Just accidentally caught this on some cheap, free 'cable channel'. Hilarious. If anyone has ever seen Star Stories, the British satire on celebrity, then they will enjoy this appalling attempt at entertainment. For starters, Michael Jackson was about 5'9", not 6'3" as portrayed by the far- too-butch actor Flex Alexander. He was also a creme colour, not green! The producers ought to have solicited the talent of some impersonator. This film made even Jurassic Shark look good, which is saying something. In other words, I highly recommend watching this if you roll in drunk one evening and want a giggle for a bit... BELIEVE!!!!! Shamone!

VH1 obviously has/ had money to burn. Surely, they could have put this money towards rights to air ABC's The Jacksons: An American Dream. I believe they already have and they could have just stopped there. I bought this DVD without blinking and if I had, I would have saved myself a trip to the returns counter later that day - thank you Costco. This thing is abysmal and it made MJ look like a nincompoop - that he was most certainly not. Not sure where the behind-the-scenes detail was sourced from but surely, it was no one from MJ's estate. And this would probably explain why there was no original music from MJ or J5 - they had and/ or wanted nothing to do with this mess. YouTube MJ interviews up until the first round of allegations - here you will see the real MJ.

I only discovered this film after searching through Wikipedia for information on Michael Jackson (which is most certainly what millions of others are doing, in the wake of his highly publicized death).The film is an exploration, not of Michael Joseph Jackson's life, but of his fame; particularly following the Earth-shattering success of 'Thriller'. It mostly skims over these years (but then, just about everything in the film feels 'skimmed over'), but there are some interesting developments, such as the beginning of Michael's supposed troubles with the vitiligo disease as well as the infamous Pepsi Cola accident, where he was badly burned (this serves as a segue into Jackson's near-obsession with cosmetic surgery).The majority of this biopic is based in the 1990s and portrays in brief, the countless occasions where the media clashed with Michael Jackson, particularly the child-abuse allegations of 1993. His friendship with Liz Taylor is decently established (although the actress is sub-par) and throughout the film, Michael's kinship with someone by the name of 'Bobby' (who I can only assume is his bodyguard or housekeeper or something) is probably the highlight of the film (along with something that I shall mention later on in the review). Michael's relationships with Lisa Marie Presley and Deborah Rowe, the two wives he had in the 90s are explored with the former being an impressive recount (if slightly historically inaccurate, if accounts from Presley herself are to be believed) and the latter being a pathetic footnote. The film concludes with Michael being accused once more of child abuse, and choosing to fight the charges (rather than trying to avoid them, as he did in 1993).This is not a very well-made biopic. It is not 'Walk the Line' or 'Ray' and I would hesitate to say that it is even as good as TV movie-biopics such as 'The David Cassidy Story'. It employs very 'hip' directorial methods, that one would expect from CSI and other such programming. The acting ranges from above-average (Flex Alexander is quite good) to absolutely dire (the actress who played Janet). The most noteworthy criticism is the make-up, which was uncomfortably off throughout the film. The film makes some efforts to show Jackson's transition from the fresh-faced, very black young man of 'Thriller' to the tanned (but still obviously African American) 27-year-old of the 'Bad' era to the ghost-faced Jackson of the 1990s. For some reason, the film awkwardly chooses to keep Flex Alexander in the 'Bad'-era makeup throughout most of the second act of the film, throughout years where Jackson was very obviously not black (such as his marriage to Presley, for example). This takes viewers who are even only slightly somewhat familiar with the man's history out of the experience. It makes little sense when Flex Alexander goes from being a black man with some chalk lightly pasted on his face to being a very, very white man with features that have been utterly, surgically overhauled.In all honesty however, the film has some very interesting ideas about Jackson and its ending is almost a saving grace in how it ties together two of the most recurring themes of the film: Michael's fear of failure (in the eyes of his father and the media) and his undying love and respect for his fans, the people who would never leave him. It is clear that the ending was probably the one very clear idea the writers and director had while making this very obviously rushed, low-budget film and it stands out as a noteworthy highlight for a fairly mediocre film.In conclusion, fans of Jackson could do worse than to watch this biopic, particularly those who mourn his passing. Taken with a pinch of salt, this is a fairly decent film with interesting ideas.

Despite my distaste for "Wacko Jacko" whom I consider a symbol of American decadence, this nevertheless was a very well done film. It seemed factually correct. The guy who played Jackson had him down just about perfectly, in sound, in body language and even appearance. Most of the others were good too, especially the portrayal of Johnny Cochrane. However Elizabeth Taylor was bad burlesque. The film moves a little too quickly and at times the camera work is frenetic and distracting. But I found it to be both factual and entertaining. However the verdict and the disposition of the Jackson trial should at least be shown in the closing credits of more recent prints of the picture.''