cmon
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Got asked to review the film at the last minute tonight, but I think my opinion is embargoed until midnight PST.

I'm collecting my thoughts on the movie and will be back later

I will say off break that I enjoyed it, Michael leaves no doubt that he was a true professional, and that I'm officially declaring my love for the dancer in the Way You Make Me Feel number... and the background singer was pretty hot as well...

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1、Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'This one was a bit sketchy at the beginning but was really good as he warmed up. ALL LIVE

2、Speechless very short, Michael just singing the intro....beautiful


3、Jam The original routine from 1992 when some new moves and a new arrangment. Michael sang over the track


4、Bad/Drill/They Don't Care About Us One of my favorite parts. Michael and Travis Payne going over the routine with the dancers and showing various clips of them rehearsing it. Lipsynched


5、Human Nature This one is cool. Michael was coming up with things as he goes along, directing the band where he wants a certain pop or effect. The falsetto was back! ALL LIVE


6、Smooth Criminal One of the highlights of the show. The Dome Project featured Michael in classic films such as Dead Reckoning, Gilda, In a Lonely Place, Angels With Dirty Faces, and The Big Sleep. He sang completely live during the performance


7、The Way You Make Me Feel This scene begins with Michael, musical director, and co-choreographer Travis Payne working on the arrangement of The Way You Make Me Feel. This one has to be seen to be believed. He knew how he wanted to sound, the exact pitch and timing. I believe it was a new pre-recording, but certain parts make me believe it was COMPLETELY LIVE


8、Jackson 5 Medley LIVE, LIVE, LIVE! Michael sang, stopped everyone because there was something wrong with the song, slightly admonished them and quickly said "But I come in love. L-O-V-E" I'll Be There was beautiful and a tearjerker


9、Dance and Shout This and other parts of this movie gave me a clue. This was Michael's way of giving these dancers and the musicians THEIR TIME TO SHINE. The music was Don't Stop Til You Get Enough and Shake Your Body with each dancer showing their own style with Michael joining in at the end with everyone doing the classic "Jacksons Point" dance step



10、I Just Can't Stop Loving You DAMN....enough said


11、Thriller I honestly feel if this had been in 3D, I would've pissed my pants This one was taking Thriller, Ghosts, and Threatened and blending them together. He knew the original routine....and did it a big ass jacket and Ed Hardy sweat pants!


12、Beat It great performance. All LIVE. The expanded routine that we saw on the 30th Anniversary Celebration


13、Black or White Like I said about the Dance and Shout segment, Michael was giving people their time to shine. He had Orianthi in front and made it HER performance. He kept telling her "We're all here for you, this is your time to shine" LIVE


14、Earth Song Think of the 1996 HIStory Tour routine, but 10x times bigger then add the video clip....DAMN!. I'm not sure this was completely live. I think they used the What About Us demo vocal track with Michael singing over it



15、Billie Jean Michael wasn't giving 100% with this one and danced to the vocal track from the studio demo or another mix until it was time for the adlibs. Michael still had the moves!


16、Man in the Mirror Lipsynched but at the same time, they were walking through it and coming up what to do for it



17、This Is It (credits)/Heal The World dome project Beautiful ending with the song playing and the new Heal The World clip. Nicely done. It ended with the intro of Moonwalker (Michael's feet walking and then going on the toes....WE ALL KNOW THE INTRO, RIGHT?! )

*****
Goodbye dear friend......

The world didn't appreciate you.....

The world took you for granted....

I'll never forget you

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/thruster/n18.jpg

Get the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwXbSIdPHUg

she's 10, and only knows MJ on the surface. Debating if she'd enjoy it or be ready to go after 30 minutes.....

If she knows the songs, great, BUT if she doesn't.....

1. I Want You Back
2. Who's Lovin' You
3. ABC
4. The Love You Save
5. I'll Be There
6. Never Can Say Goodbye
7. I Wanna Be Where You Are
8. Ben
9. Dancing Machine
10. Blame It On The Boogie
11. Shake Your Body Down To The Ground
12. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
13. Rock With You
14. Off The Wall
15. Billie Jean
16. Beat It
17. PYT
18. Thriller
19. Bad
20. The Way You Make Me Feel
21. Another Part Of Me
22. Man In The Mirror


at least 4 of these are get her interested

then show her Moonwalker and the Thriller video

It'll be a wrap lol

KCPlayer, my girl brought her 8 y/o daughter who rocked her lil thriller jacket and rhinestone glove. she loved it. the theater wasn't even completely packed for the tue. 9pm show. it was full of older folks and their children. it was like a concert in there and the J5 medley had the greatest reaction from the crowd.

His voice is impeccable. His dancing always on point. He is a consummate professional. At no point do you think you are watching a 50 yr old (supposedly sickly) man. He performs better than a healthy 25 yr old. If he could have performed that show as he intended, it would have been unbelievable.

I like that you get a glimpse of Michael's flirting with the dancer & back up singer. I like that you get to hear his sense of humor. I like that it conveys him as is in his element.

This Is It is fantastic. I highly recommend it & will go see it again.

thanks man. i can't wait to go see this tmrw.

i am nervous, anxious, and over the top excited.

no doubt some tears of joy and sorrow will be shed.

... I loved seeing him joke around and laugh and then get into something he was trying to arrange and when it came through get amped or if it didn't get kinda upset.

Too often he is paraded around like a cross between the pope, a sideshow attraction and the bubble boy. Here you see the entertainment genius. The perfectionist. And the human.




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poppin, as in dancing. take billie jean motown 25 performance vs. this is it. michael didn't pop on motown 25 but he did a whole lot of it on this is it.

also, the movie had darren from darren's dance grooves as the choreographer lol, the creator of high school musical as the creative director, and that BAD ASS white girl Orianthi on lead guitar. my fav. parts of the movie was when he was telling the musicians and crew how to play HIS music and how to do HIS show.

I thought it was great... even in rough form, the numbers were fantastic, and the choreography was (for the most part) on-point...

This movie just reinforced what some of us read in those interviews with people who worked with Michael Jackson, that while he's very loose and is right at home on that stage, he DOES NOT PLAY when it comes to his music... as one of the band members said, you'd better know your stuff when it comes to Mike's songs, because if you don't he will surely let you know... and I LOVED seeing that part of Michael...

And I know how this is going to sound, but I don't give a drizzling shit: I also loved how instinctive he was as an artist... he didn't bring a gang of "logical" explanations or just call off notes when his musicians got it wrong, he would sing the parts in the way he wanted them to be played... he'd tell a cat to "let (a synth part) simmer"... he'd tell the band leader to play something as if he just got dragged out of bed... he'd talk about how he'd "feel" the music and encouraged the others to feel it as well... that's all instinct, and it was beautiful to see...

What also struck me was how in awe the younger performers were while watching him work. Of course, the film opens with (oftentimes teary) testimonials to the camera from the dancers about how great it's going to be be working with Michael (capital M), but I really didn't get it until Ortega would cut to them watching the performances from the arena floor... this was more than just employees pretending to root for the cat who's paying them to do their thing, they were in genuine awe of this 50-year old man who had chosen them to help stage his comeback...

All of the musical numbers worked. I don't know, nor care, which numbers were lip-synched. No diss, I just know that they all worked as performances (or sketches of performances) for me... Remember how Quincy Jones said that Michael's nickname was Smelly, because when he heard something funky he'd turn his nose up in excitement? Well, I got that thought near the end of that one number (fuck, I can't remember off-hand what it was, but when the music shifted to that funky coda, that's what I thought of)...

And once again, Michael's knowledge came to the forefront during these numbers: the way he instructed (the lovely) Judith Hill on-the-fly during I Just Can't Stop Loving You, the way he coached the blonde guitarist during her solo on Beat It (yeah, I got a little choked up when he told her, "This is your moment... this is your moment... and we are going to be here for you")... again, it was thrilling to see this coaching and teaching side of Michael Jackson...

I think that this is the key as to why the movie just worked for me, as it was more than being about Michael getting on stage and running through his hits in order to make some extra bread; it seemed like he was genuinely interested in showing everyone how to do things "the right way" on stage, things that they could take with them once the tour was over... just dope to watch...

