Riverpoet31 said:

Get over it, some people like different things than you. I enjoy three hours of Stevie or Prince jamming totally live, but I also enjoy MJ for what he is. This attitude of people falling for anything is tiresome. We're not exactly talking about some manufactured disney pop star here.

And he sang quite a bit live. Yes, there was lip-syncing. But there was also hearty amount of live singing, some of it stunning. You are calling people wrong about a film you haven't seen?
[Edited 11/3/09 20:12pm]

mimi07 said:

This person is amazing.

dreamfactory313 said:

So I thought I would give the MJ posts some space for a while, but once This Is IT came out I was one of the many that went along to see it.

In fact, now I have seen it 3 times - one in a very intimate (Gold Class) setting, one with a large sold out cinema, and once in IMAX.

Having seen it in various settings on various size screens I have to say IMAX is well worth it for the full sensory experience and wonderful sound.

So here are my observations of the movie.

As someone with tickets to the O2 shows I knew it would be a bitter sweet affair and I entered the cinema with some trepidation - would it be a let down, would it fulfil what many naysayers had said in the lead up to the shows that MJ was past his prime, he had no voice, he wouldn't be on stage for more than 13 minutes for the whole show, and on and on.

As the lights dimmed I had to remind myself that what I was about to see was a work in progress, a fine tuning of elements and an artist warming up still 3 weeks out from opening night.

What I was greeted with was surprising. Here was Michael working back in his element, truly taking command of the stage and the musicians bringing the music to life. What was most surprising was here was Michael singing live, and he still had the voice. Sure there are some songs were he drops lines here and there, but it was a rehearsal and it seemed more about him working through things rather than "giving" the performance but he proves that he still had the goods.

And he also had the goods in the dance pieces too. Many routines are fully fleshed out with MJ giving as good as the dancers half his age flanking him. Moments like the breakdown end in "Billie Jean" seems Michael moving and working his body in ways that show he still had the skills to wow.

You get glimpses of things he had planned - 3D projection elements, sensory overload backdrops etc but the moments that really give you chills are when this is all stripped away and Michael is on stage alone - moments like Human Nature, The Way You Make Me Feel, I Jut Can't Stop Loving You etc.

It was also (pardon the pun) thrilling to see Michael working with the musicians to perfect the sound and style he wanted. Each musician brought something to the arrangements and gave the songs that live energy that added that extra oomph.

Whilst watching it there was a sense of same same in terms of the way the show was constructed (think Dangerous meets HiStory). But as I had said in other posts leading up to the tour there are certain songs that the fans want to see done a certain way - think Beat It, Billie Jean, Thriller, Smooth Criminal. But even in those moments Michael had planned to up the anty and deliver more punch that even someone who had been a long time fan would see new elements in them.

At the end of it all you can't help come away with a bittersweet feeling - knowing that had Michael made it to opening night he would have undoubtedly proven his worth again to a public that had forgotten how great a live performer he really was.

On a side note, I have had a few people at my work tell me they went to see it and not being fans still found the movie enjoyable and made them appreciate the artistry of Michael.

Sure first and foremost this is a film for the fans, and it makes no apologies for it, but it's more than just that. It's a film that shows you what "talent" really means, and shows you a man focused on the details of the music and the art of putting on a show. It shows an artist looking to reclaim his place and remind the world what made them listen and watch him in the first place. And as the cinema lights come back on, you get the feeling that it accomplishes this.

Swa

As for Oscar talk - i think it's pretty premature and more wishful thinking than anything. I also believe that technically it is too late for it to be considered in the documentary category, the only one it would have a realistic chance in being nominated for.

As a hard film to categorise - it's not quite a musical, not quite a live concert film, not quite a documentary I doubt it will be nominated. After all other films of it's type - think the Stones film "Shine a light" U2s Rattle and Hum, Madonna's Truth or Dare and you can see why all this Oscar's buzz is just a little unrealistic.

Time will tell.

Swa

Vanilli said:

cool , i was wondering about that song. one of my favorites , i hope its live with live singing and instrumentation

motownlover said:

I would have loved for MJ to sing Stranger In Moscow during the Dangerous tour.

ViintageJunkiie said:

Would have been difficult considering it wasn't written until after the tour.

Swa

Swa said:

Nope. In Michael's 1993 Deposition in Mexico, he mentions the song. He was on tour from June 92-Nov 93, which means it was recorded the song during the tour.

Riverpoet31 said:

Enough already, I didn't want to post but you forced me to do it.

