Variety
There’s an incredible amount to enjoy here, and the star’s fans will be in rapture.
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This Is It
This concert film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the legend as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place in London’s O2 Arena. Chronicling the months from April through June, 2009, the film is drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing songs for the show. Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at the singer, dancer, filmmaker and architectas he creates and perfects his final show.
2009Rating: G111 minsUSA
DocumentaryMusic
- Director:
- Kenny Ortega ('High School Musical 3: Senior Year', 'High School Musical 2', 'High School Musical')
- Cast:
- Michael JacksonKenny Ortega
This Is It | Reviews
The New York Times
The on-screen results are weird and watchable, by turns frustrating and entertaining, and predictably a little morbid.
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Roger Ebert
[An] extraordinary documentary, nothing at all like what I was expecting to see. Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael Jackson was something else.
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Otago Daily Times
But this isn't a concert film. It's a rehearsal film - and one that will leave Jackson's most zealous fans waiting for goose bumps that never arrive.
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Los Angeles Times
Differing greatly from the rough, casual mood of many behind-the-scenes pop docs, this one is instead of a piece with Jackson's body of work: dazzling and strange, blurring the line between fantasy and reality.
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Hollywood Reporter
What this strange yet strangely beguiling film does is capture one of pop culture's great entertainers in the feverish grips of pure creativity.
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Empire Magazine
This Is It delivers neither the full-on Jackson stage experience or a revealing portrait of his complex mindset. Yet it does not dishonour his memory and you can’t deny the power of the music.
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Christchurch Press
This is It will go down as one of the most blatant money-making ventures I have ever seen.
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