"This is It"

Last night my boyfriend and I joined friends to go take in Michael Jackson's last hoorah! The movie "This Is It", which documents the preparations for his highly anticipated final world tour.

I have to admit that I was initially skeptical about what I was going to see. We all know that physically MJ seemed to be a frail guy, and during the time of his recent unexpected death there were accusations of massive drug abuse and health issues. Some of his own family members insisted that there were several impersonators used during the filming of this movie and openly expressed their disapproval of the project.

Well from one MJ fan to the next let me just tell you that This Is It... is IT! Look out because when this finally makes it to DVD it'll be a collector's peice and almost impossible to get your hands on.

"This Is It" wasn't just about dancing on a stage. Not that any of Michael's performances ever are. But from what I saw last night, the "This Is It" tour was getting ready to top anything MJ has ever done, with insane explosives, stage sets that can rival the biggest broadway plays, green screen back drops that brought every song to life and more of what we love most about this man, Michael's incredible and innate ability to entertain us all!

As we all already know, MJ was/is, always will be a musical genius. This film just confirms that notion while giving us a closer look at Michael's personality and work ethic as a performer. He was playful with his fellow performers while mainting and expecting a high level of perfection.

In the opening scenes of the film we see the process by which they bring in dancers from all over the world, choosing the best on the planet. Knowing this, Michael pushed his dancers, back up singers, musicians and directors all to do their best!

The lead acoustic guitarist, Orianthi Panagaris, got to showcase her skills at one point and Michael was telling homegirl, "this is YOUR time to shine!". She is super talented and MJ definitely brought the best out of her.

During the film they would cut away to different rehersal days and I remember thinking wow Michael Jackson really does dress like Michael Jackson all the time lol. There's one scene where he has on a bomber jacket and some jeans and he looks soooo odd in average clothes. It's hilarious.

One of my favorite part of the film was when MJ was unhappy with the sound of the music... He gave some orders to the band then said "With Love, L.O.V.E." just so that they understood that behind his directions there were no hard feelings and that he wanted everything to be perfect because he has love and integrity for everyone's work and wants it to be the best that it can be.

**looking up** MJ I hope you don't mind if I take this saying from you because I feel like it's the perfect thing to say after some seemingly harsh words to a loved one :).

To put it in Layman's terms: "Get my ish right! ..... with Love tho, L.O.V.E.!" hahaa, I hear that MJ!!

My favorite performance scenes from the "This Is It" movie are: Smooth Criminal, The Way You Make me Feel, They Don't Care About Us & Earth Song(where MJ talks extensively about his love for this planet and our responsibility to take care of it - I cried alot during this part) and of course the timeless... Thriller!!

Although MJ tried to reserve his energy through many of the rehersals you could see the admiration in the eyes of everyone on set, and he would hit that high note and continue a riff or go off on into a dance sequence and everyone watching would lose it! lol Could you imagine what that must of felt like to theose kids that were working with him!? Truly a dream come true!

Then he would say, "Why'd you make me do that I wasn't suppose to do it full out!" lol

I honestly didn't think that I would have enjoyed this movie as much as I did. I definitely have to have the DVD in my collection when it comes out so that my kids can see the final masterpeice of one of the greatest entertainers to ever live!

P.S. on Friday some friends of mine are planning a private viewing of the "This Is It" movie at a theatre in Brooklyn. I just might join them to see the film again. Yes it was that good to ME! Also, my audience was WAK! with a capital W. I think alot of a movie experience is who you see it with. There's nothing I hate more than an audeince that acts like they're too good to clap after a great scene. smdh

And here's the official trailer:


If you saw the movie or plan to go see it please feel free to leave a comment...................................