King of Pop - La vera storia di Michael Jackson

This movie is like so many biopic TV movies I have seen: formulaic, exaggerating, poorly acted, and most importantly, happening too soon.

What I mean by that is the movie was filmed and, for that matter, aired before Michael Jackson's acquittal from his child molestation charges, which I think was one of the most significant periods of Jackson's life and career so far. It probably would have made a great ending to this docu-drama. However, this movie already bites off more than it can chew, cramming too many details in this overly ambitious project.

It's no doubt that Michael Jackson has led perhaps the most interesting life so far of any musician, let alone modern day pop star, to date, and his story would probably take six Behind The Music specials to tell accurately. This movie tried to tell too much in three hours, and needless to say, it failed.

Flex Alexander did what he could in playing Jackson, but he came off more like an SNL caricature by the likes of Tim Meadows and Amy Poehler. It would admittedly be pretty hard to find someone who accurately portrays Jackson without meeting with the King of Pop himself and studying his methods of madness. On a shoestring budget, though, one can only depend on what they see in the tabloids, and those do not necessarily give an accurate representation.

Furthermore, the director's efforts to make Alexander look like Jackson are completely foolish. The Caucasian makeup on Alexander's face makes him look more like a reverse minstrel show, and everyone who has been in a grocery store knows that Jackson's nose is not as big as Alexander's. It's also amazing to me that the film documents Jackson going under the knife to get cosmetic surgery, yet in the next scene, Alexander still has the same size nose. This kind of suspension of disbelief that the director expects can't hold up to TV viewers in the 21st century.

It was even more distracting when footage of the real Michael Jackson (i.e. the time he hung his infant child over a balcony in Germany) was interspersed into the movie in real time. It was a nice try, but it just didn't work.

If this movie as it is was released into theaters, it would gain a profit only because of its tackiness. It even pales in comparison to "Mommie Dearest", and that's saying a lot. Above all, this was a movie that was probably rushed into making, like many TV movies that aren't on HBO. It could have been done a lot better if it had just told of one aspect of Jackson's life. Even if it just covered the child molestation allegations, it probably would have been done a lot better and would have even been more intriguing.

Although I'm a Michael Jackson fan, I look at things very objectively.

As a fan, I hope he did not do what he is accused of, and I am happy that he was proved innocent on all charges.

First let me start off by saying trying to make a movie about Michael Jackson without 'Beat It' or 'Billie Jean' is like trying to make a hamburger without ground beef.

Not even one little "I'm Bad, you know it."

But since this movie was not made with MJ's blessing they could not use any of his music.

I really came into this movie expecting to see a sequel to "An American Dream".

Boy was I sorely disappointed.

If you're going to make a movie at least have your actors resemble the people they are portraying a LITTTLE!

Jeez! And Elizabeth Taylor around the time MJ was accused the first time in 93 hasn't looked that young in well....forever.

Flex as Michael Jackson? Lord where did the person who casted this movie get his start? I hope he doesn't cast his other projects this poorly.

My choice for Michael Jackson would have been one of his widely known impersonators like Edward Moss (the guy from Scary Movie 3. Even out of make-up, Moss resembles a Thriller-era Mike.

And although the movie tries to portray MJ positively and show us things from his side, it's so full of pity for MJ you almost forget that he had nothing to do with this movie.

The movie can't even get it's relationships right.

Janet and Michael are and always have been close, but he was never buddy-buddy with her first husband James DeBarge.

In fact, Michael doesn't even acknowledge the guy as a former brother-in-law.

No closeness between Michael and Jermaine. Jermaine is the brother that Michael is closest to.

And this movie is so chronologically displaced, it's not even funny. Furthermore, this movie portrayed Joe Jackson to be an asshole. He was in fact strict and very disciplined oriented but he still loves his boys. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs plays Joe a lot better. He was hard on them but there was a few good father/son moments between him and various sons. In 'Jacksons: An American Dream" where Michael is upset about Jermaine leaving the group and his about to perform for the first time without him, Joe pats Mike on the shoulder and says, "Mike, he'll be back someday."

