lovers are joined by a parachuting fireplace that appears next to them.

On albums, Prince is a sexy motherfucker. (Hell, he made a song called exactly that!) If you put on a slow Prince jam, panties will disintegrate. On stage, Prince is even badder. I've seen him three times, and the first time I did, the woman I was with—well, never mind. In Under the Cherry Moon, Prince is like Woody Allen with an Ultra Perm. He gets the girls because he's the director. Watch the opening scene, where Prince's gigolo, Christopher Tracy, tries to entice a rich White woman into paying for his services. Prince makes faces at her that I assume are supposed to be sexy, but all I could focus on was the Tammy Faye Baker amount of mascara he has on. Making the scene tolerable (and hinting at the Hope-Crosby style movie this could have been) is Jerome Benton's Tricky character. He keeps sending instructive messages on napkins to Christopher Tracy. When Tracy lays it on way too thick, Tricky sends a napkin that says "OH PLEASE!"

Tricky and Tracy are partners who split Tracy's ho money. The movie playfully hints at something more (Tricky throws flower petals in Tracy's bathwater while he takes a bath, for starters) but that devolves into silly gay joke humor. Still, Benton and Prince have comedic potential that the film squanders in favor of a silly "tragic romance." Thomas' Mary Sharon character becomes Tracy's latest mark, but he falls for her, much to the chagrin of her father, Mr. Sharon (Steven Berkoff). Both Sharon and Tracy are sleeping with Francesca Annis' Mrs. Wellington, which pisses Mr. Sharon off almost as much as him finding out Tracy is nailing his daughter. The Mrs. Wellington character is intriguing, and had the film been about her and Tracy, it might have gone somewhere subversive (the film treats Prince's couplings as a matter of class, not race, which is also an opportunity squandered). Annis brings a little mystery to her last scene with Prince, leaving a more lasting impression than the film's object d'amour.

To quote Benton's band, The Time, contrary to rumor, gigolos get lonely too. Tracy falls for Mary Sharon, causing the predictable riff between him and Tricky. This leads to a goofy car chase, an even goofier boat chase and a death scene that must be seen to be believed. All the stars got Razzie nominations, and Benton earns his here. Weeping and praying to God not to take Christopher Tracy after he's been shot at the behest of Mr. Sharon, Benton is cringe-worthy. Since the movie ruins any suspense by telling you Tracy's fate before the opening credits, it's no spoiler to say Tracy's gunshot wound is fatal. This is scored to Parade's last track, the mournful "Sometimes It Snows in April," where Prince basically eulogizes his onscreen character. Talk about vanity!

Besides writing the score, Prince did one other thing right in this picture: he hired Michael Ballhaus to shoot it. The man turns Nice into a picturesque black-and-white travelogue (the film was shot in color but transferred to black-and-white). Some of Ballhaus' framing is expert and clever, and the film does look good. It's too bad that watching it is so painful. Even if you're watching it for love.

.

[Edited 2/25/12 13:42pm]

Interestingly, the trailer which comes as a bonus on the dvd, shows some snippets of scenes that didn't make the movie. Such as P & KST releasing the horses at the race track, and, less spectacular, the pair making love on a boat. Releasing the horses would have been a great scene in the final version. Maybe some poor choices were made whilst editing the film. I guess we'll never find out. It's not as if we're ever going to get an extended director's cut - P delivered the product the way he wanted to deliver it.

Also, an extended version might be hard for some people to stomach I wouldn't mind, though.

There is an alternate ending with Christopher and Mary escaping Nice - a happy ending. Apparently, the Warner Bros. honcho preferred that version, but in the end P preferred the other ending - "At least we had fun, didn't we?"

[Edited 2/25/12 13:47pm]

I can enjoy it from a purple utopian state of being

But he should have let Mary L finish it, and he should have listened to the others

who said the movie should have had band scenes

And Prince just pulled the Morris Day & Jerome characters from PR and put in this movie, this movie could have been a Time movie with Vanity 6

other than that Prince/Christopher as a brooding tortured artist in france would have worked. Art/Music and Love/Sex in France

mightycow said:

Interestingly, the trailer which comes as a bonus on the dvd, shows some snippets of scenes that didn't make the movie. Such as P & KST releasing the horses at the race track, and, less spectacular, the pair making love on a boat. Releasing the horses would have been a great scene in the final version. Maybe some poor choices were made whilst editing the film. I guess we'll never find out. It's not as if we're ever going to get an extended director's cut - P delivered the product the way he wanted to deliver it.

