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WARNER

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Albert Magnoli
Cast:
Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day
Writing Credits:
Albert Magnoli, William Blinn

Synopsis:
Tormented by an abusive situation at home, a young musician must contend with a rival singer, a burgeoning romance, and his own dissatisfied band as his star begins to rise.

Box Office:
Budget:
$7,200,000.
Opening Weekend:
$7,766,201 on 917 Screens.
Domestic Gross:
$63,358,487.

MPAA:
Rated R.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English DTS-HD 2.0
French Dolby 5.1
German Dolby 5.1
Spanish Dolby 2.0
Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
German
Italian
Castillian
Chinese
Dutch
Danish
Finnish
Norwegian
Swedish
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
German
Italian
Dutch

Runtime: 111 min.
Price: $33.99
Release Date: 6/25/2024

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Albert Magnoli, Producer Robert Cavallo, and Cinematographer Donald E. Thorin
• “First Avenue” Featurette
• Eight Music Videos


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-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Purple Rain [4K UHD] (1984)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 26, 2024)

A true career-defining moment, 1984’s Purple Rain took Prince from a level of good popularity – 1982’s 1999 spawned a lot of sales – to the heights of rock megastardom. It became the kind of enormous hit that almost no artists experience more than once.

And with Rain, Prince wowed on two levels. The album remains the most successful and significant element of the package, as it moved over 13 million copies in the US alone to become the biggest record of 1984 as well as one of the biggest-selling albums ever. If we eliminate live and greatest hits releases from that last, Rain jumps even higher on that chart.

As a movie, Rain didn’t become quite such a smash, but it did very well anyway. With a small budget, it took in $63 million US in 1984, a figure that would certainly be well over $100 million these days. Given that the studio feared it would only appeal to a very narrow demographic, that made Rain a serious money-maker and a sleeper hit.

Don’t expect much plot from Rain as a film, though, as it revolves around the Kid (Prince) and his band the Revolution, a staple at a Minneapolis club called First Avenue. The Kid competes with preening peacock Morris (Morris Day) and his group the Time.

Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero) comes to Minneapolis to get her break as a singer. She meets the Kid at First Avenue, where he acts like his usual elusive and mysterious self.

We see the Kid lives with his parents and we also observe that his father Francis L. (Clarence Williams III) - a failed musician - abuses both his mother (Olga Karlatos) and the Kid. Things aren’t going well professionally for the Kid.

Club owner Billy (Billy Sparks) gets mad when the Kid stands him up for a meeting, especially since the performer no longer packs in the crowds very well. Morris makes a deal with Billy: if he puts together a hot girl group, Billy will boot the Kid.

We also learn of band tensions within the Revolution. Guitarist Wendy (Wendy Melvoin) and keyboardist Lisa (Lisa Coleman) write songs but the Kid ignores them.

However, the main story revolves around the love triangle of the Kid, Morris, and Apollonia. Morris wants Apollonia in his band and also as his romantic interest, and the Kid also pursues her in his own quirky way. The movie follows these various threads as we see whether the Kid will finally get both his personal and professional lives together.

Without Morris Day and his partner in crime Jerome (Jerome Benton), Rain would be much tougher to watch. They seem so confident and amusing that they almost make a fairly lame “who’s on first” rip-off funny, and they offer the best performances of the main cast.

Williams also brings a nicely haunted and tragic quality to the Kid’s father. However, he’s not in the film very much.

Otherwise, the acting ranges from mediocre to bad. Apollonia occasionally shows some glimmers of slight talent, though not much, and only as an actor.

Apollonia’s singing skills are absolutely atrocious. Her warbling rendition of “Sex Shooter” remains arguably the worst-sung hit song… well, probably not of all-time, but maybe for the 1980s.

The acting complaints extend to Prince himself. Actually, he does fairly well with a few of the scenes, mainly when he needs to seem distant and strange, like when he further alienates Wendy and Lisa.

Other sequences in which he needs to appear natural and human fare less well. Freaky Kid/Prince is much more convincing.

The film’s problems extend to the script. Not only does the story itself rarely rise above the level of melodrama, but also it seems fairly amateurish at times.

We find a number of examples of awkward exposition and not much depth to the tale. Doesn’t it seem odd that the Kid is this mysterious hot-shot/serious ladies man who still lives with his parents?

One could argue that he does so due to a lack of funds as a struggling musician. However, I think the writers made this choice simply to make sure the Kid had a lot of contact with his troubled family.

And don’t forget the rampant streak of misogyny that runs through the film. Possibly the film’s most notorious scene comes from one in which a woman who Morris stood up for a date confronts him and Jerome throws her in a dumpster.

Apollonia receives a lot of bad treatment as well, though I suppose this serves the story. The Kid has learned that from his dad, so he needs to evolve and grow beyond that. Still, all the abuse of women leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Despite all these flaws, Rain remains moderately engaging. Nostly that comes from the music and performance sequences.

The movie doesn’t hold up well, but the album sure does. I still think it’s Prince’s best work, and it’s fun to see the live performances.

Knowing how successful the album was makes the constant attacks on the Kid’s music unintentionally amusing. During the movie, people gripe about how uncommercial his material is, even though in the real world, Rain sold so many millions of albums.

40 years ago, I really liked Purple Rain as a movie, but now I can’t muster the same enthusiasm. The film has some good moments but meanders and suffers from weak development outside of the excellent performance sequences. It’s an interesting nostalgia trip and that’s about it.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+/ Bonus B-

Purple Rain appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Shot on a low budget, Rain showed some rough edges but mainly came across well.

Sharpness was perfectly fine. Given many difficult lighting conditions, parts of the film lacked terrific delineation, but that was inevitable. The majority of the image seemed solid, though, with appropriate definition.

No problems with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear, which left this as a clean presentation.