Considering your post history, No one will take what you say seriously.

and even if you saw the movie , you will still say some stupid utter bullshit, because you Simply don't like Michael Jackson, but please refrain from posting utter bullshit about the man, he is dead, No one here really wants to hear the shit you saying, you call some people obsessed with Mj? well, you far more obsessed with him than any other fanatic, This is a fact, I don't have any other explanations to the continuous insults about someone you don't even like, you far more obsessed.

And MJ is a real artist, musician, entertainer whether you like it or not…deal with it.
\
[Edited 11/4/09 2:29am]

Sorry to break it to you but 'This is it' is missing an H between the S & I

chocolatehandles said:

purplesweat said:

All that doesn't change the fact that the movie sucks!

Why not give an honest critique instead of just digging for reactions? That's if you've even seen the film.

'This Is It' On It Way To $200M-Plus, Thanks Mainly To Overseas Markets
November 2009

He's huge in Japan.

Michael Jackson's swan song "This Is It" made up for a so-so start domestically by doing more than twice as much business overseas.

The movie sold $32.5 million over its first five days in the U.S. and Canada and $68.5 million in 97 other countries. It stands with "Angels and Demons" and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" as one of a handful of films that more than doubled its domestic opening in foreign countries.

Japan, where Jackson is particularly huge, was the highest-grossing territory. "This Is It" collected $10.4 million there, making it the third-biggest opening of the year. Britain, where Jackson's "This Is It" concert was scheduled to play, was No. 2, with $7.4 million, followed by Germany, France, Australia and China.

That's particularly good for Sony Pictures because movies often decline slower overseas than domestically. The movie's foreign opening was right in line with expectations going into the weekend, but the five-day domestic take of $32.5 million was at the bottom of what the studio and others in Hollywood thought was possible based on initial hype and pre-release surveys.

Everywhere it played, the best news for "This Is It" is that it didn't fall dramatically after a so-so start on Wednesday. Although many similar concert movies open big and fizzle fast, the Jackson film had a solid weekend compared with its Wednesday grosses. Domestic ticket sales were down less than 10% on Saturday, better than many in Hollywood had expected on Halloween and a sign of positive buzz.

Now that Sony has, in a not-too-surprising move, extended the movie beyond a previously announced two-week run, the film will almost certainly gross more than $200 million worldwide. That would be a healthy performance given Sony's investment of $60 million for the rights to make the movie, plus a relatively modest marketing spend.

There were no other new pictures in wide release as most studios avoided the weekend with Halloween on a Saturday. Sony was forced to take the date as it wanted to launch the film as quickly as possible after Jackson's unexpected death and every other fall weekend was crowded with big releases.

http://latimesblogs.latim...gners.html

Superstition said:

that's what I did and got jumped on by the MJerks.
Crazy people in this thread.

Some folk in here do not want anyones honest critique of the movie.
Just their own small minded opinions. Honestly read the thread from the star and u will see what I mean.

Think I will just head to saner threads.

Well, I didn't see anything wrong with your post (that I can remember). I disagreed with some of your points, but at least you didn't just post like a troll.

Yeah, some people are hot-headed in here, but the problem is the trolls and the people who get annoyed easily feed off each other so that when there's honest criticism people are quick to jump on the defense.

purplesweat said:

Hey friends.. Just ignore the naysayers, they come here to bait.. And it is so not worth it.

purplesweat said:

My mum just saw the movie, she's not a fan of MJ, this is her sms review:

"Just got back from watching the Mj film and thought it was brilliant - I was totally captivated all the way through and didn't want it to end. Definately want to go see it again."

I think that for those who only knew MJ from the tabloids, this movie is coming across as a revelation.

ViintageJunkiie said:

September 1993

http://www.villagevoice.c...this-is-it

On Michael Jackson's Mercifully Goofy, Cheerful This Is It

By Rob Harvilla

published: November 03, 2009

You go to This Is It—the exploitative but bizarrely heartwarming Michael Jackson documentary, tracking rehearsals for the psychotically exhausting 50-concert London comeback spectacular he didn't live to even start—and you vacillate between a smile and a wince as a clearly driven but heartbreakingly frail MJ rips through take after take of hit after hit, and you find the moment that resonates for you, the throwaway gesture or remark only imbued with gravitas in retrospect. There's about 20 to 25 such incidents to choose from. The in-ear monitor mini-rant is the one that killed me.

