April 25, 2026 • 28 mins
In this episode of TV Reload, Ben discusses the biopic film "Michael" with co-host Brose Avard, exploring its portrayal of Michael Jackson's life and career. They dive into the film's nostalgic value, the performances of the cast and the director's approach to balancing the highs and lows of Jackson's life.
The hosts also discuss the challenges of making a biopic about a complex figure like Michael Jackson and how the film's creators navigated the sensitive topics surrounding his life. With a mix of praise and critique, the conversation provides a thoughtful analysis of the film's strengths and weaknesses.
Brose dropping 4 stars and Benjamin's highest score for 2026 4 1/2 stars.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Reload the podcast to Beat the Life.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to TV Reload the podcast where I dive
into the biggest films and TV shows that everyone is
talking about today. I have my co host Brosse Art,
who is the Bubbles to my Michael, the King of
movie reviews.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Just the two of us knee look no more. Yeah,
I'll be a monkey. I'll be a CGI monkey like
you wouldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Do you know what's funny about CGI as well, is
that as amazing as it is and as amazing as
you can make bubbles come back to life and look
like Michael Jackson's best friend, the earnest, and the integrity
of that is lost on You made him do amazing
things to be bubbles. But you were like, there's no
heart here.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, I mean, are we just seeing Michael as Michael
sees bubbles? Now, all we went to see it wasn't
how bubbles actually acted or behave.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Because bubbles just shit in the corner of the room
till the curtains down.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know, this is a wild animal, Michael. Yeah, you're
telling me that the bubbles didn't eventually learn how to
play Twister? Is that in real life? That didn't happen?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, this is a mouthful right here on how I
feel about it, because I loved Michael Jackson playing Twister
with bubbles.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I believed it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I believed it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I mean bubbles didn't really play. But yes, it was
quite it was quite cute. It was quite cute nonetheless,
and there was an enjoyable film overall. We can say
that out in the front.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Can we? I think we should, because like people need to,
I think, walk into this movie maybe with a touch
of what I did, which is I was expecting nahing.
I was expecting to think this was a terrible biopic. Sorry.
By the way, everyone, if you've just joined us here
on the podcast, we're stepping into the wonderful world of
the most iconic and complicated entertainers of all time, Michael
(01:43):
Jackson and the universal release of the film. Michael, let
me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
In this life?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, the winner or your look? Yeah, I want to
work in a steel mill like me for rest of
your days. I sure us half doun y'all willing to
fight for it? Yes, sir, I need to hear a
little louder, y'all willing to fight for it.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, ready, whenever you are, Michael, do you know what
I'm after? You want to be the least star in
the world.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
We need to capitalize or Michael's success because a Jackson
family is.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
The brand that's our cot and we need to start
selling her. So I'm planning an international tour.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
This is just the beginner.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I need to think.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I told you what to think.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I love my family.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I just want to do my own thing. She said,
all these ideas in my head. She got to get
them out and do it.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Michael not a little boy anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I haven't engaged with Michael Jackson as a pop culture
person for a long time because I found it easier
just to disengage, you know, after all the allegations and
answered these weird death and you know, sadness, which is
easier to disengage. So when we're not going to cover
any of that kind of stuff in this review, and
it's not covered in the film, and what I want
to say upfront is what I really enjoyed was the nostalgia.
Everyone loved Michael Jackson from what nineteen seventy five to
(03:23):
nineteen ninety five. Everyone loved Michael Jackson, so it was
nice to sit back in the late seventies into the
eighties and just be like, Oh, Michael Jackson was everywhere
when we're a kid, Absolutely everywhere. And I don't know
a lot about him, really. I've watched a few docos
here and there, but you know, seeing the beats of
his life and how he got to where he got to.
By the end of this film, it's interesting and it's exciting,
(03:43):
and I quite enjoyed it. But we're not going to
talk about the sad stuff, all the bad stuff, because
that's not what this film's about. And I think we
can still enjoy his music.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I think you've summarized that really well, because I felt,
for one hundred and twenty seven minutes Michael Jackson that
I knew and that I loved, and that I was
brought up to love by my family. We loved Michael Jackson.
The very first cassette I ever had was Michael Jackson cassette.
The first CD I had was Michael Jackson Jackson. Wow.
I just felt for this film. If people have some
(04:14):
context going into it, if they can just understand that
this is not going to unpack Michael Jackson in his
entirety and it's going to take us on a movie
fun filled journey of the best things about him then great.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And the things that influenced his career and influenced how
he got there. I mean, there's some bad stuff with
his family because his dad was an absolute prick, and
they cover all that. I think they maybe coop out
a little bit with some of that stuff, but they
show it and it's there. You know, he does beat
Michael as a younger performer, and his mum's not happy
with it, and it's quite violent. But they could have
shown more of that because that guy was a violent
evil so and so pretty much his whole life. But
(04:50):
it's hard because some Michael Jackson fans don't acknowledge anything
out in the real world with Michael Jackson. They've just
always loved his music and they'll always love him. And
that's who this film is for, and people who grew
up listening to Michael Jackson. It's for the you as well.
So if you want to leave his baggage at the
door when you go in, you're going to enjoy the
hell out of this film because who doesn't love Michael
Jackson's music. Who doesn't love it?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, I'm going to give you a little bit of
a synopsis on what this film set set itself out
to be. Michael, the twenty twenty six biopic follows the
extraordinary rise of Michael Jackson from his early days as
a child performer in The Jackson Five to becoming one
of the most influential artists in music history. The film
absolutely explores his relationship with his father, Joe, who, as
Bros Was just talking about, was a Disney villain in
(05:32):
this iteration of Michael's story, but in the truth of
Michael Jackson's story anyway. The pressures of global fame at
such a young age obviously changed the course of Michael Jackson,
and the story also touches on the personal challenges and
the intense scrutiny that shaped his life behind the scenes
before he was an artist as Michael Jackson and then
into being Michael. This film is polished, high scale portrait
(05:55):
of a cultural icon balancing spectacle with a glimpse of
the man who we now try to remember and you know,
to back what.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Up what you're just saying in terms of it being,
you know, a high budget, high quality film. Antoine Farquh
is the director who has done a million films, films
that people have seen. The Magnificent Seven remac not a
great one, but it did okay. The Equalizer Trilogy he
did as well. He did a bunch of film clips,
music video clips back in the day as well, working
with all the great black artists and stuff. He's worked with,
(06:26):
Lil Wayne, he's worked with. He did Training Day as well,
which is a sensational film. I mean, this guy is
just credible upon credible. And then the screenplays by John Logan,
who's one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. He
wrote the screenplay for sky Fall and Gladiator. That'd be
enough if you only did one of those two films.