I liked the rapport that Michael and Kenny Ortega had... how Ortega joked with Michael, kept him loose, sparred with him yet treated him with respect, and held Michael's hand (figuratively speaking) at times... I only wish that we could have seen a couple of minutes of Michael and Kenny meeting up to toss around ideas at the beginning of the film... again, nothing too long, just a couple of minutes of them shooting the shit about what Michael's vision for the show was, even though we now know that it was constantly evolving...

And I also think that Kenny Ortega did a great job cobbling all of this footage together to give us a rough assemblage of what the finished show was going to be...

This would have been one hell of a concert, though part of me believes that some of the things we saw here (such as the big bulldozer during Earth Song and the 40's inserts before Smooth Criminal) would have been pilloried as "corny" and "cheesy" and "out of touch" by some in the media...

This was a really enjoyable experience, and it's really sad that we won't see the finished product...
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... for me, the best part about it was not the performances, even though a lot of them were cool to watch, but those little moments you point out in between, of Mike coaching the band and the dancers and working out the imagery of the entire thing. It's a reminder that MJ wasn't just a great singer and dancer but an artist and creative visionary who knew exactly what he wanted his audience to hear and see. A lot of us already knew this, of course, but there are a lot of people out there, even MJ fans, who I think presume that while he may have been the greatest entertainer of the last 30 years, he wasn't a true "artist" or "musician." This should go a long way to proving that notion wrong.

man - i mean , who's NOT going to be up there cheering him on?

those dancers were 20 feet away from watching an icon perform - likely they'd practiced some of his moves from since young and he was THERE doing it right in front of them - 20 feet away! i would've been the same way! this wasn't some impersonator, it was the man himself!

its not to say some of them couldn't do what he did better at this point in his life - but he created the entire world they were now a part of - very special moments you can take on your next job or into old age, etc. plus, its' also a form of respect and a way to 'push' that extra out of each move - its unwritten but they were obviously part of his support out on that journey - the same energy he likely had w/his bros when they did it back in the day, and the support they look for when doing other gigs. they were all are out there sweating and getting in that 'chamber'. plus they know he's 50 and WORKING it!

If you've read anything negative about Michael's abilities in certain critic reviews of This Is It, clear your mind...

All the hubub about this film being exploitation or a cash in, clear your mind...

Would he have wanted us to see rehearsal?...no, but the circumstances are extraordinary....it is only right that we see what the man had planned and worked so hard to acheive...

Point blank with no hyperbole, what he had planned would have gone down in history....

What This Is It offer us is the chance to see a true master at work...

?uestlove and D'Angelo coined the term "Yoda" as a notation of musical mastery...

Michael is not just a Yoda, he IS Yoda...

The film has a few levels...on one level, we see Michael crafting his vision and bringing it to life...we also see his complete mastery of his talents...but most interesting to me, was seeing Michael teach the babies...

his method of teaching was by example and with gentle, intuitive, yet firm coaching...

we see a side that true MJ fans knew but the public did not...and that's MJ as a firm taskmaster...the boss...not the simpleton dolt portrayed in VH1's god awful biopic Man In The Mirror...

As a performer, I'm gonna go ahead and put it out there....Mike had stepped his game up...He went out at his peak...vocally and physically..

90's MJ was easily bested by This Is It MJ...he was coming back stronger than when he left....

what we see in these rehearsals is MJ holding himself back...he does the most intricate shit at lightning speed in the blink of an eye as if its nothing...the crew waits for the moments when he cant help himself and he cuts loose...the band makes it a game to try to sneak up on him and coax these moments out of him...

one memorable scene is when he catches on to the game...

he already has the show down in his mind, he is just waiting for everyone else (dancers, band, crew) to catch up to his vision...

he does not break a sweat...he only breathes hard once, after doing a jumping routine....when the band misses his cues, they tell him that they dont have to do the jumping again....he insists on doing it again...

if you pay attn to his physicality in the non musical moments, you see that he cant sit still....he is bristling with energy...

alot of the interest in this film is morbid....people are watching is looking for clues of drug abuse or ill health, or even old age....sorry, its not there...

even my boy Ebert is wondering how Mike could be doped up and be as sharp as he was during these rehearsals....

