Moonwalker (1988)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Michael Jackson delivered us an glorified an 1hr 45min long compilation of various clips of his work and it bares no significance to the title and within it self didn't live up to the narrative that supposed to be the origin of his iconic dance instead of this slap dash mess of an movie where the main action doesn't heat up until the 45 min mark before then you would have fallen asleep due to the boredom of the first 2 acts of the movie where as his short movie thriller was pure magic that reduced to an mini clip but the montage sequence had armature photo shop FX and kids trying to be bad was awful with worst choreography but I couldn't watch the entire movie but skip to the 45 min mark there is no real redeemed quality what so ever If I want to see a film about moonwalking I'd rather watch Neil Armstrong actually doing it I can't rate it higher but giving it an 4 out of 10.frankie croft smales

If you think that you saw everything in your life , watch this movie . Lynch and Cronenberg have nothing on Michael Jackson. The cover doesn't lie – It is truly a movie like no other . Well , not quite movie . It's more like a one big music video. It is even called after Jackson's famous dance."Moonwalker" starts with Michael Jackson performing live "Man in the mirror" . This part shows you the mass hysteria from MJ fans. It also shows that unlike many pop artists Jackson actually had some message to say – change yourself , change the world. One could say it's pretentious to think that a simple song will change the world , yet I think that MJ deserves some praise for his ambition. After that we have a retro perspective of Jackson's career – from Jackson 5 to the release of "Bad" album in 1988 , when Jackson was at peek of his career. We see a clips of live performances , music videos and some colorful animation.The retro perspective ends with "Badder" – a parody of Jackson's video "Bad" with kids instead of singers. It turns into short story about Jackson running away from his crazy fans. It's probably the most interesting part of the movie . It's done in clay motion and seems like it's inspired by "Who framed Roger Rabbit ?" . The whole segment is basically one big cartoon set to the "Speed demon" song . It moves at crazy speed , but if you lucky enough you will see Steven Spielberg , Sylvester Stallone , Pee Wee Herman and Tina Turner parodies as well. This part ends with dance contest between Jackson and Spike , who is… rabbit. It's quite funny part of "Moonwalker" – "I asked for bad guy and they send me Michael Jackson ?!"."Leave me alone" , one of Jackson's best videos appear as some sort of interlude. It's a satire on paparazzi and very colorful circus video. After "LMA" and 35 minutes of the movie already gone finally we something that resembles a mini movie. It's a story how Jackson has to save three homeless kids (and the world from evil drug dealer Mr. Big (played by Joe "Goodfellas" Pesci). The story here is too serious , so cheesy , so absurd , so laughable just like Pesci's haircut . Jackson is portrayed as superhero with magic powers. I don't want to spoil anything , but inside that story there is a expanded section of "Smooth criminal". Movie ends with Jackson performing "Come together" – his cover version of The Beatles song.As you can see this movie is truly a bizarre one. There is no real plot and the whole movie follows dream-like logic. It's colorful , fast and completely empty (with the exception of "drugs are bad"). It's more like one big commercial and ego trip. Even "Flashdance" has more coherent plot. If I saw this at cinema , I would probably be disappointed. It was a hot on VHS as I remember (I have a copy of this movie on VHS at home).It was based on Jackson's original idea and I guess nobody went against it. Too bad , because with more humor , clay motion and less ego trip this could work . The whole "Speed demon" section shows as that this movie could work as family entertainment . If only they expanded that idea… The non-fans of MJ shouldn't watch this . The casual fans also might be disappointed . The die-hard will love it. I give it 4/10.

This movie is just plain weird. It doesn't make much sense, it has no continuity, it's a big ego trip, and it's full of surreal images.The movies starts with about 20 minutes of Micheal Jackson preforming. Then he is chased by obsessive fans and Paparazzi. After ditching them he sings "Leave me Alone" despite the fact that he just spent 20 minutes of begging people to pay attention to him. We learn that Jackson and a small child found a secret drug organization lead by Joe Peschi. So Jackson runs away, becomes a CAR, dances, but the little girl is taken in the process. He heads to Peschi's hideout, and after witnessing the little girl being beaten, Jackson BECOMES A ROBOT!!! Then transforms into a spaceship and defeats Peschi. He then preforms one last time, and the movie ends.This, was a weird, weird movie.