So this film feels that richness. You can tell that
it's a director that knows what they're doing. He can
tell it's a screenwriter that's written at meticulously. It's a
(06:48):
very tight screenplay in terms of the emotion, but also
the storytelling and also the character development. So it feels
strong as opposed to some by a pixie going going, oh,
you know, I could have watched this on a midday
movie on the weekend. Really feels prestigious.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What is really interesting about this iteration of his life
is that it's made by the support of the Jackson
estate that really has divided. There are some very interesting
decisions in terms of the Jackson Estate being control or
being involved in this time.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I would say involved rather than in control. But I
think people, I mean, jump to that idea that they
are in control. But you'd have to do Michael state.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think it's very interesting that when you watch this film,
there's what do you notice is the most bizarre omission
from this story in the.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Jackson Yeah, but she didn't give them their her permission
to use her likeness, or she chose not to.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Give the permission her likeness and her element to the
story to the Jackson Estate, which now we know she
seems to be at odds with.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The reason why I'm sort of honing in on this
point at this part of our conversation is that, yes,
the Jackson Estate were very much involved, and that probably
changed the course of everyone's involvement. Janet decided not to
have but that.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Being zat, they wouldn't have got the music without the
involvement of the estate, right exactly. So it's a catch
twenty two And I said this to my brother earlier today.
The advantage is, you know, a film like Michael, which
I think tries hard to balance Michael's true story and
the wishes of the estate, does a much better job
than him In Rhapsody, which the band Queen also had
control over and admitted a lot of the truth of
(08:22):
Freddy Mercury's story, glossed over a lot of the relevant
stuff in that story, and gave us kind of a
popcorn version of events. So I'd rather have the Jackson
family or the Jackson estate involved with this film and
have this film than Queen involved with beam In Rhapsody
and kind of I don't know, just whitewashing Freddy Mercury
a little bit, just you know, cleansing him a bit
too much.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I'm sure that the two films I'm going to talk
about here for a second have similar issues. But Ray
and Walk the Line, Yeah, did choose to go further
towards the grit and towards the intensity of some of
the bad things that happened.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, the womanizing, the drug use of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So I think when people were talking about the initial
reaction to this, I think they were looking for a
little bit more substance with that, where that's not who
I am. I certainly signed up for this for a popcorn,
Bohemian rhaps City version of Michael's life. Well.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
The other thing too, though, is this film hopes for
a sequel.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
That ends by saying his story continues and they're hoping
that there'll be another film, and a lot of that
stuff exists after this film anyway, Right, A lot of
the controversial stuff we know exists after this and we
know all that stuff about you know, the elephant man's
bones and all that other stuff we know publicists invented that.
That came out even before Michael passed. I think that
was revealed that because Michael wouldn't do interviews and didn't
(09:40):
do a lot of press, his publicists just had to
make shit up. And because Michael wanted to be this
weird curiosity kind of musician, they made up weird stuff.
If you take away all of the fiction that we
know about him, that was truth once upon a time.
I don't know how much is left in this period
to cover in that light. The next film is going
to be tough, because the next film, that's when he's
you know, he's going to I have a wife, and
(10:01):
then he's going to have children to a woman, and
then he's going to have a drug addiction, which they
hint at in this he's going to go broke as
well all that stuff that happened to Michael Jackson between
nine and eighty eight and his death. I mean, that's
the tough movie. And if they go lightly on that,
they're going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I think that second movie doesn't belong to this first movie.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You almost need a completely different director and you need
a different style.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And I don't know if those two worlds could exist.
And I mean, I think if anyone could probably look
into doing this, it is this director, and we know
that that director has been able to handle subject matter
that is a little bit more complicated and does walk
final lines. But I just can't imagine spoiler alert. This
is not a spoiler alert because Michael's life continues beyond
where this movie finishes. But this movie does very heavily
(10:44):
tell you that there's going to be a sequel. When
that happens in the movie, I was like, what.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Ma, it's not called Michael Part one, although it is
the second film just going to be called Jackson is
going to be Michael and then Jackson.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well, maybe Michael needs Jackson, you know, and maybe these
two who movies could off set each other. I don't
particularly know, but I will ask you this question, which
is something that I thought of today. What do you
think Michael would think of this film?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Well, it's interesting because there was a TV movie or
TV mini series about Michael Jackson or the Jackson Five
back in the nineties, I believe it was, and it'd
be curious to know what he thought of that. And
that was a little bit more brutal than this because
it was obviously based on I guess hearsay and journalistic
reports and things like that, rather than family that were
close to the situation. And I hope the family were
involved in some of the detail stuff in this, but
(11:32):
so to be curious, and I already thought of that,
and then was it Jacqueline Bassett played his mum in
that one. But yeah, I think it'd be okay because
I think it has enough of the stuff in it
that he wants to promote, things like I didn't realize
how he cast the dances and beat it. For instance,
that's covered and that looks good for him. The visiting
six children in hospitals that looks good, buying toys, he
did all of these things, like all those things are
in the film, so and that the animals and loving
(11:54):
the animals. So there's enough good stuff about Michael's life
that I think Michael will be okay with this. And
the fact that Joseph was a tyrant. Everyone knew that
well and truly by the time he is, I don't know, and.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
By Gorn dangerous as well, you felt that this perce
even softened down as well.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I mean he didn't just beat Michael, but this film
kind of implies that. But also having Coleman Domingo playing Joseph,
it kind of hurts the character because Coleman is a
fantastic actor, great performer, and he has a likability in
this role that I don't want for Joseph. I don't
want to like Joseph.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I know who he was.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know, he was a father of what seven kids
in the fifties and sixties, like eight kids, Like he's
you know, he's from a certain generation. He acted a
certain way, he was heavy with the belt. I don't
want to lovely Coleman Domingo playing him, but he was great.
I thought Corman was great. Did you enjoy his performance.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Well, as we move into what I think the critics
have agreed upon, it's a non negotiable from the critics,
is that the performances in this movie are pretty good.
I think we even talked about it when we previewed.
Coming to talk about this episode, you had heard that
the film was average, but the performance was quite good.
I think that was something along the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
well I heard good things about the performances. Jafar Jackson,
(13:02):
what do you think of him? Michael Jackson's nephew was
incredible in there, And there's an enormous amount of heavy lifting.
And when you think of the biopics of people that
we've grown up with, well, I think you and I
have only ever really seen the seventies and eighties sort
of rockers. You know, you're Elvis and a few others
that were probably not as closely connected to as we
(13:23):
are with Michael or Madonna or.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're not part of our zeitgeist as much,
or part of our pop culture.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So it's a big pot for us to swallow to
watch an act to try and take on the integrity
of those particular characters.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
And they're being said, I watched the Whitney Houston one
and it was abominable. It was awful. And coming back
to things you said at the start, it didn't have
the prestige. It didn't feel like a top quality film.
It didn't have great casting, and it didn't have great
direction or art direction or anything. So it just felt
lesser than as opposed to Ray and or Walk the Line.