Also, an extended version might be hard for some people to stomach I wouldn't mind, though.

There is an alternate ending with Tricky and Mary escaping Nice - a happy ending. Apparently, the Warner Bros. honcho preferred that version, but in the end P preferred the other ending - "At least we had fun, didn't we?"

"I want Tracy dead"

"Tricky and Tracy are partners who split Tracy's ho money."

'The women wanted to see Prince's Purple Rain follow-up, and the men wanted to see something we erroneously thought would be scarier, Psycho III.'

Poor guy

Not unfair at all. Only Prince fantatics find this movie to be of any worth. It's a shambolic mess.

UTCM is like godfather part 2 compared to graffiti bridge though

i also think prince was far ahead of time in creating a black and white movie over 25 years before that movie the artist that's going to win all the oscars

unique said:

BobGeorge909 said:

unique said:

UTCM is like godfather part 2 compared to graffiti bridge though

i also think prince was far ahead of time in creating a black and white movie over 25 years before that movie the artist that's going to win all the oscars

People have made b&w movies...since b&w... It's not a redeeming quality...its a faux-artisanship.

right..as if UTCM was a Raging Bull/Manhattan etc

The reviews are not that unfair imo, it's a shit movie. It was shit in '86, and it's still shit now.

Christopher...so nice to see you. When can we get together again?

UTCM never stops being hilarious. Love it.

I love this movie more than Purple Rain, The score & soundtrack are

mightycow said:

Still enjoyed the film, though, except for the freaky stares in that loooong opening scene.

[img:$uid]http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z65/mplsmike/xzy/BL.gif[/img:$uid]

rdhull said:

even Prince hated it:

DMSR The First Decade-the books greatest hits

From the book DMSR The First Decade,..these passages trip me out a bit hehe:

Pg195-
Later in April, Prince and Susannah separated after living together for only a few months. Some insiders blames pressures brought on by problems with the new movie. “Prince had a lot of things going on, but he wasn’t happy with his life at that time”, says Susan Rogers. “He knew he had made some serious judgement errors in making UTCM. I came to the house one morning and Susannah said, ‘Oh, we had a terrible night last night. He was lying on the floor, face down, all night, repeating repeatedly that he hated the movie’. He was miserable. It was after the film was done, but it hadn’t been released yet. He knew it just wasn’t happening”

So he knows a bad movie, but then goes on to do Graphiti Bridge.

I love UTCM.

But you have to love, or at least understand or have got used to Prince in a certain way to really be able to enjoy the movie and get it.

I'm confused. I thought there was universal love for this flick?

Although I personally like UTCM,I think it was a bad career move for Prince and it sorta destroyed any cinematic career that he could have had.The movie had very little mainstream appeal.He probably should have done something that was more like 'Purple Rain'.

what you have to remember is that the people who went to see it already were into Prince. So they knew what they were in for. Personally i love the film, but i'd never sit and watch it with my kids... it was of it's time and doesn't relate well in the present day.

unique said:

i also think prince was far ahead of time in creating a black and white movie over 25 years before that movie the artist that's going to win all the oscars

Making UTCM in black and white was a huge mistake.In 1986,not too many people were interested in seeing a "romantic comedy" in black and white If it had been in color,it might have attracted more people.

Dave1992 said:

I love UTCM.

But you have to love, or at least understand or have got used to Prince in a certain way to really be able to enjoy the movie and get it.

I agree.

SoulAlive said:

unique said:

i also think prince was far ahead of time in creating a black and white movie over 25 years before that movie the artist that's going to win all the oscars

Making UTCM in black and white was a huge mistake.In 1986,not too many people were interested in seeing a "romantic comedy" in black and white If it had been in color,it might have attracted more people.

but it inspired steven speilberg to make swindlers fist in black and white a few years later, as well as the movie the artist (which is obviously named after prince with it's subtle reference to "the artist" formally known as...)

it's a great film.

i was watchig it while my girlfriend lay beside me, asleep; she had a huge smile on her face all the of the time.

and then she didn't even get the fabulous imagery.

2freaky4church1 said:

I'm confused. I thought there was universal love for this flick?

Oh you're confused all right. Unless you're being sarcastic.

My favorite review for this movie is really long but really funny. It's from a website that specializes in reviews of shitty movies like Mystery Science Theater stuff:

http://jabootu.net/?p=701