Prince Movies

This 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Steve Martin and features musical guest Prince. ~ Skyler Miller, Rovi

Spike Lee directed this comedy-drama about a woman who falls into a career in phone sex. An African-American woman (Theresa Randle) who aspires to a career as an actress endures a number of dispiriting jobs (handing out leaflets and working as a coat check girl) before reaching the end of her rope at an audition with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino), a sleazy movie director. Q.T. claims that he wants to offer her a role in his next film -- but since the role requires nudity, she will have to show him her breasts first. After firing her agent, the actress is strapped for cash and is offered a job enacting sexual fantasies for men over the phone. Dubbed "Girl 6" by her employers, the actress is treated with respect by her boss (Jennifer Lewis) and is well-liked by her co-workers. However, she has a hard time emotionally distancing herself from her work, and she finds herself becoming infatuated with Bob (Peter Berg), one of her regular callers, going so far as to set up a meeting with him. As she deals in other people's fantasies for a living, Girl 6 begins retreating into her own world of make-believe, where she can be a sexy screen siren or a butt-kicking blaxploitation star. Meanwhile, her former fiancé (Isaiah Washington), who scrapes by as a shoplifter, desperately wants her to give him another chance, and her next door neighbor, a baseball card collector named Jimmy (Spike Lee), keeps pestering her that she ought to be doing something more positive with her life. Girl 6's supporting cast includes Madonna as one of Girl 6's supervisors, John Turturro as her agent, and Debi Mazar as one of the other phone-sex girls; the film also features an original song score by Prince. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The always creative and chronically unclassifiable artist then still known as Prince was on a creative roll when this collection was compiled, including music videos, footage from his always combustible live concerts, and interviews with the artist and his band. Prince: Diamonds and Pearls Home Video Collection includes promo clips for the songs "Diamonds and Pearls," "Gett Off," "Insatiable," "Cream," and "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" (the latter directed by Spike Lee), as well as video of Prince and his band the New Power Generation performing "Daddy Pop," "Thunder," "Live 4 Love," and "Jughead" in concert. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Prince wrote, directed, and stars in this disastrous sequel to Purple Rain that equates differing musical styles with God, angels, faith, and the struggle between the spiritual and the earthy. Once again Prince is The Kid, still working his emotional damnedest to one-up Morris Day and his band, The Time. In this installment, the boys fight over the ownership of a nightclub called Glam Slam. Both are bequeathed half of the club in a will, and Morris and the Kid want to handle each of their halves differently. Morris treats his part of the club as a popular venue, playing music the public wants to hear, and it is a rousing success. The Kid, on the other hand, wants to bring spirituality into funk -- to make his point he even strikes a crucifixion pose. The result is a battle of the bands with The Time and The Kid jamming off of one another, battling for the souls of the two-drink minimum suckers. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Behind the black cowl, Gotham City superhero Batman is really millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), who turned to crimefighting after his parents were brutally murdered before his eyes. The only person to share Wayne's secret is faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough). The principal villain in Batman is The Joker (Jack Nicholson) who'd been mob torpedo Jack Napier before he was horribly disfigured in a vat of acid. The Joker's plan to destroy Batman and gain control of Gotham City is manifold. First he distributes a line of booby-trapped cosmetics, then he goes on a destruction spree in the Gotham Art Museum while the music of Prince blasts away in the background, and finally he orchestrates an all-out campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Gothamites, hoping to turn them against the Cowled One. Meanwhile, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) becomes the love of Batman's life-which of course plays right into the Joker's hands. Photographed by Roger Pratt, designed by Anton Furst, and scored by Tim Burton's favorite composer Danny Elfman, Batman was a monstrous box-office hit, making $100 million in the first ten days of release--$82,800,000 in North America alone. Incidentally, Billy Dee Williams' comparatively small role as DA Harvey Dent was originally designed to set up the sequel, wherein Dent was to convert into master criminal Two-Face; but by the time the producers got around to that character in 1995's Batman Forever, Two-Face was played by Tommy Lee Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Following his disastrous sophomore film Under the Cherry Moon (1986), Minnesota-based rock star Prince hastily returns to the form and style of his classic motion picture debut, Purple Rain (1984) by directing and starring in this energetic concert film interspersed with dream-like visuals. Recorded in 1987 at gigs in Rotterdam, Holland, and Prince's hometown of Minneapolis (during the world tour supporting his new album of the same name), Sign O' the Times encompasses a wealth of diverse material, distinguishing it from typical, more straightforward examples of its genre. In addition to performing 13 songs, Prince throws into the mix a music video collaboration with Sheena Easton, sweaty dance interludes with his then-current paramour Cat Glover, and a rousing finale that makes a star of drummer-singer Sheila E. Less successful is an attempt to depict an unfolding narrative set amongst characters that seem to be bottom dwellers from society's seedy fringes, occasionally joining the band on stage. The story never gels into a definable structure and remains hallucinogenic, but the music is superbly performed and photographed and the songs are from an album considered by many to be a late-'80s classic. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

MTV puts together a music awards show which features Tina Turner, Robert Palmer, Dire Straits, a-ha, Prince and the Revolution, the Pet Shop Boys and Don Henley. The hits of 1986 are collected together for your enjoyment. ~ Rovi

A juvenile delinquent falls in love with a beautiful Catholic girl's school student in this fact-based adolescent melodrama set in an Oregon forest. The two meet by accident when the troubled young man is out on a nature hike and sees the lovely girl floating in a small lake as she works on a photography assignment. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but neither of their schools encourages contact with the opposite sex and when their relationship is discovered there is trouble all around, forcing the young lovers to flee. The question then remains: will they be able to evade the law and other authorities long enough to find happiness? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Charlene Tilton with musical guests Todd Rundgren and Prince, is noteworthy for Charles Rocket's infamous use of the "f-word" during an improvised time-filler before the closing credits. Coincidently, Prince sang a variation of the very same word earlier in the show during his performance of "Party Up." ~ Skyler Miller, Rovi