THIS IS IT review – Michael Jackson THIS IS IT review: This is it premiere

THIS IS IT is the life of Michael Jackson. King of Pop’s personality shows funny, silly, laughs,  gentile, thoughtful & who is a perfectionist. Jackson appears in pretty good shape for a 50-year-old – even if his general spindliness makes him occasionally look a bit like Skeletor in a lamé tuxedo. He performs at walking pace for much of the time, but makes it clear he is holding himself in.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It is a 2009 American concert film documenting Michael Jackson’s rehearsals of the concert series of the same name, both on stage and behind the scenes. The film will comprise of Jackson mentoring his team for the 50 shows, as well as him creating, developing, and ultimately staging the high-tech performances.

There’s some fun sequences showing the creation of specially filmed inserts, such as the intro for Smooth Criminal having Jackson being Photoshopped into black and white movie clips from the 1940s, fending off Bogart and Cagney.MJ’s penchant for drivel couldn’t be entirely eliminated, as evidenced by the sickly little scene, built around a small girl wandering through an enchanted forest, that heralds Earth Song.

Cast & Crew
Movie Title: THIS IS IT
Directer: Kenny Ortega
Cert Rating: PG
Movie genre: Documentary
Length: 135 minutes
Release Date: 28 October 2009 (USA)

Full cast
Michael Jackson and backup dancers rehearsing They Don’t Care About Us
Lead vocalist and dancer: Michael Jackson
Choreographer: Michael Jackson
Music By: Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Robert Kelly, Quincy Jones. Music Distributed By Sony.
Keyboards: Michael Bearden, Morris Pleasure
Lead guitar: Orianthi Panagaris
Rhythm guitar: Thomas Organ
Bass: Alfred Dunbar
Percussion: Roger Bashiri Johnson
Drums: Jonathan Moffett
Background vocalists: Judith Hill, Dorian Holley, Darryl Phinnesse, Ken Stacey
Background dancers: Daniel Yao, Nicholas Bass, Daniel Celebre, Mekia Cox, Christopher Grant, Misha Hamilton, Shannon Holtzapffel, Devin Jamieson, Charles Klapow, Ricardo Reid, Danielle Rueda Watts, Tyne Stecklein, Timor Steffens

Rating: 3/5