Under the Cherry Moon

Under the Cherry Moon (1986)

** (out of 4)

Christopher (Prince) and Tricky (Jerome Benton) are brothers working Miami Beach where they seduce women for their money. Their latest target is Mary (Kristin Scott Thomas), a woman who just turned twenty one and is about to inherit fifty million dollars. Tricky soon finds himself falling in love but the girl's rich father isn't going to go for their relationship.

UNDER THE CHERRY MOON was released to very little noise and it was pretty much forgotten the minute it hit theaters. I doubt many people in 1986 were wanting to see a B&W movie and I doubt even more that they wanted to see anything other than PURPLE RAIN 2. This film has gained a pretty bad reputation over the years but I honestly didn't find it to be that bad. Yes there are all sorts of problems but I thought there was still some good stuff as well.

For starters, the cinematography is downright beautiful and I thought it really captured a fairy tale like quality. The B&W images are perfectly used to highlight the beaches and the sexy locations. I also thought there were some rather funny moments scattered throughout the picture. As far as Prince goes, his acting had certainly gotten a little better since PURPLE RAIN. Benton is decent in his supporting role but I thought Kristin Scott Thomas and Steven Berkoff were quite good.

I'm going to guess that Prince wanted to do some sort of romantic drama that had the flare of the 1930s. This probably explains it being shot in B&W and they even name drop Bela Lugosi in the picture. The biggest problem with the movie is that the story itself is just way too predictable and I'd argue that there's really not any drama and the ending certainly doesn't hit like I'm sure Prince wanted it to. Still, there are much worse movies out there than this.