Bad 25 (2012) Reviews

• A truly insightful documentary to the most anticipated album of all time

  doomas102014-03-24

  Spike Lee could be a filmmaker with varied performance when it comes to films but here he truly displayed some professionalism covering the recording era of Michael Jackson's "Bad" album. Not only, he collects interviews from numerous individuals of the music industry but he carefully tries to avoid the myth and gossip traps that surround the name of Michael Jackson. This is a musical documentary at first and not a closer look as to who or what Michael Jackson was. An argument could be made that Lee decided to focus all his energy to the musical genius that Jackson was and how hard he worked to finish an album such as "Bad" including his any skills. The man was composing, producing, writing the songs, choreographing his videos, singing and dancing live, vocal arranging and beatboxing! It is a shame that the album itself had to endure endless criticism for not reaching the levels of "Thriller" and at that period it was considered a disappointment despite selling more than 30 million copies worldwide and being accompanied by the most successful tour of all time. After 25 years though, "Bad" is considered one of the best albums out there, a record unparalleled in terms of hits and quality balance. "Bad" is a record richer than "Thriller" with less filler and more meat. Lee's interviews, raw footage and behind the scenes tactics prove just that. Taking a massive 5 year period to be recorded, with hundreds of (finished) demos, lots of artistic input and various musical collaborations, "Bad" now gets the treatment and (much awaited) spotlight it deserves. Bad 25 celebrates the rich sound that Jackson's third solo record contained along with diverse musical engineering and craftmanship. The album has so many hits on so many levels - the short film of Smooth Criminal, the anti gravity lean, the West Side Story dance number of "Bad", the rock gritty sound of "Dirty Diana" with Steve Stevens' input, the psychedelic vibe in "Leave me alone" and the powerful anthem of "Man in the mirror" are just cases that display, suggest and reveal a creative and hard working genius at the peak of his game. It is really sad that people still tend to emphasize any negative or controversial aspects that Jackson may had. But the musical one is not one of them. For he remains at the pantheon of the most brilliant musicians and performers ever to walk the earth and perhaps, the greatest. And we cannot take that away from him. Ever

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• It's no "This Is It", but it'll do.

  Movie-Jay2012-09-18

  "This Is It" spoils us. It will no doubt go down as the film that got the closest to MJ's process and work habits. That film makes "Bad 25" look especially like second-hand news, as an array of musicians, technicians, sound engineers and others weigh in on MJ's follow-up to the still-reigning highest-selling album of all time in "Thriller". One by one, the songs on Bad are broken down into the stories of how they came to be produced, while it is noted throughout that at that point in his adulthood, MJ was becoming a savvy businessman. I especially like the stuff from those who knew MJ at the time of the recording, while hangers-on Justin Bieber, Kanye, and Chris Brown all received boos at the Toronto screening during TIFF. In "This Is It" we get right up close to the King of Pop, so having a doc with a bunch of people telling us about him just doesn't resonate as fully, and to my surprise, there is a lot of talking in this movie compared with the amount of music in it. This is not a bad movie. It made me nostalgic for my youth and to want to hear these songs in full. And of course, MJ's passing has only increased the shivers I get when I hear that choir go, "man in the mirruh!", but as far as music docs go, this is pretty much par for the course.

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• It's Bad!

  ahmednabil1002012-11-29

  It's a nice documentary for Michael Jackson fans who never get enough from this man, there's a lot of unreleased rehearsal and Behind the scenes videos you've never seen before. the best part of the movie was that one about the way you make me feel I really loved it, the least was smooth criminal part, they presented the lyrics as meaningless crab, the short film as a reidea, something that I completely disagree. These particular hit and short film took Michael's popularity to a whole new range around the globe, maybe it didn't make it in US but it was the most international single from the album. I first know about Michael from this short film. for people just curious about how Michael's music process goes, I recommend This is it than BAD25. Maybe I'm a little bit overrating but I give 10 stars for this doc.. Its celebrating a 10 star album, and the all time king of stars :)

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• Great footage, not a great doc

  tamali-12013-02-23

  Don't get me wrong, I love Spike Lee and I love MJ, but this documentary just isn't that good. I saw it at the Filmfestival in Venice this summer, and was really looking forward to it, especially since Spike was there at the viewing. He was cool. The film let me down a little bit, though. Even though especially the footage of the making of 'Bad' and the origins of other songs were great to see and very interesting, some of the interviews with celebrities were not. People like Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey did not have a lot to contribute, and for me the tear-jerking question 'where were you when you heard about Michael's death?' (followed by a montage of celebrities looking down, tearing up etc) could have been left out. It is important to pay a tribute to the King of Pop, of course, but it could have been done in a tighter and 'smoother' way. It reminded me too much of some MTV 'The Rise & Rise of..' format. The style of the film (talking head, weird cross zoom rotate fade, original footage, talking head) was also part the reason why to me it felt it should have ended about twenty minutes before it did.

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• A Documentary To Beat All Other Michael Jackson Documentaries

  charlestgclarke2013-07-16

  Bad25 is going to appeal to the Michael Jackson fan. It casts some much needed light on the creative process the led to the finished "Bad" album. This documentary will not appeal to those who want to learn more about Michael's private life, especially his eccentricities. It was interesting that the buying of the Beatles catalogue may have led to some of the junk journalism. Some junk journalism was released by people in Michael's group. If this is indeed the case, it backfired badly for Jackson. The documentary is a standard example of a factual documentary, with a lot of talking heads. I feel that Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Chris Brown and Cee LoGreen and maybe one or two others were unnecessary add-ins. They added little to the story, though with Mariah, it was funny to hear she had two dresses reminiscent of a Thumbtzen dress in the late 1980's. Little things like that are nice to hear, in my opinion. I have grown impatient with the amount of focus on Michael's private life. I'm a scientist, and if I have learned anything, it is this. Outside of science all you have is a court of law, which examines the available evidence. The general public have no right, in my opinion, to judge a person upon junk journalism. I remember in the documentary "The Michael Jackson Story", Seb Fontaine (narrator) pointed out at the beginning of the documentary that "it is easy to forget what all the fuss was about in the first place; it was of course his music". It is really sad that some people have actually "forgotten" why Jackson became famous in the first place. This documentary reminds us of a man driven by passion for music, driven by a passion to surpass himself musically, driven by a passion to entertain. He was a workaholic and he deserves credit for his hard work. It was not easy and few people remember this when they critically examine his music. There was one part of the documentary which fell down considerably. That was the discussion of the song "Just Good Friends". It was considered a "coffee break" between "Liberian Girl" and "The Way You Make Me Feel". I don't understand why. I like it. This documentary will bring people back to the man and his music. Buy the DVD, Watch it and leave your junk journalism down forever.

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