People, these are the facts:

when Michael Jackson died, the only drugs in his system were the ones given to him by Dr. Murray in the hours before his death...

he was using propofol and anti anxiety drugs to help him sleep...

Michael Jackson's death was not the end result of downward spiral as the public would like to believe...

the facts that have emerged inform us, the only reason why Michael Jackson is not tearing down the 02 Arena right now is because Dr. Conrad Murray was criminally negligent. He administered Profofol and left MJ for approx 47 mins, which is analogous to pulling the plug.

but away from that, this is a film that desrves to be seen...

It is more than fitting to honor his legacy...it only reinforces the fact that Michael Jackson is the the greatest entertainer ever to live.

*******
www.windimoto.com

>his method of teaching was by example and with gentle,
>intuitive, yet firm coaching...

i was expecting to see him barking orders at people but instead, i found him warm, gentle and loving in all of his "notes" and criticisms to his colleagues...that was beyond beautiful to see and is a hallmark of a true leader. you don't have to be an asshole to get people to follow you or do things your way. you just have to make them BELIEVE in your vision.

d

My 17 year old daughter saw it the opening weekend and want to go back for a second time. I was a little worried about what this was going to look like but I have to admit I was dead wrong.... dude wasn't nearly in as bad shape as those stories. I had a few moments of extreme sadness though. Watching him sing Human Nature and then realizing that was the last we'll ever see is a crushing feeling. Like my daughter said after ... his voice was butter.
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I mean, this film was gripping without the costume changes, without lighting cues, without MJ going all out. It would have been just INSANE to see this show. Just amazing production values all around.

As a documentary, This Is It is...okay. It was never really meant to see the light of day and because of it, a good deal of the footage is borderline unusable, and I'm not sure what a non-MJ fan would think of it.

But if you ARE an MJ fan? Forget it. It's gripping. It's amazing. It's just awesome to watch an absolute MASTER at work...commanding his vision, commanding the stage, and having what amounts to the greatest dancers in the world around him stand in awe of a 50 year old getting down like crazy. This Is It showed his personality in ways we hadn't really seen before, and that was awesome.

MJ at 50 >>>> your favorite performer.

RIP. This would have been an amazing concert.

Vocally-- he was better than ever. I am not joking about this.
and i am not exagerating. Who sings like that?

and aside from the dance numbers, it was all live singing, too.
just wow.





Dancing-- still there-- especially for the popping and gliding--but I could tell something was wrong. . .

If you look at rehersal clips from other tours,
his "poses" were always rock solid.
What i mean by his poses is the type of stuff MJ does when he goes to the shilouette.
any time MJ used to make a pose, I would get these goosebumbs.
Those "poses" or. . .his "line" is why i can always tell MJ from an MJ impersonator right off.
In some of these poses though, I could just tell he was different. still dope, but he just didn't feel the same.

Did he look like somebody about to die? Nope.
and he still pop locks and glides better than anybody period.
something just wasn't there, though.
I think the trial and the spotlight and just everything took a toll on his spirit, and something that used to be there had been damaged.

I also think it goes without saying that he probably would not have been as fast as he was during the Bad Tour, but then again the nigga is 50 so who would expect that.






MJ the person-- The coolest part of the movie. He's funny. He's sarcastic. And he Does NOT play, when it comes to his music. He knows how he wants it to sound. He knows how he wants it to look-- from the lighting to the camera angles on the vignettes to the costsumes. . . he's sharp as he ever was. If he was a junkie, he was a functioning junkie. As a functional alcoholic myself, I'm not mad at all.




The final review-- If you love MJ, you will love the movie.
If you want to find something to unfairly attack about MJ, you will find it here.




So what's the answer to the million dollar question--
Would this tour would have been the Comeback he wanted?

No.

And its not because it wouldn't have been a spectacular show.
From what i saw it would have been better than the history tour or the dangerour tour.

But it never would have gotten accepted by the mainstream media in the states. Before MJ died the fashionable thing to do would be to find a reason to hate on everything he does.

It is so sad, but it took him fucking dying to get people to view him as an ARTIST again. And for that reason, and that reason alone,
as great as this tour would have been,
it wouldn't have been enough.