That are great productions, and as is Michael. So it
(13:54):
doesn't take much to ruin a biopic. It just has
to be a little bit off here and a little
bit off there, and you're like, nah, this doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
A biopic that you particularly like, though, are those.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Ones you mentioned there? Ray is very good, and there's
a Buddy Holly one from back in the seventies which
is particularly good. Weird By weird El's very good, but
that's not really a biopic, that's just a joke. And yeah,
there's a few. You've got a favorite biopic?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think that for me, mine was Ray. I remember
watching but if Ray walked the line, which I remember,
the joke at the Oscars was walk the line, is
Ray remade for white people? White people?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Which is the joke I was making at the time
as well. It's the same.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Story or it feels like this, it felt you know,
did hit the similar walk hard.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Is very funny to the dewy Cox story.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Ever, Ron Oh, I haven't seen that John John c Riley,
John c Riley, he had more things. He was in
everything for a long time.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I'm glad he's in less things now. But when he
was in things a lot, it was good for everybody.
But yeah, Nea Long plays Michael's mum. She's excellent as well.
Phenomena has been forever. Who else pops up the Jafar Jackson?
We've talked about the kid that plays young Michael, Giuliano Valdi, phenomenal,
who good. I could watch a whole film just with him.
When they cut to the older Michael, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
What happened to Valdi?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Where is he? He's so good, that's so cute.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I actually had to google about the character of John.
Is that the chauffeur?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
No, No, the chauffeur is Bill Bray, Bill Bray. I
love that character, by the way, And I'm not sure
is that you can tell me now? I guess you've
looked into it. Is that an amalgamation of a few
people or I.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Tried to look that up, and I do believe that
there was very There was a few people, So I
think you're right in that that is an amalgamation of
a particular type of person that had access to Michael
during that time. But do you know, for a minute there,
I thought, is this Vin Diesel on hisimpic going? I
honestly thought it was Vin Diesel. I know that it
sounds like I was hitting a joke here, but I
(15:45):
was like, Vin Diesel is amazing in this movie. But
I googled it afterwards because they put my phone in
a ziplocked body bag.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Ah yes, sorry, Yeah, he hasn't done abs and stuff,
but I thought he was incredible in that role. And
you know, he's he doesn't talk a lot, but he
has that warmth. You know, he's kind of the security guard,
which works for that type of his personality as well,
that you don't expect him to talk a lot, but
he definitely seems like he's got Michael's back covered and
it was a really nice element, that element which all
(16:13):
biopics need. Someone like that. I mean his mum obviously
as well. Nee Lung's character playing Michael's mum is brilliant,
and there's really really well performed and also kind of
gives us an insight. Apparently that's how Michael's mum was
a lot of the time, very quietly, softly spoken, but
still very strong in her own way, and you can
see when Michael gets that from her. You can see
that connection in the way they've built the character in
this film and the connection between those two characters, and
(16:35):
I thought that was really nice as well.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
There was a scene where there was a moment between
Katherine and Michael, Catherine being Michael's mother, and they had
one of his songs, one of his earlier songs, sort
of playing instrumentally in the background. Yeah, and I thought
that was really powerful.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
The way they used parts of the song, instrumental parts
of the songs instead of a score was brilliant in
this as well. They used just call my Name at
one point, they just used the intro and they use
beat it not beat it bad. They use the intro
to that very well, like all these little bits where
it's and if you look at the credits, there's no
score as such, but there is all this beautiful music
where they've just used Jackson five or Michael Jackson music
(17:11):
and used it to accentuate the moment and it was
really clever. I thought that was really well done. How
did you feel about Miles Teller's little role in this film?
He kind of pops up out of nowhere. I wasn't
expecting him at all.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I thought he was great, but it was a little
bit distracting sometimes when they turn up and they have
the wigs and things, you know, like, do we need
them to look exactly like they needed to at the time?
I don't know. But he gave a lot of heart
to this film as well. And in this movie, as
an audience, you seem to sort of fist pump or
whatever it's called when Michael gets someone on his side
or someone understood.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yeah, how about mister Michael Myers playing a guy in
prosthetics sitting behind a music so sorry, sitting behind a
desk in the music industry.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Again, it felt like tropic thunder with Tom Cruie.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
But he didn't look right. So at first you're like,
is that I know Mike Myser's in this? Is that
Mike Myers?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I know? I knew it was Mike Myer straightaway because that, yeah,
Mike Myers not escaped that Mike Meyers is like, no
matter what, whether.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Exactly what was Remember that part in the film where
he says to Michael, this album will make a million dollars.
This is ridiculous, Mike. I can't get away from it.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I don't think that this is an Oscar nomination role.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
For definitely not.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It was still cool.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It was still cool to say. It was still a
very fun scene.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You can't help it. What I mean, I'm from the
generation of loving him, so for.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Sure I like seeing him too. It was a nice
little pop and then you carry on with the story.
The thing I'm interested about with this film is that
I'm glad they covered the Pepsi incident. I didn't realize
the health ramifications were as bad as they were. I
didn't realize they were that severe because I'd already had
always heard about that incident. It was always talked about
where his hair was burned on the set of a
Pepsi commercial. But they do jump from him being in
(18:45):
hospital after that accident, him sitting up talking about basically
wanting to write music that unites the world and heals them,
and that jumps straight to nine point eighty eight, And
I found that weird they dropped three or four years
of his life in that way.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
I think it's because he went to ground, because it's
I remember that, but that's.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Where the world happens in that time period. And what
about his friendships with you know, GANA. Ross and Elizabeth
Taylor and Madonna and there's others as well, Like it's
just kind of weird. I don't know, it's not about
those people either, And they didn't want to have a
whole bunch of people impersonating these famous.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Scene that sends to me like a magazine movie. You
are right, all of those were a huge part of
his story. But if we just all of a sudden
stretch this movie out by an extra twenty minutes to
just drop those people in, I think this movie feels different.
I think it's it seems like a magazine movie.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
He were saying, concentrated Michael and Michael's story and anyone
that might derail that.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
They needed to get to where this movie was going to.
And the hugest point of Michael's life where we see
the biggest transition in who he is as a person,
is after that particular incident.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
With a person and an artist. I suppose his look.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Really changes after that point, you know, he goes from
black to white.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I mean, I did love the way they inserted John
Landers into the film as well. They didn't have John
Landers as a character. He was kind of a shadow.
He was kind of in the background during the filming
of Thriller. He's mentioned, I think once by name, and
that's just by the name John, and it's the first
ad that does all the communicating And that was really tasty.
The thriller making a Thriller film clip. It's only it's
much smaller scene than I expected, but it was a
(20:18):
lot of fun to see them on that set, on
that location with those dancers.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
There's a danger when you're making a biopic like this
about a musician that we're going to not get to
hear our favorite songs. And I thought that they picked
the songs that they needed to And I thought that
beat It and Thriller were more tent pole moments of
his life where people will have, you know, smooth, criminal
and other things important and dear to them. But I thought,
in terms of telling the story that they had decided
(20:43):
to tell this time, this was fine. I think it
was fine.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It's interesting when you dive down on individual things, and
you know, Michael was such an important part of like
you're saying, you know, tabloid magazine, tabloid television coverage, that
it's you know, it's just interesting to think back of
the things we knew about him back then and whether
they're of it or not. One of the things I
particularly like. So here's we've had a Bohemian Rhapsody connection.
