The Purple Rain BLU RAY is absolutely atrocious!!!

I think for one of the most famous 'music' films of all time this release is an abomination.

First of all it sounds exactly the same as the dvd. The DD 5.1 and DolbyTrueHD options sound exactly the same as well.

The music in the film is not in 5.1. Where you can hear elements in the rears its FAKE 5.1 which is crazy for a Blu ray release. the Cd sound better which is a disgrace imo!
The bonus music videos sound horrible. Not even remastered.

Warner Brothers should be ashamed of this release. Truly terrible.

 

Its not so bad. Its on sale for €4.99 here so its still a bargain. The HD picture is pretty nice.

 

I am offended by the sound of this BD.

 

This is the most famous Prince movie, i wouldn't exactly call it one of the most famous music movies, or even one of the most famous 80s movies.

 

I'm not a fan of PURPLE RAIN, but even I disagree here. PURPLE RAIN was HUGE.


Rock Stamberg

 

Perhaps one of those instances where there was no multitracks to create a proper 5.1 mix, so they went ahead and did a phony one from stereo? Does that even apply to movies?

Anyway, sorry, L4A, sounds like a pretty lousy release.

 

I agree that it WAS huge, but is it still?

 

Given that this is Prince, I'd strongly suspect the multitracks exist.

Given that this is Prince, I'd strongly suspect he refused to let the studio use them for the 5.1 remix.

And they do create phony 5.1 in the absence of the original tapes - see "Hard Day's Night, A" for one example!

 

I believe you're probably right, but why would he want to undercut his own movie reissue like that?

 

You're asking for Prince to behave rationally?

Of course, you could make the same comment about the Beatles, since they didn't cooperate with "AHDN" on home video. I think that neither Prince nor the Fabs would get money from these releases so they didn't care.

BTW, when I reviewed the "PR" DVD in 2004, I thought it sounded fine!

 

I wasn't aware that the Beatles had any input into their home video releases at all, other than giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to the project. But Prince puzzles me because, as you imply, it is almost certain that the multitracks exist AND he himself has possession of them. So the idea that he wouldn't allow them to be used in a BD version of his most successful movie seems asinine. PR is THE artifact of Prince's 80's success, it seems foolish for him to not want it out there in good quality.

 

DVD never looked that great either. This movie was the shiznit back in 1984, but it hasn't aged well. (Except for the concert footage)

 

The two surviving Beatles might not be directly involved, but Apple sure is, and they'd allow the use of the source recordings for the home video material. "AHDN" was outside of their realm, so it got nuttin'.

And again, the notion that you'd expect logical behavior from Prince makes one wonder if you've paid much attention to his career over the last 30 years!

 

Oh, it's a pretty terrible movie. I enjoyed its dramatic elements in 1984, but now? :thumbsdn:

 

Seeing it in the theater back in 1984 was the only way to see it, because the "talkback" was often so much better than the actual dialogue. I saw it 6 or 7 times, and had a blast every time!

 

Prefer 'Under The Cherry Moon'!

 

I haven't. Last album I bought of his was Sign O' The Times. I was somewhat aware of all his stunts with his record company but I figured he was being crazy like a fox.

 

No - he's just nuts!

The whole name change thing did considerable damage to his career. It probably didn't help that his post-name change albums tended to be crap, but he turned himself from "interesting eccentric" into "comedy punchline".

I seriously doubt Prince gave three seconds consideration to the sound of the "PR" DVD/BD. Heck, it's possible the studio - knowing the problematic relationship - never even asked if they could use the masters!

 

Purple Rain was a low budget film. It was made for $7 million.

 

Although I'm not sure what sources were used for the music, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT on Mirimax DVD did actually get a full audio restoration by none other than Ron Furmanek (famous in these parts for the original home video restoration of the MMT soundtrack among other things). HOWEVER, Ron's restoration was in MONO. Once it was out of his hands, someone decided to make a fake 5.1 mix out of his MONO restoration and make that the only available track on the DVD. Dumb.

PURPLE RAIN would have been new/old enough to have a Dolby Surround soundtrack. Perhaps rather than do a new 5.1 mix, they just made the Dolby mix into a discrete mix. So, not exactly fake 5.1, but definitely primitive 5.1. This is just a guess on my part.

I love Purple Rain, by the way. Sure, it's a little dated, but so what, I say. What won't be after 20-30 years? I've got the blu-ray, so I guess now I'll have to give it a listen.

 

WB did his albums and the movie.

Weirdly, Prince did work with WB on the Ultimate compilation about 5 years ago. That's why there's little "dirty" stuff on it.

 

Erm could it be that Prince is waiting for all the copyrights/licensing to come back to him before he releases his 'from the vaults ultimate' edition? It might be that Warners (whoever) still have a hold over the movie in some way and he's waiting for that to lapse.

 

I think it qualifies as one of the biggest music movies of the '80s.


Rock Stamberg

 

Hasn't aged well and I thought it was stupid (except for the music) when I saw it on theaters back in the day. Never could understand the praise for it except the music.

 

That's not saying much.