My daughter and I went to see Birthday Massacre at First Avenue a few months ago, and I've wanted to re-watch Purple Rain ever since, just to see what First Avenue looked like in the 1980s. At the same time, I was afraid that I wouldn't like this movie any more than I did 40 years ago, which is probably the last time I watched this film, as far as I remember. It's possible that I watched it once since 1985, but I don't think so. This is definitely the first time I've watched this movie since living in Minnesota -- now going on 20 years. I kind of wondered if it would hit me differently for that reason, too. It didn't. It's still just a really bad, underwhelming movie. Prince has undeniable charisma, and his music is good. But in this film, there's no coherent story, and the acting, including Prince's, is pretty atrocious for the most part. I don't want to go through how bad it is point by point but let me just say that the movie ends with a lot o...
The Blog of Bret R. Fuller