And when he and Kate rush to the hospital after Michael is burned and the reporter asks him how does he feel about it,

JOE: "YOU HAVE ANY KIDS?"

REPORTER: "WHY, NO."

JOE: "THAT'S MY SON IN THERE....MY SON."

This movie just made Joe to be a completely heartless prick. It practically jumps straight from the 93 allegation to the Bashir interview in 2003. Then to the baby incident, which was in 2002.

What the hell?

How are you going to jump back a year?

I could talk about how bad this movie was all night, but who the hell's got the time?

Just accidentally caught this on some cheap, free 'cable channel'. Hilarious. If anyone has ever seen Star Stories, the British satire on celebrity, then they will enjoy this appalling attempt at entertainment. For starters, Michael Jackson was about 5'9", not 6'3" as portrayed by the far- too-butch actor Flex Alexander. He was also a creme colour, not green! The producers ought to have solicited the talent of some impersonator. This film made even Jurassic Shark look good, which is saying something. In other words, I highly recommend watching this if you roll in drunk one evening and want a giggle for a bit... BELIEVE!!!!! Shamone!

Okay, first of all, I missed like the first 15 minutes of the movie, so I missed credits and stuff. SO when I finally got to it, I was like "Who the hell is this dude?". I found out it was Flex like hours after watching the movie.

Flex didn't look like Michael Jackson. Not one bit. He couldn't dance like him, or move like him, the only thing he almost had was the voice. People commented on Elizabeth Taylor, but I can't really comment on that because I don't know much about her.

The whole movie was like just plain wack. The dialogue sucked. The cinematography-if it can be called that-sucked. The soundtrack sucked. The acting sucked. Yes even Flex...I'm so upset about it though. I didn't want it to suck. I'm so sad that Flex got told he can get away with it. But the whole thing looked like dress-up. You know? It's like, nobody looked like they were supposed to except for Joseph Jackson.

The concert sequences just sucked. I'm sorry, but Flex just can't dance like Michael. I mean, like what the hell was VH1 thinking? The makeup didn't even match like the time of whatever Michael was going through. For example, in the movie he was still dark when Neverland got raided the first time around. In real life, MJ was white as hell. There was some sort of stupid delay in his skin discoloring.

The movie wasn't boring, well for me it wasn't. It wasn't really anything. I was just so upset about everything that was wrong with it. I wanted to see how it turned out and if Flex could redeem himself. He didn't, really. The only part I found like a bit interesting was the whole Lisa Marie thing. When they fell in love. That was nice. But I had to turn my face away when they kissed. Heh. And only two parts made me collapse with laughter. The first time was when they cut from Michael with short hair, you know the Thriller era, to Michael with long flowing hair from the Dangerous era AND HE WAS STILL BLACK! That was funny. The second time I laughed was when they showed all of the posters and memorabilia of Michael but they had Flex's face instead! It was so funny.

Overall, this movie was cheap trash. It was simply two hours of dress-up and could have been so much better. But no, VH1 is cheap. Watch if you want. But this movie is not funny, considering the ridiculousness of it. I came out of it feeling angry. And when I found out it was Flex, I just started to feel so bad. So...watch if you want.

The writers and creators of this film should actually be sued... For polluting the world with this crap! "Man In The Mirror" is in fact beyond horrible! Way, way, way beyond!

...and people, I'm not just saying that because I'm a Michael Jackson-fan! Or due to the fact that this is truly one of the most retarded depictions of his life I've ever encountered!

I'm saying it because this is a waste of time, money and celluloid! I feel ashamed of myself just having seen all of it! That's 1 hour and 26 min of my life I'll never get back! I'm telling you; watching grass grow is literally more entertaining than this film!

Consider yourselves warned!