There was also a Ray connection actor Lorenz Tate, who
(21:08):
played Berry Gordy in this film. In Ray played Quincy Jones,
whereas in this film, Quincy Jones is played by Kendrick Sampson.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
And obviously very integral to Michael's career.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Absolutely, And they don't cover a lot of that in detail,
but you know, I guess they just show us the
Quincy Jones helping Michael part of it. If we want
to get Quincy's side of the story, we've got to
wait for the Quincy film.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Which will be an amazing movie, oh spectacular.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Ray Charles and Michael Jackson are just two of many
people he produced and worked with.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So I'm going to drop my rating on this, and
I drop it.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
From a high height from the spark from some lights
on a Pepsi commercial set.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I really enjoyed this movie, and I had a coffee
before I went in. I brought in a nice caral
malatte when I sat down to watch it, and I
was ready to watch it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And this movie is my favorite movie of the year
so far. I have said that to a lot of people.
People have argued this with me, but I want to
remember Michael the way that my childhood remembers Michael who
(22:09):
I was growing up. And there are those people I'll
never forget being in a clothing store and seeing a
patron argue with a woman behind the counter to not
play Michael Jackson recently. Yeah, that would probably be still five, six,
ten years ago. It was a long time ago. But
I never forget that this person was like, you cannot
(22:30):
play this music in here. And so we've gone on
a real journey with Michael. I don't necessarily think that
people's savage reviews of this film have anything to do
with that. I don't think so. I think that people
are going in there and expecting too much from it.
Michael is an extraordinary part of our history, and there
(22:50):
is no way to tell a movie tell a story
about his life to impress and to please everyone. This
movie is the Coca cola or the pepsi of Michael's
first chapter of his life, the Jackson five to his
rise of his solo career. And I enjoyed it. I
enjoyed the music. I liked being in the theater. I
only took half a star off for one thing. When
(23:11):
the universal logo came up and the first thing you
hear is fucking bothered me. Was like, it just needed
the music. It's just the song is playing already. We
didn't and like that. Michael Jackson, he was like south.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Park, you know, right, like a parody or something.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It was a parody. Good call on that. So half
a star is removed from the universal logo turning up
with that stereotypical sound that didn't even sound like it
was actual.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Michael Jackson.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, yeah, so four and a half is what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I had a great time, and look I'm going to
give it. I'm going to give it four. And that's
you know, the first watching walking out of the cinema.
I walked out of the cinema maybe two and a
half hours ago, had a great time. Michael Jackson is
a problematic person to some people, and he's not as
problematic to others, and he's not problematic at all to others. Again,
this is again, like you're saying, like, this is the
film they could have made in ninety ninety five. No
(24:06):
one would have been bothered by it. It would have
made you know, three hundred million dollars at the box
office or five hundred million dollars at the box office,
and we all would have loved it. You're right. I
think people bring their prejudices into this film. But you know,
people still sat and watched ESPNZJ. Simpson documentary that goes
for six episodes, even though he's a cretin. People still
celebrate bad people in pop culture. Like you know, I'm
(24:28):
going to start my one man show, The Life and
Times of Rolf Harris. I'm sure that'll sell good tickets.
But the if you just forget that, leave that at
the door. If you are one of those Michael Jackson
fans that still has his image in your house, that
still has his memorabilia, you're gonna love this film. You're
gonna love it so much. It's not funny. It is
the most fun you can have in a cinema at
the moment. It's as good as a Marvel film. It's
as good as anything else, any reboot or rehash or
(24:51):
you know, delayed sequel. It's a good time, good fun film.
If you don't like Michael Jackson, then you're never gonna
like this film, or if you have concerns about you know,
the gray air that happened in his life, then you're
not going to like this at all, and you're not
going to encourage people to see it. But I don't know.
I just had a good time. It's like a musical.
You get to sing along with all your favorite hits.
It's like a jukebox musical. And I don't know. I
(25:12):
think it tells an interesting story and it does it
in a very good way. So solid four for me.
That could drop, that could go up higher. But I
really enjoyed it today and had a great time. So
what more can you ask for?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
What more can you ask for from a movie is
to buy your popcorn, have a coke, and just enjoy
it for what it is.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Like.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I think a large part of my critiques on films
so far this year is talking about genre and how
high and how hard they hit that genre in comparison
to other films. But in terms of what I needed
from a Michael Jackson film, I think that the director
has done an amazing job of yeah, collecting some moments
and putting them together for us to enjoy in a cinema.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And all the issues people have out
there in the world about Michael Jackson, you know that
the creatives behind this film had to deal with all
of that too. You know that this was something that
they had to think about the whole time and you know,
address in their own way. And there are little hints
to bits and pieces throughout this film of the darker times,
but it doesn't dwell on them.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Michael Jackson was the number one selling pop artist you know,
of all well, he was in the eighties, the number
one selling pop artist.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I think he still is someone.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
He is still one of the number one selling top artists.
So what are you going to do for nothing? Let
come on, this is what it's all about. It's a
fun film. You know, I have a crack mate. Just
get involved, just enjoy it. Just lying back on your
recliner at heints and just have a good old time
about it.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Sounds like you were talking about something else, But I
also agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying. Next week, we
are Devilwe's Prata too.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Two.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
You know what the number one movie is on Disney
Plus right now?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Do you know why? Because it's great because you keep
watching it everywhere it's you.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I've watched it twice in the last couple of months,
and I'll be watching it again before I see part
two next week. But yeah, super excited about part two.
It's going to be good fun.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
They've got all the original characters back. I think that
this film runs the danger of trying to hit similar
notes to you know, the first film. I don't think
that that's going to happen. I am a little bit
worried when I saw an interview with Merrill and there
was a conversation about the actors being asked what would
they like to have included in this film? And I
(27:13):
think at a time where people like Merrill who are
very anti Trump and very political, I hope that this
movie navigates away from the politics of America right now.
An officer escapism, Yeah, I want to just get away,
enjoy the fashion, the champagne of this movie. Opulate is
(27:33):
that the word I'm looking for.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Opulence? There we go, Okay, not opulate, tru Prime, he's
a transformer. I think I'm hoping for one thing. I
hope Andrea's useless chef boyfriend, isn't it because he's such
an asshole and he makes that first film so wonderful? No,
I'm tracking not no.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
No, we know this because he's upset about it.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
The action is the actor upset about Yes, he's upset.
Oh that's brilliant. Even better, that's the guy from Entourage too,
isn't it?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Absolutely? And then we've got Patrick Brammel, who is he
Rallian in this movie? Instead of Simon Beger.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Simon Vega, we're replacing the Baker with the Brammel.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Exactly. They want Life wants some Australian dick.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Andrea loves the Aussie dick.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I have not missed that correlation. Is what I should say.
