After Purple Rain, but before Batman, Prince made this concert movie promoting his double-album Sign ‘o’ the Times. It’s mostly filmed performances of songs from the album, so if you’re hoping he’s just going to play the hits, you might be disappointed. I mean, at one point he does about a minute of “Little Red Corvette” before he gets bored with it and goes onto another number. However, Prince’s showmanship is in top form, so even if some of the songs are far from his best, he performs them with a lot of raw sexual enthusiasm, which makes it recommend.
Not all of it works. The attempts to make the film seem more cinematic often fall flat. The scenes of quarreling lovers that run throughout the performances are completely unnecessary. This narrative ultimately doesn’t amount to much and only gets in the way of the music. They should’ve lost these sequences to make room for more classic Prince jams if you ask me.
The music, while not exactly Prince’s best, is still strong enough to carry the movie. He opens with a rip-roaring rendition of the title tune, and “Hot Thing”, “Housequake”, “If I Was Your Girlfriend”, and “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” are all entertaining. The highlight though is when Prince is joined by Sheena Easton for a duet of “U Got the Look”. It’s little more than a glorified music video (it occurs while Prince is daydreaming in his dressing room), but the chemistry between them is electric and the song is a straight-up banger as the kids say nowadays.
The rest of the songs are sort of forgettable. Still, it’s interesting to see how creatively Prince is able to fuse various genres like rock, gospel, funk, and disco into a broad musical tapestry. That to me, is a sign ‘o’ a legendary performer.
AKA: Prince:
Sign ‘o’ the Times. AKA: Prince Tonite.
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