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

1987 was when the King of Pop released his successful follow-up album to the record breaking, critically acclaimed and award winning Thriller, and 2012 was the time when the album Bad would be celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary, so this film tells the story of how it came to be, from director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, "They Don't Care About Us" music video). Michael Jackson wanted to take somewhat of a different approach with his follow-up to Thriller and hoped to sell even more copies of the album, and this film shows behind the scenes of his writing, recording and performing the songs and their videos during the making of the Bad album. This includes film director Martin Scorsese, and his editor Thelma Schoonmaker, looking back at the making of the video for the title single, "Bad", including what it was like working with Michael, the dance routines, the costumes, the casting of Wesley Snipes and much more. We see Joe Pytka (Space Jam) talk about directing Michael and him being shy about doing a kissing scene in the video for "The Way You Make Me Feel" and it instead ends with hugging, we see the making of "Another Part of Me" and him performing to an audience of thousands, and we see how a slow ballad song idea emerged into "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" which was a duet with Siedah Garrett (it could have been Whitney Houston). We see celebrity fans asking if any particular Diana was the one sung about in the single "Dirty Diana", we see the origins of the lyric "Annie are you okay?" in the song "Smooth Criminal" and discussions about the famous dance moves including the lean, and we find out more about the lyrics written in the song "Leave Me Alone", and the other songs on the album are talked about in some detail as well: "Speed Demon", "Liberian Girl" and "Just Good Friends" which featured Stevie Wonder. Of course the celebrities interviewed also talk about where they were, how they heard and how they reacted about the death of Michael, and what he meant to them in their lives, and this magnificence he created is perfectly captured with the album's pivotal song, "Man in the Mirror", written by Garrett it is truly one of his greatest and most loved songs, not just for the album Bad but in his career, it was the song that in the UK got to number two after his death. With contributions from Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Cee Lo Green, Quincy Jones, Usher, Antonio 'L.A.' Reid, Kanye West and many more. It is very interesting documentary about the creation of such a memorable and successful album from one of the most iconic pop stars in the world, this is definitely a really suitable and well put together film to go with the celebration, a great music documentary. Michael Jackson was number 14 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and he was number 6 on The Ultimate Pop Star. Very good!

This documentary really shows the craftsmanship of the King of Music. There are some funny stories, and more bonus footage to come when its released on BLURAY in FEB 2013. Can't wait. MJ in HD....i think this deserves 10 stars. Bad25 is a great release, its all about the music, and the music still stands up today. Its fresh, funky, and Bad :) While This is it covered the last tour, Bad25 covers one of his albums. Hopefully there will be more MJ album documentaries like this one. Spike Lee did a wonderful job, hopefully if they make more of these he will be the one making them. This documentary about the 1987 album is nothing short than great and everyone should watch it.

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 :)