Under the Cherry Moon is a great title -- but sadly, that's about all.

Full Review | Dec 26, 2023

Something that is both beautiful (Michael Ballhaus' cinematography is exquisite) and bizarre -- a screwball comedy where Prince and Benton gleefully ham it up for the camera.

Full Review | Jun 4, 2020

Should you subject yourself or your loved ones to Under the Cherry Moon, my family recommends following it up-quickly- with Purple Rain or Sign 'o' the Times as a palate cleanser.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2019

An unquestionably ridiculous film. Ridiculousness doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. In fact, the film has everything we want in a pop superstar vanity project.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2018

It's strange that so few critics seemed to understand that it's a silly film, purposefully so, and tried to use their prose to laugh at it - as if Prince weren't laughing way ahead of them. He was TELLING the joke.

Full Review | Oct 15, 2016

The final stretch is grueling, but the majority is average rather than awful.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 8, 2016

An inspired, delightful piece of cinema-pure cloudcuckooland escapism, and very much of a piece with Prince's genius.

Full Review | Apr 26, 2016

Word leaked out a few weeks ago that Under the Cherry Moon was something of a stinker. Horsefeathers! It's unique, by far the boldest film of the summer.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2016

Like Elvis Presley, Prince has the charisma to carry an atrocious movie-real fans just want to see him-but even Elvis never got so carried away with himself that he thought he could direct.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2016

Cherry Moon had some potential as a cultish Trading Places. But it drowns in its pretenses. No doubt, Prince fancies himself an auteur in his directing debut. But he has no restraint, no true vision. It's as if we've all been mooned.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2016

The music is great, the direction fast-paced, the whole film a lot of fun.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2016

In Under the Cherry Moon, Prince does more for movie musicals than any performer since Frank Sinatra and more for bared midriffs than any sex symbol since Little Egypt. Forgive me, Madonna, but it's true.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 22, 2016

In Under the Cherry Moon, the self-styled auteur is obviously aiming for a romantic tragedy with occasional lighthearted moments. What he ends up with, however, is purest camp.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2016

The soundtrack - which is among the star's best work - is reduced to the level of background music. It's a vanity venture, not even worth watching for kitsch value.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 22, 2016

[An] absurdly bad movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 16, 2013

[A] faux-'30s goof about an impish gigolo who woos and abuses a rich debutante.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Sep 7, 2011

As flat and uninteresting as a newsreel from the 1930s about vacationing in the south of France.

Full Review | Jan 15, 2008

The whole film plays exactly for what it is, one long essay in ego massaging.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/5 | Jan 15, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 19, 2007

Shot in black-and-white in an attempt to evoke the sophisticated burr of '40s films, its intent is hamstrung by over-familiar gags, though the script comes more to life when Prince and Benton lapse into black street talk.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2006