It took his death to have the type of comeback that he desserved.
I view this as being a faliure of our fucked up society
more than being a lapse in MJ's talent.

Fans should see it.
Haters should shut the fuck up and let the King rest in peace.

I really think this would have been a return to form and people would have followed suit. One reason (of many, MANY reasons) people hated on MJ was his output was subpar...once the reviews/footage from this show rolled in, a LOT of hate would have been out the window.

This was a perfect show for Vegas too...which I KNOW was in the back of MJ's mind, despite the connotations of "washed up" that goes along with a show in Vegas. He would have definitely been propelled back to respectable at the LEAST, and probably back to superstardom for all the right reasons.

People were hating when he actually sold out the first 10 shows. I remember VIVIDLY being on Prince.org when the press conference happened and niggas were SIZZLING HOT with hate and finding any reason why this would fail and hating on him and the situation in general

The show would've done great and went well and people would've still found something to shit on

>People were hating when he actually sold out the first 10
>shows. I remember VIVIDLY being on Prince.org when the press
>conference happened and niggas were SIZZLING HOT with hate and
>finding any reason why this would fail and hating on him and
>the situation in general

Well I guess Orgers are eating their words now, eh? :)

*****
Goodbye dear friend......

The world didn't appreciate you.....

The world took you for granted....

I'll never forget you

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/thruster/n18.jpg

Get the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwXbSIdPHUg

That man is....was....is...hilarious.



*sigh* : (

i really enjoyed it.

I took my niece and nephew, 7 and 9.


My nephew, has been tryin to learn all the steps to smooth criminal.

even they youngest who's 3 moonwalks and sings beat it


it was an awesome tribute,

the whole entire movie i just couldn't believe how great his voice sounded and how on point his dancing still was. its just been years since we've seen him live and at 50 years old i didn't expect it.

don't have much more to say that hasn't been said already, but being skeptical when i first heard about this movie i'm so glad that it turned out as such a positive tribute and way for people to see what a genius he was.

http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2009/11/michael-jackson-this-is-it-oscars-entertainment-news-841962573-story-article.html

A veteran Oscar voter predicts Michael Jackson's "This Is It" will be nominated for best picture based upon its reception at today's academy screening. He e-mails Gold Derby this report, "Just attended Sunday afternoon screening of 'This Is It' at AMPAS in Goldwyn Theater before a capacity audience (1,000 seats) to experience the most enthusiastic response I've every witnessed in 40 years of academy screenings. Similar to but better than the reaction given to 'Chicago' a few years ago Audience broke into applause at least 10 times. They were 'mesmerized' and gave film an enormous reception as credits rolled. The editing is brilliant. I predict it will be the first doc to ever make the best picture nomination list, especially now that there are 10 best pic noms. I also consider the work 'a gift to the world.' "

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this was a good movie, and an interesting look into Mike as an artist. His talent really shines. This dude FELT his music, and it was really amazing to see him communicate what he felt to other musicians. It was also interesting to see what kind of work goes into a huge show like that.

There was also some stuff that bugged me out a little - close ups on his face, for example, just kind of made me sad. His hands kept bugging me out too, only because they looked a lot bigger and stronger than the rest of him.

I also understand that the dancers were hype to work for MJ, but it also made me wonder what it must have been like to be MJ. He was human who was treated like a god, which has to mess with your head. The dude just seemed really alone in some ways.

... talking about. The suits that lit up and shit.

They better have that shit on the DVD. lol




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like i was bouncing in my seat when they were talking about that...i haven't bought a single DVD in like 5 years but i WILL be buying this.

d

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that show would've been legendary
so sad the man had to die before the world accepted him again

to culminate Micheal Jackson's extraordinary career. It fully separates Micheal the man (crafty) from Micheal the artist(genius) and allows the viewer to fully experience and understand the hard work and dedication MJ gave to making music and sharing it with the world. The highpoint is definitely the footage of him singing , I just can't stop loving you.

Grade A

Beautiful

V.

really enjoyed the singing and watching them practice.
Michael was an odd man but he was mad talented.

STOP FUCKING AROUND AND STEP YOUR FUCKING GAME UP !