Reviews

I liked it, ok? Corny story, bad acting, poorly mimed soundtrack, that goddamn rapper guy at the end.... I could go on. So why do I like it? Well, the overdubbed poetry of Aura (Ingrid Chavez) is so beautiful that it makes the rest of it seem etherealistically (?!?!) gorgeous too. I do like the camera and lighting techniques involved in shooting Aura close up (when she first appears with the falling feather), and her dress in the "Love Machine" (sung by the eversexyvoiced Alisa) is phenominal. Watch it for that and Morris Day's delivery of the line, "what is your MAIN problem?" Are there really angels, or are they just in our minds? It all comes out in the wash, in time. The soundtrack is sheer class next to most other artists, but half-hearted pap by Prince's standards. Best bits are "new power generation part I" "melody cool" "tick tick bang" "love machine" and "still would stand all time" DON'T watch the film if you are feeling at all down to earth!

This live version of various tracks from arguably Prince's most ingenious work never fails to leave me gasping for air. If this isn't a good reason to give the diminunitive one's music a fair chance, I don't know what is. High points: The chilling title track, exploding into the eversunny Play In The Sunshine; the drop-dead dancing of Housequake; Charlie Parker's Now's the Time, which features fantastic jazz trumpeter Atlanta Bliss, red hot funkmeister Levi Seacer Jr.- with one of the sweetest bass solos this side of Larry Graham- and the PMT-busting Sheila E, wisely exploited here as one of the most exciting jazz and rock drummers around; the epic Forever in My Life with the class vocal-goddess that is the late boni boyer; and the jazztastic It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night featuring the hilarious "Table and the Chair" rap! Low points: pedantic, but the mis-matching film of Dr Fink's organ solo and the freeze-frame shot in Hot Thing really annoy me. but then that guitar sound makes up for it all. Watch this, and prepare to watch it again just to make sure that it really happened!