He's plowing through a Jackson 5 medley—a warm, naïve, thrilling glow still cast over those giddy songs and the endearingly precocious dance moves that still accompany them. This, in turn, is echoed by the vintage footage of a cheery, pre-adolescent Michael and his brothers, now projected on huge video screens behind the current-day, pointedly less cheery Michael as he cuts off the band in mid-flourish and complains of a blaring, newfangled device he's saddled with that feels like "a fist pushing into my ear." This isn't a bratty celebrity tantrum, but a lament, a genuine feeling of anguish he's trying to counter "with the love," he explains, somewhat confusingly. "With the love. L-O-V-E."

Everyone in my theater—Court Street in Brooklyn, showtime 12:01 a.m., Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, pouring rain outside, diehards only—chuckles a little at this, how delicate he sounds even when severely antagonized. Kenny Ortega, director of both the concerts and now the film that seeks to replace them, is heard off-camera, feebly and sweetly talking his superstar down: Is there anything you need? Is there anything we can do? MJ barely acknowledges him, as usual, explaining simply that he's "adjusting." He tries to explain the problem. "It's just so hard when you're raised . . ." he begins, and the long pause that follows, the awful chasm that opens and that we mentally fill with all the dire and horrifying ways Michael could accurately describe the way he was raised, the way he lived, nearly torpedoes the whole movie, destroys its upbeat, goofy, triumphant vibe, and conjures up the devastating tragedy that caused this movie to even exist, but that, wisely, it almost entirely declines to acknowledge: the suffering that preceded this conversation, and the death that would soon follow it.

And, of course, Michael goes on to explain that he was raised to hear it, not to need a high-tech fist in his ear to keep in time and stay in tune. The moment passes. Earlier, arguing over a "Smooth Criminal" cue with Ortega, the director points out that it's supposed to be triggered by the fancy film-noir footage on the video screen that MJ, facing the crowd, can't see: "How will you feel the change from the marquee to the city?" Michael considers this. "I gotta feel that," he decides, nodding his head. I'll feel it." We laugh at this, too. We also believe him.

This Is It is remarkable in its ability to avoid maudlin sentiment or death-foreshadowing pathos, especially considering that after a brief title-card explanation of the film's circumstances, it begins with people crying. Ah, they're just backup dancers, pre-audition, gushing about What MJ Means to Them. (What MJ needs from them, as a key choreographer explains, is a certain "goo" and "ooze.") This is a major theme: how awed and intimidated all these clearly talented artists are to work with or even near him, and how ungraceful and useless they seem in his presence, and how quietly but firmly he coaxes them into doing what he wants, doing it right. To the keyboard player and musical director: Play that particular line "like you're dragging yourself out of bed." To the hot-Ish guitarist shredding during the climax to "Black or White": "Hit your highest note. [He sings it for her, for reference.] It's your time to shine. We'll be right there with you." To everybody, all the time: "Let it simmer." Hold the note, the pose, the dramatic conclusion. "Bathe in the moonlight." Milk the crowd we can't see for the rapturous applause we can't hear.

And that's the strange and fascinating thing about this movie: Excepting a brief, shrieking-fan-heavy clip from the unsettling circus of a press conference at which MJ announced the 50-comeback-shows-in-London conceit, his only audience throughout what is essentially a low-rent concert movie is those same backup dancers and crew members; you're eventually overwhelmed by the silence that accompanies these full-length run-throughs of any hit you'd care to name. (Plus "Earth Song," which you'll survive.) There's no screaming, worshipful din to drown out all the detail MJ is painstakingly nailing down here, detail that'd largely have been lost if the show had ever actually gone on.

The footage is rough, as footage never intended for public consumption tends to be, and Michael is clearly a) weak, and holding back what strength he has for, you know, the actual shows. The Jackson 5 sequence ends with him vamping a cappella on "I'll Be There"—"I'm trying to conserve my voice, so please understand," he murmurs, by way of apology, before moaning through a gorgeous, yearning series of vocal backflips anyway. If that performance embarrassed him, it's hard to see MJ being thrilled with everything else on display here, even if we mere mortals thrill to the sight of him singing every other line of, say, "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' " with his whole body in constant, mesmerizing motion, an endless fusillade of micro-Moonwalks it doesn't seem like he could control even if we wanted him to.

Which we do not. Even when he's holding back, the artistry of it all is fairly stunning: "Human Nature" drives my theater nuts, the breathy whispers undercut by brief, playful growls, his body's wiggly little leans and dips omnipresent, the falsetto that punctuates the gloriously evaporating chorus. "Go on, boy!" people behind me start shouting. "Go on, boy! That's Mike."

