Review of Moonwalker (1988) by David G — 24 Feb 2010

"A movie like no other" boasts the tagline. Well that's sure as hell true but is it actually any good or is it just a misguided, messy and pointless load of old cobblers? Well predictably I have to come down somewhere in the middle. Misguided? Probably. Messy? Definitely, but pointless? No way. As ridiculous and disjointed as it is with it's blatant in-your-face anti-paparazzi and anti-drugs messages you have to realise that this is simply a vanity project from a notoriously childlike individual, a man who's on top of the world and wants to get a few things off his chest. No, the movie doesn't make any sense - music videos, concert footage, claymation and various random segments coming together with neither rhyme nor reason, but that's not the point, Jackson was just giving something back to the fans - a Jacko fix with a difference - it doesn't have to make sense. Still, having accepted that, the segments on their own merits are very hit and miss. The concert footage, "Speed Demon" and "Leave Me Alone" sequences as well as the various musical montages are all well and good but tiresome after a while, whilst the kiddie-version of "Bad" is just annoying. Everyone remembers Moonwalker mainly though for the "Smooth Criminal" mini-movie and that reputation is well-deserved with moments that range from kick-ass (the "Smooth Criminal" club scene), to hilarious (Joe Pesci's laughable villain who just wants to "get everybody high"), to mind-bogglingly bizarre (the car and mecha-Jackson transformations), to utterly random (the club's a cobweb-strewn husk one moment, a 1930's speakeasy the next and finally a concert venue! It's a good job the kids wished Michael back or that would have been one disappointed crowd!).

Moonwalker isn't a great movie to watch - the real moments of quality and the novelty of the randomness accompanied by a fair share of tedium, but it's an invaluable Michael Jackson time capsule, capturing the King of Pop in his prime, and since his passing it carries with it a sad poignancy too.