Just perfect...

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Just because LA Reid is the handler of Justin Bieber I don't why he puts him in to things when Michael Jackson worked all his life. To me it was a cut & paste film. I prefer the original Michael Jackson short films especially Ghost compared to this one. Granted Mariah Carey was a friend of Michael's but how did she & Bieber end up in this? I as a true fan of Michael Jackson never support anything with Justin Bieber in it. Once again MJ worked hard at his craft not to have it pasted together & a person that may "idolize him" be put in to this. It just makes me ill. LA Reid stop putting Bieber in Michael Jackson projects. I will stick to the original items of Michael Jackson. Thank you.

I had a chance to see 'BAD25' this past weekend at Yale University's Whitney Humanities Center. By the end of the 2 1/2 hour viewing I was in tears. Seeing Michael (not in his last days before his untimely demise) re 'This Is It' but during the momentous development of the followup album to the groundbreaking, record breaking "Thriller" album was a treat for real Michael Jackson fans. An emotional roller coaster that allowed you to laugh out loud at the anecdotes shared in one moment and listen in wonder during another. For real music fans like Spike Lee who grew up surrounded by musical talent and raised by a musician, watching the process for developing this album was a rare treat and a superior lesson in what it takes to harness the genius of an artist. Spike perfectly wove together interviews with Jackson's longtime collaborators: his sound engineer Bruce Swedien, super star composer Quincy Jones, his long time musicians, choreographers and other collaborators with those of present day artists that have been inspired by and owe much of their success to Michael Jackson's influence and legacy. Interspersed between those segments you get to see Michael at work. You witness his work ethic and all that inspired him to entice his audience visually. His short films (not videos) were as dear to him as the music he made. Spike was approached to do this documentary to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the release of the 'Bad' album. I remember where I was when I heard the first single. I was away at school living in Washington, D.C. I remember staying up late to watch his videos. I remember what it was like to hear 'Liberian Girl' for the first time. When you watch this documentary not only do you get to relive each of those moments, but you get to understand why you were so touched and affected by each song and each short film. A tremendous amount of work and nuance went into each recording. Bruce Swedien took us through the simple and yet unappreciated ways in which he was able to help create specific sounds for each song. Many amateurs will lament this approach because they do not understand MJ's influence. People will decry the use of old footage of Michael in concert but if you get to view it again you will understand. The Michael we knew and grew up loving was more himself during that time in his life than he was in the weeks and even months leading up to his death. Michael was suffering terribly from his addiction and was surrounded by those willing to aid him in that addiction. Painfully his family stood by helpless which is typical when dealing with an addict.Spike Lee very cleverly showed the reactions as he asked each person where they were when they heard that Michael Jackson had passed away. I too remember where I was when I heard the 'rumor'. That's what I called it because I did not believe it. Did not want to believe it. And as many said like Danyel Smith, during the interview 'still can't believe it'. Spike spoke to the audience after the viewing ended. He explained why the last segment of the documentary was dedicated to the making of the song "Man In The Mirror" written by the incredible singer & song writer Siedah Garrett. In short he explained to us in so much as when John Lennon died and 'Imagine' dominated the airwaves, "Man in the Mirror" stood out as the song that represented this icon. All of his songs were played but "Man in the Mirror" is the anthem that touches us all. I dare anyone not to tear up during those last 10 minutes. I want to thank Spike Lee for allowing us to revisit 1987. I can not think of a more perfect tribute to MJ and those who were lucky enough to work with him. And I feel especially lucky to have shared the experience of the documentary with my young nephew who loved every minute of it. A budding but true Michael Jackson fan.

NOTE: This is a review of the sixty-four minute snippet of Spike Lee's Bad 25 that aired on ABC on November 22, 2012. The original film is about two hours and eleven minutes and is scheduled to be released on DVD in February 2013. When available, I will publish a new review of the full length film, which will be mixed points from this review along with newly established ones.Every artist, big or small, comes billed with their own projected style or personal feature. Gene Simmons had his tongue, Madonna had her dresses, but Michael Jackson had his moves and "his groove," music executive Andre Harrell tells us in Spike Lee's much-anticipated Bad 25. Just watching an old video of Michael Jackson performing live and dancing on stage inspires all sorts of reactions among the old and the young. His talents are unforgettable, his music, touching in the way words can not describe, and eternal, much like his spirit.We begin by welcoming expected statistics to the table; Michael Jackson's album Thriller is the best selling album in music history, how do you follow it up? With another fantastic record that boasts five singles, all of which charting number one. That album, of course, is the iconic Bad, released in 1987, with a cover boasting Michael staring at you in a black leather jump-suit with several silver buckles, and the five singles being "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "Man in the Mirror," "The Way You Make Me Feel," and "Dirty Diana." After those back-to-back successes, you can bet that pretty much every tune off the album became its own single.Followed up are a variety of interviews from modern stars such as Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, and Kanye West, and a number of artists and composers that had firsthand experience with Michael such as his main producer, Quincy Jones and Tatiana Thumbtzen, who co-starred with him in the music video for "The Way You Make Me Feel," where she remarks fondly about how Michael was so shy and vulnerable, leading the director of the short film to change the ending from a kiss to a simple hug. I say short film purely for the spirit of Michael Jackson; he never liked to call the video counterparts for his songs "music videos," but "short films," and they definitely played like one. The only modern artist I can think of that tries to tag on a story with her videos is Lady Gaga, but even she can't embody the true sense of power and bombastic greatness of the king of pop.Quite possibly the most interesting segment in the film is the footage we get behind the scenes of the Bad short film shoot, with acclaimed director Martin Scorsese manning the camera. In front of it are not only Michael Jackson with a band of young, highly-skilled choreographers, but Wesley Snipes in a debut role as the one peer pressuring Michael before he exclaims loudly and proudly that he is "bad." But not criminally bad; "bad" as in cool, he says.Another short film shoot we explore is the production of the kinetic, infectious anthem "Smooth Criminal," which just so happens to be one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs. We see how deeply and closely the short mimics the film noir style of pictures like The Third Man, with its heavy use of shadow and color. In its entirety, the short is expertly crafted and the music is beautifully sung, and like mentioned in the film, is completely worth it to see the "Smooth Criminal" lean, where Michael and his group of dancers lean forward to the point of almost appearing horizontal.Bad 25 will suffer by comparison to Michael Jackson film greats like Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and Michael Jackson's This Is It. It's difficult to top those cherished pictures mainly because it shows Michael as a living, breathing human, and what we're left with is to remember him through archived concert footage and the hundreds of interviews he gave in his heyday. I'm giving this cut of the documentary three stars only as a placeholder because I can sense that it is heavily cut and a large part of the exploration in the five singles feels rather slim. To judge this entire project solely on the viewing of the hour-long special we were fortunate to get is a little disheartening and unfair. I haven't seen the half of it - literally.Starring: Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Quincy Jones, Martin Scorsese, Cee Lo Green, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, and Tatiana Thumbtzen. Directed by: Spike Lee.

"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.