We are similarly enamored of all the new set pieces: The 3-D graveyard fantasia of "Thriller," the retro-futuristic mashup of The Big Sleep and The Matrix that drives "Smooth Criminal," the giant props (spider, bulldozer) that suddenly materialize onstage. I suspect most people initially regarded these London concerts warily—as an ill-advised potential catastrophe MJ didn't have the power to pull off anymore. But This Is It, if nothing else, makes clear how incredibly hard he was working, how seriously he took himself even when no one else did. It's maudlin and brutal, but he died trying to do this. And though the film mercifully avoids any death-porn melodrama, this will occur to you during the climax of, oddly enough, "Beat It," when he's full-on spazzing out to match the hard-rock frenzy, flat on his back, legs waving in the air, that nefarious earpiece out and dangling like a popped eyeball. He is passionately applauded, both on-screen and off-. But there aren't enough of us. There never were.

rharvilla@villagevoice.com

I'm thinking of going a 3rd time. I went the 27th and the 30th of Oct.

I have to see it again!

Rorywan said:

no it's not your opinion that is the problem....it's your tone.

I'll go see it again once, maybe twice for the theater experience. Movies like this are what really makes me want a home theater setup.

Play that particular line "like you're dragging yourself out of bed." To the hot-Ish guitarist shredding during the climax to "Black or White": "Hit your highest note. [He sings it for her, for reference.] It's your time to shine. We'll be right there with you." To everybody, all the time: "Let it simmer." Hold the note, the pose, the dramatic conclusion. "Bathe in the moonlight." Milk the crowd we can't see for the rapturous applause we can't hear.


one of my favs.... ....Mike is just cool...too cool.... great film, anyone who says otherwise is talking bullsh*t ...and don't know jack about film or editing ....

Oscars bound for sure....

Michael Jackson Hits No. 1 On Billboard 200 With 'This Is It'




To the surprise of probably nobody, Michael Jackson's "This Is It" will debut atop the Billboard 200 albums chart released today (Nov. 4) with an eye-popping 373,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan -- the fifth-best sales week for an album in the U.S. this year.

The companion album to the musical documentary film of the same name is Jackson's sixth No. 1 on the tally and it arrives with his best sales frame for an album since 1995's "HIStory" started atop the Billboard 200 with 391,000 copies.

Jackson collected his first No. 1 with "Thriller" in 1983 and later notched toppers with "Bad," "Dangerous," "HIStory" and "Invincible." Earlier this year, Jackson also notched a No. 1 on the Top Comprehensive Albums and Top Pop Catalog Albums charts with the 2003 greatest hits set "Number Ones."

The "This Is It" film bowed with late-night showings on Tuesday, Oct. 27, before rolling out wide the following day. Through Monday, Nov. 2, the film had collected $36.9 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada. It's already the second-highest grossing musical concert film in the U.S. and Canada behind "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour" ($65.3 million).

"This Is It" is one of five albums to arrive in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week. The second-best debut comes from a reunited Creed, which sees its "Full Circle" enter at No. 2 with 110,000 copies. It's the band's first studio release since way back in 2001, when its "Weathered" started at No. 1 with 887,000 in its first week.

Taylor Swift's "Fearless" flies from No. 7 last week to No. 3 this week with 109,000 and a big 225% gain. The set was reissued in a "platinum" deluxe edition last week, with numerous additional bonus tracks and a DVD.

Rod Stewart's latest covers set, "Soulbook," sings out at No. 4 in its first week, starting with 84,000 while Trans-Siberian Orchestra bows at a career-high No. 5 with its new effort, "Night Castle." Sting's holiday-esque album "If On A Winter's Night" rings in the season at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 with 80,000 copies. It also reaches No. 1 on our Top Holiday Albums chart.

Last week's Billboard 200 No. 1, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" soundtrack slips to No. 8 with 69,000 copies (down 55%), while Michael Buble's "Crazy Love" falls from No. 3 to No. 7 with 71,000 (down 30%). Last week's biggest debut, Tim McGraw's "Southern Voice," falls from No. 2 to No. 9 with 59,000 (down 57%). Rounding out the top 10 is Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3," which slides six places to No. 10 with 41,000 (down 5%).

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Nov. 1) totaled 6.31 million units, up 10% compared to the sum last week (5.72 million) and down 9% compared to the same sales week of 2008 (6.96 million). Year to date album sales stand at 287.6 million, down 13% compared to the same total at this point last year (332.3 million).


http://www.billboard.com/...2886.story

chocolatehandles said: