Some Reviews you could spread on the web
Newsday.com: Whether he's charming his way through "Smooth Criminal" or playfully flirting through "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," Jackson was once again at the top of his game.
Boston Herald: watching Jackson pop, lock, rock, writhe, thrust, and clutch his crotch, even at 50%, leaves a feeling of woe: This show really would have been major.
Kansas City Star - “What would Jackson’s comeback tour have looked and sounded like?” The answer: something close to a mind-blowing spectacle.
BBC: As a glimpse into the workings of one of music's greatest stars, it's unique.
Billboard - what this strange yet strangely beguiling film does is capture one of pop culture's great entertainers in the feverish grips of pure creativity.
Ann Powers: a useful document, as well as a beautiful one. Mostly it's a tribute to the power of Jackson's body and voice, which the film presents as surprisingly intact despite his age… his dancing is utterly assured. It's tough to believe he was 50, he seems so feather-light and vigorous… His solo dance during "Billie Jean," complete with slow-motion crotch thrusts, is breathtaking…the steel in his voice reveals how much the world he was creating onstage meant to him. Everything, really: enough to push himself to the edge of human endurance.
NJ Star Ledger: There’s no sign of sickness here, no sense of an artist past his prime. Instead, you see a performer at his peak.
Florida Times: remarkably unsentimental…exuberant, astonishingly entertaining concert film
Dallas News: Much of the film serves as a reminder of how talented this man was. As a dancer, he exuded confidence. The sequence for "They Don't Care About Us" is a mesmerizing combination of robotic movements, dramatic gestures and engulfing backdrops. "Jam" explodes with eye-popping steps to match the tune's combustible nature. "Smooth Criminal" is a stylish combination of vintage gangster film melded with modern-day splashiness.
AP: Even though it's been well edited, the amazing performances Jackson delivers in this film are not a result of camera magic, but Jackson's own.
Winnipeg Sun: not only do you mourn for the man himself - revealed to be an eccentric, playful, and creative perfectionist in the film, and more importantly still a vital singer and flashy dancer for anyone who had doubts about his health - but for what might have been the next great phase of his career
TIME: He gives dancing class and sex…The art is in what we're privileged to watch: a perfectionist who quietly pushes himself to prove he's still got it.
Freep: It's hard to leave it without excitement and respect, tinged with regret for what might have been.
MSNBC: Where “This Is It” soars…is as a dance movie; to watch Michael Jackson move is to witness one of the great entertainers of the modern age.
Tampa Bay: With his dancers and musicians…Jackson emerges as a sharp, driven and demanding artist, one who knows exactly what he wants and will work on a song's intro or a dance step until it suits him
Blogs Courant: scene after scene shows just how he did it, in a way that no live concert could: putting his muscular dancers through moves so strenuous they sometimes looked hard pressed to keep up, or egging on guitarist Orianthe Panagaris until she hit just the note Jackson was looking for
Hollywood Today: What you’ll see is an amazing re-emergence of the great pop music icon Michael Jackson. It’s an Oscar-worthy film.
Daily Mail: Watching the 111 minute film assembled by director Kenny Ortega from 120 hours of footage shot during rehearsal sessions it's clear that Jackson was a consummate artist, a perfectionist and that the This Is It Concerts would have been just about the best music show of the year.
Seattle Pi: Although he does appear very frail at times, his legs still move in ways that don't seem humanly possible. Not even the background dancers half his age can keep up.
MTV: what "This Is It" offers is something you can get nowhere else: a look at MJ's last days and the knowledge that as much as he lost, the man was still a genius to the end. As he announced after one song and, as no one could possibly argue otherwise, "We're sizzling! We're sizzling!"
CTV: He busts a move with dancers half his age. He commands details to life on stage like Moses parting the sea, tossing in a "God bless you" at his crew even when he's most peeved.
Rolling Stone: This Is It is proof that Jackson did still have it: the magical voice, the gravity-defying moves (most of them), the clear-headed artistic vision of one of the greatest artists of our time.