For anyone out there who is still listening to the podcast,
thank you so much for continuing to listen. We love
your opinions. Keep hitting us up with them. If you're
looking for something fun to do with your family, with
your friends day night, and you just want to have
a good time. Put on some black shiny shoes with
some hideously white sox, and enjoy Michael four and a
(28:39):
half stars.
It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Reload the podcast to Beat the Life.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to TV Reload the podcast where I dive
into the biggest films and TV shows that everyone is
talking about today. I have my co host Brosse Art,
who is the Bubbles to my Michael, the King of
movie reviews.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Just the two of us knee look no more. Yeah,
I'll be a monkey. I'll be a CGI monkey like
you wouldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Do you know what's funny about CGI as well, is
that as amazing as it is and as amazing as
you can make bubbles come back to life and look
like Michael Jackson's best friend, the earnest, and the integrity
of that is lost on You made him do amazing
things to be bubbles. But you were like, there's no
heart here.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, I mean, are we just seeing Michael as Michael
sees bubbles? Now, all we went to see it wasn't
how bubbles actually acted or behave.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Because bubbles just shit in the corner of the room
till the curtains down.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know, this is a wild animal, Michael. Yeah, you're
telling me that the bubbles didn't eventually learn how to
play Twister? Is that in real life? That didn't happen?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, this is a mouthful right here on how I
feel about it, because I loved Michael Jackson playing Twister
with bubbles.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I believed it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I believed it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I mean bubbles didn't really play. But yes, it was
quite it was quite cute. It was quite cute nonetheless,
and there was an enjoyable film overall. We can say
that out in the front.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Can we? I think we should, because like people need to,
I think, walk into this movie maybe with a touch
of what I did, which is I was expecting nahing.
I was expecting to think this was a terrible biopic. Sorry.
By the way, everyone, if you've just joined us here
on the podcast, we're stepping into the wonderful world of
the most iconic and complicated entertainers of all time, Michael
(01:43):
Jackson and the universal release of the film. Michael, let
me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
In this life?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah, the winner or your look? Yeah, I want to
work in a steel mill like me for rest of
your days. I sure us half doun y'all willing to
fight for it? Yes, sir, I need to hear a
little louder, y'all willing to fight for it.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, ready, whenever you are, Michael, do you know what
I'm after? You want to be the least star in
the world.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
We need to capitalize or Michael's success because a Jackson
family is.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
The brand that's our cot and we need to start
selling her. So I'm planning an international tour.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
This is just the beginner.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I need to think.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I told you what to think.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I love my family.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I just want to do my own thing. She said,
all these ideas in my head. She got to get
them out and do it.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Michael not a little boy anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I haven't engaged with Michael Jackson as a pop culture
person for a long time because I found it easier
just to disengage, you know, after all the allegations and
answered these weird death and you know, sadness, which is
easier to disengage. So when we're not going to cover
any of that kind of stuff in this review, and
it's not covered in the film, and what I want
to say upfront is what I really enjoyed was the nostalgia.
Everyone loved Michael Jackson from what nineteen seventy five to
(03:23):
nineteen ninety five. Everyone loved Michael Jackson, so it was
nice to sit back in the late seventies into the
eighties and just be like, Oh, Michael Jackson was everywhere
when we're a kid, Absolutely everywhere. And I don't know
a lot about him, really. I've watched a few docos
here and there, but you know, seeing the beats of
his life and how he got to where he got to.
By the end of this film, it's interesting and it's exciting,
(03:43):
and I quite enjoyed it. But we're not going to
talk about the sad stuff, all the bad stuff, because
that's not what this film's about. And I think we
can still enjoy his music.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I think you've summarized that really well, because I felt,
for one hundred and twenty seven minutes Michael Jackson that
I knew and that I loved, and that I was
brought up to love by my family. We loved Michael Jackson.
The very first cassette I ever had was Michael Jackson cassette.
The first CD I had was Michael Jackson Jackson. Wow.
I just felt for this film. If people have some
(04:14):
context going into it, if they can just understand that
this is not going to unpack Michael Jackson in his
entirety and it's going to take us on a movie
fun filled journey of the best things about him then great.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
And the things that influenced his career and influenced how
he got there. I mean, there's some bad stuff with
his family because his dad was an absolute prick, and
they cover all that. I think they maybe coop out
a little bit with some of that stuff, but they
show it and it's there. You know, he does beat
Michael as a younger performer, and his mum's not happy
with it, and it's quite violent. But they could have
shown more of that because that guy was a violent
evil so and so pretty much his whole life. But
(04:50):
it's hard because some Michael Jackson fans don't acknowledge anything
out in the real world with Michael Jackson. They've just
always loved his music and they'll always love him. And
that's who this film is for, and people who grew
up listening to Michael Jackson. It's for the you as well.
So if you want to leave his baggage at the
door when you go in, you're going to enjoy the
hell out of this film because who doesn't love Michael
Jackson's music. Who doesn't love it?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, I'm going to give you a little bit of
a synopsis on what this film set set itself out
to be. Michael, the twenty twenty six biopic follows the
extraordinary rise of Michael Jackson from his early days as
a child performer in The Jackson Five to becoming one
of the most influential artists in music history. The film
absolutely explores his relationship with his father, Joe, who, as
Bros Was just talking about, was a Disney villain in
(05:32):
this iteration of Michael's story, but in the truth of
Michael Jackson's story anyway. The pressures of global fame at
such a young age obviously changed the course of Michael Jackson,
and the story also touches on the personal challenges and
the intense scrutiny that shaped his life behind the scenes
before he was an artist as Michael Jackson and then
into being Michael. This film is polished, high scale portrait
(05:55):
of a cultural icon balancing spectacle with a glimpse of
the man who we now try to remember and you know,
to back what.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Up what you're just saying in terms of it being,
you know, a high budget, high quality film. Antoine Farquh
is the director who has done a million films, films
that people have seen. The Magnificent Seven remac not a
great one, but it did okay. The Equalizer Trilogy he
did as well. He did a bunch of film clips,
music video clips back in the day as well, working
with all the great black artists and stuff. He's worked with,
(06:26):
Lil Wayne, he's worked with. He did Training Day as well,
which is a sensational film. I mean, this guy is
just credible upon credible. And then the screenplays by John Logan,
who's one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. He
wrote the screenplay for sky Fall and Gladiator. That'd be
enough if you only did one of those two films.
