So Michael will have the number one movie and album?

purplesweat said:

right! I was like "do they not know what he means when he says to let it simmer?" Also when he mentioned the fist pounding in the ear, they asked "what can we do to ease that problem?" clearly turn the sound down in his ear monitors. i bet it sounded like having on headphones and a sudden BOOM with the volume and bass turned up to the max

shorttrini said:

Of course not. We can see him giving not his best.

I'm sure this is absolutely against his will.

this review says it all.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk...son-london

I am queasy, uneasy – so disturbed I need a new face. Because this week the Michael Jackson Death Cult rolls into London like a great, golden surgical mask, floating down the Thames. We don't get the actual corpse. (I bet his family considered it, but dismissed it, reluctantly, on logistical grounds.) But we do get This Is It, a film of Jackson rehearsing his final concert tour – edited to make him seem happy – a new album, and an exhibition of his personal objects, including the creepy glove. You know the one. It is the one that Freddy Kruger would have worn if he were into Liberace. And I am sitting in this puddle of biblical-style garment-rending and inconsolable wailing, and thinking: Why are we doing this? And also – is Bubbles coming?

I never bought Michael Jackson as King of Pop. I knew that he was not singing for me. His love songs are unbelievable; even Frank Sinatra, wife-beating crooner, was more convincing when pretending to like adult women. There is no truth to his torch songs – he was a child serenading a chocolate bar. When Michael sang, "I just can't stop loving you," I was convinced he was talking to his dermatologist. When he sang, "I want you back," I thought he was talking to his face. He was, for me, floating in the Lionel Ritchie firmament. He was gifted enough in his bendy, needy, nose-free way – but no king. I will cry more when Barry Manilow falls down and is carried into a Copacabana afterlife.

But disputing Michael Jackson's genius is like arguing with religious fundamentalists brandishing King of Pop Dancing Feet Mugs. Reason has zoomed off to the ever-lit funfair – it is all about faith. "Michael Jackson was the best!" scream the fans. If you argue, they cite Beat It as incontrovertible evidence of His Genius. Beat It is an OK song, although it is arguably sub-Wings. What else you got? "He was such a good dancer!" He danced well? Isn't that like saying he played volleyball well? Does that mean I get to buy merchandise and view the corpse? (Sorry, I forgot the corpse is not coming. Just the glove.)

What else? "Michael Jackson invented the modern pop video!" Ah, yes, the modern pop video, that exalted cultural medium where women writhe naked in cages and get called "bitches" by men in jewellery who can't look you in the eye. Jackson also, according to Vanity Fair, paid a witch doctor to ritually slaughter 42 cows, in the hope it might harm Steven Spielberg in some way. (This is possibly an argument in his favour.)

He was also, according to concert footage, very good at pointing, although I do wonder if he was indicating a body part he had lost, and wanted back. So – to summarise – an OK singer and good dancer who invented the modern pop video and enjoyed pointing and who hated Spielberg so much he paid for cows to be killed is dead. Can I put my mourning garb away?

But before I do, could we remember who Michael Jackson really was? What his greatest passion was, under the shifting form? It was to sleep with children. He was never happier than when lying in a pile of children. His enforcer, Anthony Pellicano, who recently served a prison term for stockpiling homemade hand-grenades, has said – and this is in Jackson's defence – "He did sleep in beds with little boys. There's no question about it. He's got a gigantic bed." Jackson also confessed this to Oprah. (Who else would he tell?)

One of the little boys, Jordan Chandler, received $22m from Jackson in exchange for not telling a court that Jackson had abused him aged 13. (Chandler's picture of marks on Jackson's genitals matches a photograph the police took of Jackson's genitals.) Jackson was never convicted of abusing children, although he was repeatedly accused; he paid witnesses off, while telling the media that he was targeted for extortion because he was Michael Jackson. But if he was guilty of child abuse, he got away with it because he was Michael Jackson. Abuse children? We aren't sure. But he did use them. He bought them and played with them and, when they reached adolescence, he dropped them. The bait was always money. Parents got houses and jewellery and cars. One child tells of golden eggs full of dollar bills in Neverland.