With a pretty wide palette – albeit one that inevitably embraced purple – the colors seemed fairly good. Low-budget 80s films didn’t excel in this regard, so don’t expect the movie’s hues to dazzle, but they showed more than acceptable range and vivacity. HDR added range and punch to the hues.

Another film stock-related area, black levels worked reasonably well. Shadows fared the same – the many low-light sequences didn’t boast great delineation, but they gave us fair clarity.

Whites and contrast got a good boost from HDR. Though the movie remained a product of its era, the 4K UHD made it look about as good as I could expect.

On the other hand, I anticipated a lot more from the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, and the mix lived up to those hopes. Not surprisingly, music dominated the soundfield. The audio emphasized the forward channels, where the songs and score presented very fine stereo imaging.

Other effects spread out the image acceptably well, though they didn’t play a substantial role in the proceedings. Nonetheless, they gave the mix a good feel of atmosphere.

Surrounds played a pretty active role, especially in the way music blossomed to the rear speakers. Some effects used the back channels well, too, such as with the Kid’s motorcycle.

The quality of the audio also appeared good for a 40-year-old movie. Dialogue occasionally sounded slightly flat – and some iffy looping became an issue - but the speech mostly came across as fairly natural and distinctive. I noticed no issues with edginess or intelligibility.

As already mentioned, effects didn’t have much to do in Rain, but they were reasonably accurate and clear. These elements occasionally added good life, such as with the rumble of the Kid’s motorcycle.

Of course, I expected the most from the music, and it delivered, as both score and songs sounded quite good. I’ve listened to the Purple Rain album eight jillion times over the years, and I felt the disc replicated that material accurately.

The mix presented the music with bright highs and positive low-end. I found little about which to complain from the quality of the music on the disc, and that factor led me to give the audio of Rain a “B+”.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the 2016 remastered Blu-ray? I assumed it’d come with the same audio, but instead, the 4K opted for a more active remix. This made it more engaging and involving than the prior 5.1 track.

The 4K’s visuals came with the expected improvements in terms of delineation, colors and blacks. We definitely got a nice upgrade in terms of both picture and sound here.

Note that Rain initially came out on Blu-ray in 2007. Unfortunately, I never saw that disc, so I can’t compare it to the 4K.

The 4K UHD replicates some of the 2016 disc’s extras, and it opens with an audio commentary from director Albert Magnoli, producer Robert Cavallo, and cinematographer Donald E. Thorin. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific discussion.

The participants mostly stay with technical issues. We hear a lot about locations and sets as well as the cold weather conditions in which they shot. We also learn about deleted shots, editing, and visual design.

They chat a little about working with Prince but don’t provide much insight there. You definitely shouldn’t expect that they dish dirt about him.

More than a few instances of dead air as well as the mostly dry content make this commentary drag at times. I don’t think it’s a bad discussion, but it lacks much zest and doesn’t give us a great feel for the production.

After this we get the 12-minute, 22-second First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty. It provides info from producers/former members of the Time Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, First Avenue manager Steve McClellan, Revolution members Dr. Fink, Bobby Z, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, Suicide Commandos member Chris Osgood, Suburbs member Chan Poling, First Avenue DJ Mike Bosley, Prince’s former tour manager Alan Leeds, radio DJ Walter “Q Bear” Banks, club promoter “Cowboy”, author/journalist Neal Karlen, and Jim Walsh of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

“Road” goes through the club’s history as well as its layout, its attached club Seventh Street Entry and acts who played both, the diversity of the audience and acts, Prince’s appearances at the club, and the place’s representation in the film and the way the flick affected it.

It’s too bad we don’t get footage of Prince there, but otherwise this provides a good look at the subject. We receive a nice feel for the location and its facets in this tight little piece.

The set ends with eight music videos. We find clips for Prince’s “When Doves Cry”, “Let’s Go Crazy”, “Purple Rain”, “I Would Die 4 U/Baby, I’m a Star”, and “Take Me With U”. We also get pieces for the Time’s “Jungle Love” and “The Bird” as well as Apollonia Six’s “Sex Shooter”.

Truthfully, only two of these count as true music videos: “When Doves Cry” and “Sex Shooter”. The former tosses in some film clips but mostly consists of footage - lip-synch and otherwise - shot specifically for the video.

The latter tries to tell a story in which Apollonia tells off Prince and moves on, but it mainly shows lip-synch shots of Apollonia 6, ones not taken from the movie.

”Let’s Go Crazy”, “Purple Rain”, “Jungle Love” and “The Bird” simply provide conglomerations of film clips and aren’t very interesting. “I Would Die 4 U/Baby I’m a Star” comes from a 1985 concert in Syracuse that came out on video back in the Eighties.

At almost 18 minutes, it’s way too long and becomes pretty tedious.

“Take Me With U” is more intriguing. It’s another live performance, and I assumed it would be from the Syracuse show, but it isn’t. Whatever its origins, it’s a great addition to the set.

As noted, we lose a lot of content from the prior BD. The 4K drops a documentary called “Backstage Pass”, a featurette titled “Riffs, Ruffles and a Revolution”, footage from the “MTV Premiere Party”, and the film’s trailer.

That’s a lot of missing content, and I don’t know why the 4K drops these components. I would assume rights issues interfered, but whatever the case, their absence disappoints.

A career-making success, Purple Rain seemed great in 1984 but now comes across as dated and fairly silly. The performance scenes still rock, and a few glimmers of good moments appear due to the banter of Morris Day and Jerome Benton, but otherwise the flick’s something of an amateurish mess. The 4K UHD presents strong picture audio as well as some nice extras, albeit fewer than on prior releases. Prince fans will definitely want this one, as it represents his milestone work well, but I can’t push a recommendation to others.

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of PURPLE RAIN

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