So this film feels that richness. You can tell that
it's a director that knows what they're doing. He can
tell it's a screenwriter that's written at meticulously. It's a
(06:48):
very tight screenplay in terms of the emotion, but also
the storytelling and also the character development. So it feels
strong as opposed to some by a pixie going going, oh,
you know, I could have watched this on a midday
movie on the weekend. Really feels prestigious.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What is really interesting about this iteration of his life
is that it's made by the support of the Jackson
estate that really has divided. There are some very interesting
decisions in terms of the Jackson Estate being control or
being involved in this time.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I would say involved rather than in control. But I
think people, I mean, jump to that idea that they
are in control. But you'd have to do Michael state.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think it's very interesting that when you watch this film,
there's what do you notice is the most bizarre omission
from this story in the.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Jackson Yeah, but she didn't give them their her permission
to use her likeness, or she chose not to.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Give the permission her likeness and her element to the
story to the Jackson Estate, which now we know she
seems to be at odds with.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The reason why I'm sort of honing in on this
point at this part of our conversation is that, yes,
the Jackson Estate were very much involved, and that probably
changed the course of everyone's involvement. Janet decided not to
have but that.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Being zat, they wouldn't have got the music without the
involvement of the estate, right exactly. So it's a catch
twenty two And I said this to my brother earlier today.
The advantage is, you know, a film like Michael, which
I think tries hard to balance Michael's true story and
the wishes of the estate, does a much better job
than him In Rhapsody, which the band Queen also had
control over and admitted a lot of the truth of
(08:22):
Freddy Mercury's story, glossed over a lot of the relevant
stuff in that story, and gave us kind of a
popcorn version of events. So I'd rather have the Jackson
family or the Jackson estate involved with this film and
have this film than Queen involved with beam In Rhapsody
and kind of I don't know, just whitewashing Freddy Mercury
a little bit, just you know, cleansing him a bit
too much.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I'm sure that the two films I'm going to talk
about here for a second have similar issues. But Ray
and Walk the Line, Yeah, did choose to go further
towards the grit and towards the intensity of some of
the bad things that happened.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, the womanizing, the drug use of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So I think when people were talking about the initial
reaction to this, I think they were looking for a
little bit more substance with that, where that's not who
I am. I certainly signed up for this for a popcorn,
Bohemian rhaps City version of Michael's life. Well.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
The other thing too, though, is this film hopes for
a sequel.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
That ends by saying his story continues and they're hoping
that there'll be another film, and a lot of that
stuff exists after this film anyway, Right, A lot of
the controversial stuff we know exists after this and we
know all that stuff about you know, the elephant man's
bones and all that other stuff we know publicists invented that.
That came out even before Michael passed. I think that
was revealed that because Michael wouldn't do interviews and didn't
(09:40):
do a lot of press, his publicists just had to
make shit up. And because Michael wanted to be this
weird curiosity kind of musician, they made up weird stuff.
If you take away all of the fiction that we
know about him, that was truth once upon a time.
I don't know how much is left in this period
to cover in that light. The next film is going
to be tough, because the next film, that's when he's
you know, he's going to I have a wife, and
(10:01):
then he's going to have children to a woman, and
then he's going to have a drug addiction, which they
hint at in this he's going to go broke as
well all that stuff that happened to Michael Jackson between
nine and eighty eight and his death. I mean, that's
the tough movie. And if they go lightly on that,
they're going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
I think that second movie doesn't belong to this first movie.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You almost need a completely different director and you need
a different style.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And I don't know if those two worlds could exist.
And I mean, I think if anyone could probably look
into doing this, it is this director, and we know
that that director has been able to handle subject matter
that is a little bit more complicated and does walk
final lines. But I just can't imagine spoiler alert. This
is not a spoiler alert because Michael's life continues beyond
where this movie finishes. But this movie does very heavily
(10:44):
tell you that there's going to be a sequel. When
that happens in the movie, I was like, what.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Ma, it's not called Michael Part one, although it is
the second film just going to be called Jackson is
going to be Michael and then Jackson.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Well, maybe Michael needs Jackson, you know, and maybe these
two who movies could off set each other. I don't
particularly know, but I will ask you this question, which
is something that I thought of today. What do you
think Michael would think of this film?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Well, it's interesting because there was a TV movie or
TV mini series about Michael Jackson or the Jackson Five
back in the nineties, I believe it was, and it'd
be curious to know what he thought of that. And
that was a little bit more brutal than this because
it was obviously based on I guess hearsay and journalistic
reports and things like that, rather than family that were
close to the situation. And I hope the family were
involved in some of the detail stuff in this, but
(11:32):
so to be curious, and I already thought of that,
and then was it Jacqueline Bassett played his mum in
that one. But yeah, I think it'd be okay because
I think it has enough of the stuff in it
that he wants to promote, things like I didn't realize
how he cast the dances and beat it. For instance,
that's covered and that looks good for him. The visiting
six children in hospitals that looks good, buying toys, he
did all of these things, like all those things are
in the film, so and that the animals and loving
(11:54):
the animals. So there's enough good stuff about Michael's life
that I think Michael will be okay with this. And
the fact that Joseph was a tyrant. Everyone knew that
well and truly by the time he is, I don't know, and.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
By Gorn dangerous as well, you felt that this perce
even softened down as well.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I mean he didn't just beat Michael, but this film
kind of implies that. But also having Coleman Domingo playing Joseph,
it kind of hurts the character because Coleman is a
fantastic actor, great performer, and he has a likability in
this role that I don't want for Joseph. I don't
want to like Joseph.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I know who he was.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know, he was a father of what seven kids
in the fifties and sixties, like eight kids, Like he's
you know, he's from a certain generation. He acted a
certain way, he was heavy with the belt. I don't
want to lovely Coleman Domingo playing him, but he was great.
I thought Corman was great. Did you enjoy his performance.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Well, as we move into what I think the critics
have agreed upon, it's a non negotiable from the critics,
is that the performances in this movie are pretty good.
I think we even talked about it when we previewed.
Coming to talk about this episode, you had heard that
the film was average, but the performance was quite good.
I think that was something along the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
well I heard good things about the performances. Jafar Jackson,
(13:02):
what do you think of him? Michael Jackson's nephew was
incredible in there, And there's an enormous amount of heavy lifting.
And when you think of the biopics of people that
we've grown up with, well, I think you and I
have only ever really seen the seventies and eighties sort
of rockers. You know, you're Elvis and a few others
that were probably not as closely connected to as we
(13:23):
are with Michael or Madonna or.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're not part of our zeitgeist as much,
or part of our pop culture.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
So it's a big pot for us to swallow to
watch an act to try and take on the integrity
of those particular characters.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
And they're being said, I watched the Whitney Houston one
and it was abominable. It was awful. And coming back
to things you said at the start, it didn't have
the prestige. It didn't feel like a top quality film.
It didn't have great casting, and it didn't have great
direction or art direction or anything. So it just felt
lesser than as opposed to Ray and or Walk the Line.
That are great productions, and as is Michael. So it
(13:54):
doesn't take much to ruin a biopic. It just has
to be a little bit off here and a little
bit off there, and you're like, nah, this doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
A biopic that you particularly like, though, are those.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Ones you mentioned there? Ray is very good, and there's
a Buddy Holly one from back in the seventies which
is particularly good. Weird By weird El's very good, but
that's not really a biopic, that's just a joke. And yeah,
there's a few. You've got a favorite biopic?