What was it like to be one of Jackson's child friends? What was it like to sit in bed with this faceless man and watch The Exorcist – it was his favourite, apparently – and hear that whispering voice? In fact, when I first heard he was dead – it was at Glastonbury, and the mourning was deafening - my first thought was, if he did abuse children, how do they feel now? Will they go and see This Is It? I think we need to take off the licensed Michael Jackson (Dangerous) sleep masks and ponder his sickness because, in the end, it is really the dysfunction that compels us. As an entertainer, Jackson was good. As a portrait of disintegration, he was amazing. And that is it.
[Edited 11/1/09 7:36am]

as a hardcore MJ fan, I had mixed feelings watching this movie. I could see that he was drugged up, so it made it hard for me to watch this brilliant man, but at the same time I thought it was a fitting tribute to the King of Pop, and hopefully if any haters go see it this will shut them the hell up about his abilities.
that's all I have to say I am still grief-stricken.

I didn't see him as drugged up at all. He definitely looks less lively in the footage where he's in the black blazer and red shirt, and most lively in the footage with the orange pants and silver coat, but I wouldn't say he looks drugged up or anything.

Some of the bits of the movie, like Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', The Way You Make Me Feel, I Just Can't Stop Loving You and Human Nature.... damn. It sucks we'll never get to see anything else from him outside of whatever is in the vaults.

Twitched? Can't say I noticed any twitching. He seemed pretty clear-headed to me. When he was doing I Just Can't Stop Loving You he was even directing Judith Hill there at the end. I didn't notice anything out of place.

Methinks people may be overanalyzing the clips a bit.

I didn't see him as drugged up at all. He definitely looks less lively in the footage where he's in the black blazer and red shirt, and most lively in the footage with the orange pants and silver coat, but I wouldn't say he looks drugged up or anything.

Some of the bits of the movie, like Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', The Way You Make Me Feel, I Just Can't Stop Loving You and Human Nature.... damn. It sucks we'll never get to see anything else from him outside of whatever is in the vaults.

PatrickS77 said:

God why the negative sarcasm?

And he did miss his queue at the start of smooth criminal, he was being led by the Vt playback. You are mistakeing it with the growl at the beginning of the way you make me feel. Or maybe YOU went into the cinema with rose tinted glasses.

Superstition said:

he looked alert to me....and tired in some of the pieces.

BoOTyLiCioUs said:

Right ..

I dont know why 0:10-0:15 is so tight to me .. the way he closes up his jacket .. lol

ViintageJunkiie said:

u agreeing or not?

I didn't see him as drugged up at all. He definitely looks less lively in the footage where he's in the black blazer and red shirt, and most lively in the footage with the orange pants and silver coat, but I wouldn't say he looks drugged up or anything.

Some of the bits of the movie, like Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', The Way You Make Me Feel, I Just Can't Stop Loving You and Human Nature.... damn. It sucks we'll never get to see anything else from him outside of whatever is in the vaults.

BoOTyLiCioUs said:

i was agreeing with u

Superstition said:

I agree. He did not look "drugged up" or "spacey" at all. He looked in good health and spirits...As I stated in my post after I had seen it yesterday, I think he could have done those concerts with no issue, had it not been for those doctor's

ViintageJunkiie said:

ok just checking. i also wanted to add there are sometimes he looks so tired...the bashir interview, for example.

BoOTyLiCioUs said:

yeah there were times he looked tired .. i think the most energy he actually gave in the movie was from "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"

ViintageJunkiie said:

really tired.

I saw it. I enjoyed the music and the dancers. I enjoyed the B&W shorts and the updated Thriller sequence. However, MJ did look tired IMO. His dance moves were quite limited. He hid his eyes behind the dark shades which is a time old trick to hide tired looking eyes. Sure you can chalk it up to old age but that is not how this film was presented. We are to walk away thinking that he was in the best shape of his life and ready for 50 straight concerts. I say "BULLSHIT". The man was exhausted and pushed to the limits. Though he may have been in good spirits, it seems to me his body was weary. And all the while his overseers are laughing their way to the bank.
[Edited 11/2/09 12:47pm]

DesireeNevermind said:

well it's a reheashal and he doesn't go full out in reharshals so who really knows. he looked nervous at first, then excited. and tired. I think he was good to go.

BoOTyLiCioUs said:

Don't you think he looked incredibly thin? Even with those pointy shoulder pads and layers of clothes (jacket plus two shirts maybe three) he looked tiny.