Michael Jackson: Bad

BAD is an incredible music video by the King of pop ! And wow he looks gorgeous in it too !!! Michael Jackson in my opinion is also the King of music video's too !! I mean...he invented them in the first place !

The actual music video merits 10 stars. All the stuff that comes before and after the actual video merits no more than 4 stars. I don't remember seeing this (unnecessarily) long version when the Bad album was initially released. The scenes which come before the video actually starts are almost completely disposable. These scenes do, however, seem to give some background as to why Jackson proclaims: "I'm bad!" Jackson has an obvious conflict as to where he "fits in." With his white friends or his black friends? Are any of them really his friends? Overall, the video seems to confirm some negative stereotypes. Do we blame Scorsese or Jackson for this? Ultimately, the song is everything. All the other stuff didn't need to be there. Curiously, Jackson's hair is noticeably shorter in the introductory scenes, compared to the actual video.

I'm bad, I'm bad you know it. This was the chorus to Michael Jacksons hit "Bad" back in 1987.

When I look back at it, I make the conclusion, its cool. Okay, it may appear to be alittle humorus and alittle riduculous, but its still cool.

Michael plays a high school student, Darryl,(a 30 year old high school student)coming back home to visit the old neighbourhood for the holidays.

His old mates are rebelious and "bad" but Daryll has changed since hes been away. Here, we see michaels excellent acting talents. And I'm being serious, he was realy good. "Lay off me man! Get off me man, stop it!!! I'm tired of you messin wit me man, stop it!!! stop it!!!"

Beleivable, but cheesy. In order to prove himself to his old friends, he makes an attempt at robbing a poor man in a deserted train station, or at least thats how he wants to make it seem to his mates, "give me a quarter" when he realizes that the man is poor, old and helpless, "Get out of here man run!!! Run!!!"

Daryll, has gotten himself into a rough spot now. Wesley in particular is annoyed with Darryl. Befriending him, saying how he has forgotten who he is, "You aint down wit us no more, you aint bad!!"

All of a sudden its brighter, Darryl is surrounded by dancers and he is wearing tights. His hair is curly and to top it off he has allot of buckles. He dosent look bad, he looks ridicioulous.

Thats when the music sarts and the relization that youre watching a michael Jackson music video sinks in. In all honesty I enjoy watching this. The dancing is wonderfully coreographed for that type of song and Michael actually looks good.

But when the song is over, its back to black and white. Darryl has shown that he is still "Bad" but not in that way.

He makes peace with wesley and they accept him for who he is. "Thats the way it goes down huh."

Now hypothetically speaking, that wouldnt happen in real life. Dancers wouldnt show up out of nowhere and a song wouldnt solve the problem.

In my opinion, they didnt really show up in the first place, they were Darryl's imagination, his way of escaping from reality. Thats how he sees himself and he expressed that to his old friends in his way.

I hope this makes sence to whoever reads it cause I just confussed myself! Anyway, to sum it all up. Its a good music video. NO where near as good as "Thriller" or "Beat it" but its still good.

King of pop rules!!

Jackson was a great singer and dancer but his acting style was theatrical and over the top. You can see that Wesley Snipes acting ability was several leagues better. Jackson's look also seems out of place compared to his colleagues and his poppy song doesn't fit in with the gritty vibe of the video. Michael Jackson was not a good actor at all.

In the wake of Thriller, Bad is a bit of a disappointment. I can see the logic, getting someone even more acclaimed as a filmmaker than John Landis - here, getting Martin Scorsese - to direct might've seemed like the right kind of escalation.

But the premise here isn't as strong. The song also isn't as strong as Thriller (neither's among Jackson's very best tracks, but Thriller is better, and fits that music video like a glove). And Scorsese gives things some personality, but wouldn't Francis Ford Coppola be a better fit, given there's something of an Outsiders or Rumble Fish vibe to what happens in the Bad video?

As far as Scorsese's involvement goes, it did lead to a fantastic Last Temptation of Christ gag, where there's a poster that reads "WANTED FOR SACRILEGE - BAD" with mugshots of Scorsese on it. That was funny.

I also remember finding the pre-dancing stuff in the Bad video boring as a kid, and it's also not particularly great as an adult, besides the fun that comes from spotting a young Wesley Snipes show up.

So, as a Scorsese short film, Bad is solid. As a Michael Jackson music video, once the music/dancing starts, it's pretty good. But it is a little odd overall, and not one I love... but that might also be my feelings on the song shining through. Methinks the Michael doth boast about being bad too much (or is that the joke of the song? Maybe I'm the dense one).