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think that for me, mine was Ray. I remember
watching but if Ray walked the line, which I remember,
the joke at the Oscars was walk the line, is
Ray remade for white people? White people?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Which is the joke I was making at the time
as well. It's the same.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Story or it feels like this, it felt you know,
did hit the similar walk hard.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Is very funny to the dewy Cox story.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Ever, Ron Oh, I haven't seen that John John c Riley,
John c Riley, he had more things. He was in
everything for a long time.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I'm glad he's in less things now. But when he
was in things a lot, it was good for everybody.
But yeah, Nea Long plays Michael's mum. She's excellent as well.
Phenomena has been forever. Who else pops up the Jafar Jackson?
We've talked about the kid that plays young Michael, Giuliano Valdi, phenomenal,
who good. I could watch a whole film just with him.
When they cut to the older Michael, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
What happened to Valdi?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Where is he? He's so good, that's so cute.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I actually had to google about the character of John.
Is that the chauffeur?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
No, No, the chauffeur is Bill Bray, Bill Bray. I
love that character, by the way, And I'm not sure
is that you can tell me now? I guess you've
looked into it. Is that an amalgamation of a few
people or I.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Tried to look that up, and I do believe that
there was very There was a few people, So I
think you're right in that that is an amalgamation of
a particular type of person that had access to Michael
during that time. But do you know, for a minute there,
I thought, is this Vin Diesel on hisimpic going? I
honestly thought it was Vin Diesel. I know that it
sounds like I was hitting a joke here, but I
(15:45):
was like, Vin Diesel is amazing in this movie. But
I googled it afterwards because they put my phone in
a ziplocked body bag.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Ah yes, sorry, Yeah, he hasn't done abs and stuff,
but I thought he was incredible in that role. And
you know, he's he doesn't talk a lot, but he
has that warmth. You know, he's kind of the security guard,
which works for that type of his personality as well,
that you don't expect him to talk a lot, but
he definitely seems like he's got Michael's back covered and
it was a really nice element, that element which all
(16:13):
biopics need. Someone like that. I mean his mum obviously
as well. Nee Lung's character playing Michael's mum is brilliant,
and there's really really well performed and also kind of
gives us an insight. Apparently that's how Michael's mum was
a lot of the time, very quietly, softly spoken, but
still very strong in her own way, and you can
see when Michael gets that from her. You can see
that connection in the way they've built the character in
this film and the connection between those two characters, and
(16:35):
I thought that was really nice as well.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
There was a scene where there was a moment between
Katherine and Michael, Catherine being Michael's mother, and they had
one of his songs, one of his earlier songs, sort
of playing instrumentally in the background. Yeah, and I thought
that was really powerful.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
The way they used parts of the song, instrumental parts
of the songs instead of a score was brilliant in
this as well. They used just call my Name at
one point, they just used the intro and they use
beat it not beat it bad. They use the intro
to that very well, like all these little bits where
it's and if you look at the credits, there's no
score as such, but there is all this beautiful music
where they've just used Jackson five or Michael Jackson music
(17:11):
and used it to accentuate the moment and it was
really clever. I thought that was really well done. How
did you feel about Miles Teller's little role in this film?
He kind of pops up out of nowhere. I wasn't
expecting him at all.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I thought he was great, but it was a little
bit distracting sometimes when they turn up and they have
the wigs and things, you know, like, do we need
them to look exactly like they needed to at the time?
I don't know. But he gave a lot of heart
to this film as well. And in this movie, as
an audience, you seem to sort of fist pump or
whatever it's called when Michael gets someone on his side
or someone understood.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yeah, how about mister Michael Myers playing a guy in
prosthetics sitting behind a music so sorry, sitting behind a
desk in the music industry.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Again, it felt like tropic thunder with Tom Cruie.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
But he didn't look right. So at first you're like,
is that I know Mike Myser's in this? Is that
Mike Myers?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I know? I knew it was Mike Myer straightaway because that, yeah,
Mike Myers not escaped that Mike Meyers is like, no
matter what, whether.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Exactly what was Remember that part in the film where
he says to Michael, this album will make a million dollars.
This is ridiculous, Mike. I can't get away from it.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I don't think that this is an Oscar nomination role.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
For definitely not.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It was still cool.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It was still cool to say. It was still a
very fun scene.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You can't help it. What I mean, I'm from the
generation of loving him, so for.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Sure I like seeing him too. It was a nice
little pop and then you carry on with the story.
The thing I'm interested about with this film is that
I'm glad they covered the Pepsi incident. I didn't realize
the health ramifications were as bad as they were. I
didn't realize they were that severe because I'd already had
always heard about that incident. It was always talked about
where his hair was burned on the set of a
Pepsi commercial. But they do jump from him being in
(18:45):
hospital after that accident, him sitting up talking about basically
wanting to write music that unites the world and heals them,
and that jumps straight to nine point eighty eight, And
I found that weird they dropped three or four years
of his life in that way.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
I think it's because he went to ground, because it's
I remember that, but that's.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Where the world happens in that time period. And what
about his friendships with you know, GANA. Ross and Elizabeth
Taylor and Madonna and there's others as well, Like it's
just kind of weird. I don't know, it's not about
those people either, And they didn't want to have a
whole bunch of people impersonating these famous.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Scene that sends to me like a magazine movie. You
are right, all of those were a huge part of
his story. But if we just all of a sudden
stretch this movie out by an extra twenty minutes to
just drop those people in, I think this movie feels different.
I think it's it seems like a magazine movie.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
He were saying, concentrated Michael and Michael's story and anyone
that might derail that.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
They needed to get to where this movie was going to.
And the hugest point of Michael's life where we see
the biggest transition in who he is as a person,
is after that particular incident.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
With a person and an artist. I suppose his look.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Really changes after that point, you know, he goes from
black to white.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I mean, I did love the way they inserted John
Landers into the film as well. They didn't have John
Landers as a character. He was kind of a shadow.
He was kind of in the background during the filming
of Thriller. He's mentioned, I think once by name, and
that's just by the name John, and it's the first
ad that does all the communicating And that was really tasty.
The thriller making a Thriller film clip. It's only it's
much smaller scene than I expected, but it was a
(20:18):
lot of fun to see them on that set, on
that location with those dancers.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
There's a danger when you're making a biopic like this
about a musician that we're going to not get to
hear our favorite songs. And I thought that they picked
the songs that they needed to And I thought that
beat It and Thriller were more tent pole moments of
his life where people will have, you know, smooth, criminal
and other things important and dear to them. But I thought,
in terms of telling the story that they had decided
(20:43):
to tell this time, this was fine. I think it
was fine.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It's interesting when you dive down on individual things, and
you know, Michael was such an important part of like
you're saying, you know, tabloid magazine, tabloid television coverage, that
it's you know, it's just interesting to think back of
the things we knew about him back then and whether
they're of it or not. One of the things I
particularly like. So here's we've had a Bohemian Rhapsody connection.