If I were to take a trip back to my childhood, the aptly-named "Moonwalker", the brainchild of Michael Jackson, would be one of the prominent stops. Even back when I wasn't necessarily an MJ fan (I am now), this movie captured my imagination. Rather than a whole, cohesive movie, it's a collection of mini-films, for the most part well-woven together. The first part is a performance of "Man in the Mirror". The second is a retrospective on Michael Jackson's career, with clips from his music videos and performances from his early career to his "Bad" days (which is the era when the movie was made, and it shows). The third is a re-enactment of the "Bad" video by a younger counterpart of the cast. The fourth part is a mini-movie which features Michael Jackson escaping from maniacal fans and press by racing a motorcycle as a rabbit-man and eventually doing a dance duel with him (you really need to see it to believe it). The fifth is a video for "Leave Me Alone", and the sixth and final part is a noir/sci-fi film where Michael and three young kids on the streets who have befriended him try to escape a drug lord (Joe Pesci) who wants Michael's head after the latter discovers his plans to get all kids addicted to drugs."Moonwalker" never made it to theatres in the US (it did, however, in Europe and South America), but that didn't stop the VHS release to be sold in over 800,000 copies within a year of the movie's release. It is a truly engrossing trip through the imagination of the legendary musician/entertainer. While many musicians have tried their hands at film-making and only succeeded at showing that they have no talent at it, Michael Jackson surprises. Not only does he show that he has as much feel for staging and visual storytelling as he has for music, he manages to make this movie his own, weaving into both the collage and story some truly imaginative moments.Take the midway point, where we sort of hit the "present". The "Bad" video is reenacted by younger actors, in a truly hilarious but nonetheless competent spectacle. After that, Michael Jackson emerges onto the 'streets' of Hollywood and is hounded by an assortment of stark-raving-mad, claymated fans and press. An attempt by a humoured Michael to escape his chasers ensues, but as he finds out, trying to hide out in Hollywood studios (especially when you're Michael Jackson) is about as easy as hiding the punch at a banquet.But his way out of this situation is possibly my favourite part of the movie. Disguising himself as a leather-clad rabbit man, he manages to escape the studios on a bicycle, which transforms into a motorcycle. At this point "Speed Demon" kicks in as the rabbit-man drives at breakneck speed down the highway, ocean and sky. And still the relentless fans and media are hot on Michael's tail, his disguise not fooling them. This all makes up a truly stunning piece of claymation, both excellently-paced and delicious to behold. Driving out into the desert, Michael takes off his disguise only to have the rabbit disguise reanimate itself, and the two do the best dance duel I've ever seen. It's especially stunning to see the claymated rabbit dance like MJ, and Will Vinton and co (who were responsible for the claymation segment, while Michael himself is live-action) truly deserve an applause for this as well as Michael.Following is the video for "Leave Me Alone", a truly imaginative, satirical portrait of the mass hysteria the media attribute to Michael. Michael humorously visualises this as an amusement park constructed on top of him, while a miniature version of him goes through a has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed tour, frequented by lots of dogs in suits. This video may feel like a filler but its imagination and vision more than make up for it.This is when the 'movie' itself begins. My favourite part is when Michael steps into a 30s-style club and "Smooth Criminal" kicks in, resulting in a truly artistic music-video sequence, climaxing in the middle, when the music dies and the club-goers chant, for almost a minute, before the music kicks back in. I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you, but these are my favourite parts.If you are a Michael Jackson fan then this belongs in your collection for sure. Whether or not you are a fan, if you want to see a really imaginative, creative journey through Michael Jackons's imagination, I can also recommend this. One thing is for sure; the tagline couldn't be more correct. This truly IS a movie like no other.