A perfectly entertaining 1980s music video stretched out to feature film length. The last time I saw this movie in a theater was at the Enzian in Orlando around 2015 and the revelation from that viewing was that I’d forgotten how soft-core/old school Playboy video the movie was. So no surprise there this time. I came for the music and the fun of time traveling to the 80s with the choreographed group dancing, the eye and face make-up on everyone and glam costuming. Less impressive would be the bad soap opera level acting, racial stereotypes, treatment of women and paper thin plot.
I left the theater wondering whatever happened to the Apollonian Kotero,1 and sad that we no longer had new music coming from this musical genius, Prince. It really is a feature film length music video. Enjoy.
[Movie viewed at Beverly Theater on 2025-06-07].
Two bonus videos from the movie:
Sources:
- Purple Rain (1984) Official Trailer posted by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers (2014-07-10), https://youtu.be/AuXK8ZbTmLk?si=Utt3Vm79c2Um6w6J
- Prince – Purple Rain (complete movie scene), posted by Lokomiusek (2016-04-23), https://youtu.be/A0dfzWXhPQM?si=2aF4jpSbcCM17G2G
- Prince: I would die 4 u – Purple rain (movie version), posted by Stuart Studios (2020-02-19), https://youtu.be/ME_BDgebZXc?si=qmJm6uVsYRf5jtVd
- Apollonia Kotero, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0467664/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
- Apollonia Kotero, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonia_Kotero
- Apollonia 6, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonia_6
Tags: 1980s movies, movie reflection, Prince, Purple Rain, video Wednesdays
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FOOTNOTES:- I did go down an extended rabbit hole on the interwebs and saw that she had a career, mostly doing work on TV and eventually transitioned to work behind the camera. It was good to know that this wasn’t her one opportunity for stardom or just the eventual pictorial in Playboy.[↩]