There was also a Ray connection actor Lorenz Tate, who
(21:08):
played Berry Gordy in this film. In Ray played Quincy Jones,
whereas in this film, Quincy Jones is played by Kendrick Sampson.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
And obviously very integral to Michael's career.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Absolutely, And they don't cover a lot of that in detail,
but you know, I guess they just show us the
Quincy Jones helping Michael part of it. If we want
to get Quincy's side of the story, we've got to
wait for the Quincy film.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Which will be an amazing movie, oh spectacular.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Ray Charles and Michael Jackson are just two of many
people he produced and worked with.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So I'm going to drop my rating on this, and
I drop it.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
From a high height from the spark from some lights
on a Pepsi commercial set.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I really enjoyed this movie, and I had a coffee
before I went in. I brought in a nice caral
malatte when I sat down to watch it, and I
was ready to watch it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And this movie is my favorite movie of the year
so far. I have said that to a lot of people.
People have argued this with me, but I want to
remember Michael the way that my childhood remembers Michael who
(22:09):
I was growing up. And there are those people I'll
never forget being in a clothing store and seeing a
patron argue with a woman behind the counter to not
play Michael Jackson recently. Yeah, that would probably be still five, six,
ten years ago. It was a long time ago. But
I never forget that this person was like, you cannot
(22:30):
play this music in here. And so we've gone on
a real journey with Michael. I don't necessarily think that
people's savage reviews of this film have anything to do
with that. I don't think so. I think that people
are going in there and expecting too much from it.
Michael is an extraordinary part of our history, and there
(22:50):
is no way to tell a movie tell a story
about his life to impress and to please everyone. This
movie is the Coca cola or the pepsi of Michael's
first chapter of his life, the Jackson five to his
rise of his solo career. And I enjoyed it. I
enjoyed the music. I liked being in the theater. I
only took half a star off for one thing. When
(23:11):
the universal logo came up and the first thing you
hear is fucking bothered me. Was like, it just needed
the music. It's just the song is playing already. We
didn't and like that. Michael Jackson, he was like south.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Park, you know, right, like a parody or something.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It was a parody. Good call on that. So half
a star is removed from the universal logo turning up
with that stereotypical sound that didn't even sound like it
was actual.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Michael Jackson.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, yeah, so four and a half is what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I had a great time, and look I'm going to
give it. I'm going to give it four. And that's
you know, the first watching walking out of the cinema.
I walked out of the cinema maybe two and a
half hours ago, had a great time. Michael Jackson is
a problematic person to some people, and he's not as
problematic to others, and he's not problematic at all to others. Again,
this is again, like you're saying, like, this is the
film they could have made in ninety ninety five. No
(24:06):
one would have been bothered by it. It would have
made you know, three hundred million dollars at the box
office or five hundred million dollars at the box office,
and we all would have loved it. You're right. I
think people bring their prejudices into this film. But you know,
people still sat and watched ESPNZJ. Simpson documentary that goes
for six episodes, even though he's a cretin. People still
celebrate bad people in pop culture. Like you know, I'm
(24:28):
going to start my one man show, The Life and
Times of Rolf Harris. I'm sure that'll sell good tickets.
But the if you just forget that, leave that at
the door. If you are one of those Michael Jackson
fans that still has his image in your house, that
still has his memorabilia, you're gonna love this film. You're
gonna love it so much. It's not funny. It is
the most fun you can have in a cinema at
the moment. It's as good as a Marvel film. It's
as good as anything else, any reboot or rehash or
(24:51):
you know, delayed sequel. It's a good time, good fun film.
If you don't like Michael Jackson, then you're never gonna
like this film, or if you have concerns about you know,
the gray air that happened in his life, then you're
not going to like this at all, and you're not
going to encourage people to see it. But I don't know.
I just had a good time. It's like a musical.
You get to sing along with all your favorite hits.
It's like a jukebox musical. And I don't know. I
(25:12):
think it tells an interesting story and it does it
in a very good way. So solid four for me.
That could drop, that could go up higher. But I
really enjoyed it today and had a great time. So
what more can you ask for?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
What more can you ask for from a movie is
to buy your popcorn, have a coke, and just enjoy
it for what it is.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Like.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I think a large part of my critiques on films
so far this year is talking about genre and how
high and how hard they hit that genre in comparison
to other films. But in terms of what I needed
from a Michael Jackson film, I think that the director
has done an amazing job of yeah, collecting some moments
and putting them together for us to enjoy in a cinema.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And all the issues people have out
there in the world about Michael Jackson, you know that
the creatives behind this film had to deal with all
of that too. You know that this was something that
they had to think about the whole time and you know,
address in their own way. And there are little hints
to bits and pieces throughout this film of the darker times,
but it doesn't dwell on them.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Michael Jackson was the number one selling pop artist you know,
of all well, he was in the eighties, the number
one selling pop artist.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I think he still is someone.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
He is still one of the number one selling top artists.
So what are you going to do for nothing? Let
come on, this is what it's all about. It's a
fun film. You know, I have a crack mate. Just
get involved, just enjoy it. Just lying back on your
recliner at heints and just have a good old time
about it.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Sounds like you were talking about something else, But I
also agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying. Next week, we
are Devilwe's Prata too.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Two.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
You know what the number one movie is on Disney
Plus right now?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Do you know why? Because it's great because you keep
watching it everywhere it's you.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I've watched it twice in the last couple of months,
and I'll be watching it again before I see part
two next week. But yeah, super excited about part two.
It's going to be good fun.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
They've got all the original characters back. I think that
this film runs the danger of trying to hit similar
notes to you know, the first film. I don't think
that that's going to happen. I am a little bit
worried when I saw an interview with Merrill and there
was a conversation about the actors being asked what would
they like to have included in this film? And I
(27:13):
think at a time where people like Merrill who are
very anti Trump and very political, I hope that this
movie navigates away from the politics of America right now.
An officer escapism, Yeah, I want to just get away,
enjoy the fashion, the champagne of this movie. Opulate is
(27:33):
that the word I'm looking for.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Opulence? There we go, Okay, not opulate, tru Prime, he's
a transformer. I think I'm hoping for one thing. I
hope Andrea's useless chef boyfriend, isn't it because he's such
an asshole and he makes that first film so wonderful? No,
I'm tracking not no.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
No, we know this because he's upset about it.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
The action is the actor upset about Yes, he's upset.
Oh that's brilliant. Even better, that's the guy from Entourage too,
isn't it?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Absolutely? And then we've got Patrick Brammel, who is he
Rallian in this movie? Instead of Simon Beger.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Simon Vega, we're replacing the Baker with the Brammel.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Exactly. They want Life wants some Australian dick.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Andrea loves the Aussie dick.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
I have not missed that correlation. Is what I should say.
For anyone out there who is still listening to the podcast,
thank you so much for continuing to listen. We love
your opinions. Keep hitting us up with them. If you're
looking for something fun to do with your family, with
your friends day night, and you just want to have
a good time. Put on some black shiny shoes with
some hideously white sox, and enjoy Michael four and a
(28:39):
half stars.
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