Baltimore Sun: in the film's longest extended take, when Jackson duets on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" with Judith Hill, we see how this performer used a vocal rehearsal to explore, and figure things out, and match his somewhat fraying voice to what he was thinking in terms of movement. He could dance brilliantly right up to the end, it's clear.
Christian Science Monitor: "Michael Jackson's This Is It" is heartbreaking, exhilarating, baffling. In other words, it expresses the performer's persona in its purest form… the show, as it comes across in the documentary, certainly feels like the culmination of everything Jackson accomplished in his career.
CNN: From the evidence Ortega shows us, "This Is It: the concert" would have been as thrilling and spectacular as his audience hoped it would be… This is no death-watch expose. Quite the opposite: It's a slick, "professional" celebration of a great entertainer at work and much more of a concert film than might have been expected.
Roger Ebert: Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael Jackson was something else… His choreography, built from such precise, abrupt and perfectly-timed movements, is exhausting, but he never shows a sign of tiring. His movements are so well synchronized with the other dancers on stage, who are much younger and highly-trained, that he seems one with them. This is a man in such command of his physical instrument that he makes spinning in place seem as natural as blinking his eye.
Philly.com: once he starts dancing with hoofers young enough to be his children, Jackson, who died at age 50, radiates pure energy… This Is It is Jackson's moment to shine. For two hours, he's alive and kicking it.
Washington Times: Whether he meant for this video to be locked away in a vault or included in a traditional concert film for contrast with a final, polished stage show -- thank goodness for this backstage peek at an extraordinary performing artist's creative process. With the worldwide release of "This Is It," Jackson finally might be forgotten as a tabloid freak show and remembered, instead, as a preternaturally talented musician and dancer who relentlessly pursued his art, but with a kindness and humility as rare as his ability.
Daily Tribune: As we watch Jackson and company go through the paces of putting the show together and learn that even at down-shifted preparation speed, he's still dynamite.
HitFlix: there comes a segment when Jackson is on stage surrounded by 10 or so backup dancers. They are all doing the same pelvic thrust as Jackson, but his is precise and controlled and more graceful than they can ever hope to achieve. As talented as the supporting dancers are, they can imitate him, but they cannot come remotely close to replicating him… Toward the end of the film, Jackson runs through “Billie Jean” with no other dancers on stage… He is mesmerized and mesmerizing.
NY Daily News - The movie shows an entirely able star, eager to give his all to show the world that, at 50, he could still do it, and do it bracingly well.
NY Mag - It’s vivid, illuminating, and sometimes — more often than you’d think possible — inspiring… the dancing is awesomely on point. Jackson’s not just keeping up with the superhuman young specimens in his troupe; he’s credibly leading them. “Smooth Criminal” has the old rat-tat-tat electricity. “Beat It” has you bouncing in your seat even if Michael is a quarter century older than the members of the gangs he’s magically separating. He’s not impersonating Michael Jackson, he is Michael Jackson — and everything emanates from him.
Post-Gazette: Far from looking like he was on death's doorstep, at 50 Jackson seemed to have the same swagger, moves and voice he did at 25… Those who were holding tickets for those shows, or hoping to see them one day on this side of the Atlantic, now get a glimpse of what they missed -- and it was special… For 112 minutes, we get the King of Pop the way we want to remember him.
Star-Telegram: Some of the most absorbing sequences reveal the depth of Jackson’s drive; watching as he meticulously sets a mood for The Way You Make Me Feel, from the earliest rehearsals through to the near-final product, one sees exactly why he earned the title King of Pop. His tireless adjustments and constant quest for excellence clearly try the patience of his collaborators, but the results are so hard to resist. The songs and staging burst off the screen.
Daily News Tribune: Those who see Michael Jackson as only a monumentally disturbed facial surgery train wreck owe it to themselves to see "This Is It." They will discover what his fans already know: Jackson, for all his well-documented personal shortcomings, was a supremely gifted artist with enough star power to fill a constellation…Entertainers as talented as Jackson only come along once in awhile. They should be appreciated, and that's what this film does.
