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This is Movie Man No. 849 and a first: The inaugural review of a concert movie, even if This Is It is really a behind the scenes look at the preparations for a concert that never came to be.
About the film
(Allow the Movie Man, who of course is the world’s premier film reviewer, to slip on his Music Man cape since he could just as easily be the greatest rock ‘n’ roll critic ever.) Michael Jackson’s death at age 50 on June 25th of this year was a shocker. For all his weird personal life (which this review will not concern itself with – if you have a problem with that then you’ll not see This Is It anyway), Jackson was one of the most successful entertainers of all-time. From his youthful hits as part of the Jackson 5 – where the group of brothers set the record by having their first four singles hit No. 1; the next two stopped at No. 2 — Jackson also had solo hits at the same time including the Oscar-nominated “Ben” the theme to the 1972 sequel to the rat-infested horror movie Willard from the year before.
(That Jackson 5 record of four consecutive No. 1 45s right out of the blocks would eventually be broken by Mariah Carey whose first five singles reached No. 1 in 1990-91. [Whitney Houston’s first single went to only No. 3, but then she had seven No. 1s in a row.]) Jackson hit his stride right when MTV was rising to prominence in the early/mid-80’s. His upbeat dance LP Off the Wall yielded two more No. 1s and set the stage for the biggest album ever, Thriller. Fueled by a terrific video of the title track (really a short movie directed by John Landis, another horror movie lover [he was fresh off An American Werewolf in London (1981)], Thriller set a record for having a mind-boggling eight singles pulled from it reaching the top 10. The “Billie Jean” video was memorable, and Jackson was rock ‘n’ roll enough to get popular artists to guest star on his singles. Guitar god Eddie Van Halen played the riff (and what a searing solo!) on the 1983 Record of the Year, “Beat It” – which was the first video by an African-American artist to be played on MTV. Jackson also paired with Paul McCartney for a pair of successful duets. (Often forgotten is the simultaneous success Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. had at about the same time as Thriller. The Boss’ album spun off seven Top 10 singles. None went to No. 1, but, still, seven singles from an album was simply unheard of.) Following up the most successful non-greatest hits album of all-time was a daunting chore. Yet Jackson answered with Bad where seven more singles whirled off, including an astonishing five additional No. 1s. With a private life careening out of control, Jackson still managed to make a few more successful records, but he had fallen out of general public favor by the mid-90’s. From there, he became a recluse before being lured out of retirement for one more, all-stops-pulled concert series – 50 sold-out dates in London that were scheduled for last July. This Is It is the filmed rehearsals for those performances. Other concert films While some concert movies are lauded critically, they are usually weak moneymakers. The record was set last year by – who else? – Disney: Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds which made $65.3 million. No. 2 is this year’s Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience ($19.2 million). Most beloved concert films have made very little money: Woodstock (1970, that wacky hippie festival), Monterey Pop (1968, another festival), The Song Remains the Same (1976, Led Zeppelin), The Last Waltz (1978, The Band, directed by Martin Scorsese), Rattle and Hum (1988, U2), Gimme Shelter (1970, the Rolling Stones at a festival in Altamont where a murder was captured on film), and the most critically acclaimed of all, Stop Making Sense (1984, Talking Heads). While This Is It isn’t going to reach Hannah Montana heights, it, like Jackson himself, was much more successful internationally where it’s already passed $100 million. The plot The process of putting together a massive, multimedia project headed by one of the most famous humans who ever lived is documented in This Is It. Gathering the dancers, producing new choreography, shooting extensive, elaborate computer generated sequences, and staging routines amid massive sets – all this is casually recorded, at the time for Jackson’s private use. After his death, the Jackson family okayed the miles of footage being made into a movie. Even though filmed, there are no sequences of sadness – footage exists that reveals the cast (who had worked so hard for so long) being informed of Jackson’s death; that scene is not in This Is It, but probably will be in the extended DVD. What works Even though the footage is all rehearsals and Jackson isn’t going full-bore, plenty of scenes are electrifying. Clearly he was much more relaxed on stage than he was addressing the public in press conferences. One early sequence, too short, shows the stage just jammed with dancers chasing their dream of performing behind Michael Jackson. Their tear-filled confessions of joy just to be offered the opportunity are clearly heart-felt. Each song in the performance was apparently going to be much like a video. The revamped “Thriller” would’ve been eye-popping and so would the kinetic “Beat It.” In all songs, the sound is terrific and fans will love hearing those first notes of now-classic tunes. Best scene Certainly, the expanded concept from the original “Smooth Criminal” video to the expansive CGI look it was getting on-stage was exceptional. Intercut with clips from beloved gangster movies, the sequence stood out above all the others. What doesn’t work After about 80 minutes, This Is It begins to feel repetitive. The biggest drawback comes late when the show finale was hammering home a “love the earth” concept that, while clearly meaningful to Jackson, steals all the energetic joy from the movie. It’s so syrupy and corny, especially the shot of a little girl hugging the earth! The rating A humorous how-to-grab-your-crotch dance scene (led by a female choreographer) gets the film a PG. It’s very mild. Summing up As you can tell, Music Man is a Jackson fan, and he’s happy to say that This Is It gives everyone one more chance at seeing the amazing Michael Jackson. Next up While the Movie Man is heading to the 3D Disney version of A Christmas Carol as the holiday season kicks off, he must admit that he’s intrigued with The Men Who Stare at Goats weird trailer. |
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