Opening

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—— Alyce Kills May 24

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—— After Earth May 31
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100% The Kings of Summer May 31
89% The East May 31

Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)

tomatometer

81

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 179
Fresh: 145 | Rotten: 34

While it may not be the definitive concert film (or the insightful backstage look) some will hope for, Michael Jackson's This Is It packs more than enough entertainment value to live up to its ambitious title.

87

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 5

While it may not be the definitive concert film (or the insightful backstage look) some will hope for, Michael Jackson's This Is It packs more than enough entertainment value to live up to its ambitious title.

audience

81

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 219,326

My Rating

Movie Info

"Michael Jackson's This Is It" will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this summer in London's O2 Arena. Chronicling the months from March through June, 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a

Jan 26, 2010

$71.8M

Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (180) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (151) | Rotten (34) | DVD (9)

The Michael Jackson we see here is not a self-styled Messiah or a tabloid oddity. He is, instead, what he always was underneath it all: a talented musician, a brilliant dancer, and one of the most gifted entertainers of his time.

November 2, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's purpose isn't to reinvent Jackson, but to recapture some of the creative magic that made the kid from Indiana a worldwide musical ambassador.

October 30, 2009
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's an expertly packaged -- brilliantly packaged, considering how quickly the job was done -- phantasmagoria that emphasizes, quite convincingly, the energy that Michael could still draw from whatever was fueling his wraith-thin body.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Michael Jackson's perfectionism fails him in This Is It, and we're all the better for it.

October 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
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Perhaps the best way to approach it -- at least for those who are not total Jackson fans -- is to view it as an often-fascinating document on how the sausage (or magic, if you will) is made for a mega-concert tour.

October 29, 2009 Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In This Is It, Michael Jackson is once again The Thriller, the biggest pop star the world has ever known.

October 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Newsday
Newsday
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Don't watch this documentary film expecting to find insight into Jackson's troubled psyche, or to spot premonitions of his impending death, watch instead for glimpses of his peerless talent.

August 2, 2012 Full Review Source: Movie Talk
Movie Talk

Sometimes he loses his voice and sometimes he even loses his temper. The film never shows us whether or not Michael Jackson had lost his mind. But it does show us that he never lost his talent.

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix
Quickflix

It's a goddamn American tragedy. Let the poor sick bastard rest in peace.

March 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | Comments (8)
Philadelphia Weekly

Because the show was designed to be a nostalgic wrap-up of the highlights of [Jackson's] career, This Is It works very appropriately as a eulogy.

January 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies
Window to the Movies

The standard DVD and blu-ray versions are most impressive, especially the blu-ray, packed as it is with more than an hour and a half of extras.

January 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

If you've got the slightest interest in Jackson's music, then this is the movie for you. If you want to learn the truth about the icon, then you're looking at the wrong film.

January 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comments (2)
Apollo Guide

The total DVD package is a brilliantly conceived and assembled work that shows the love (L O V E) the filmmakers have for their muse, Michael.

January 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews
Reeling Reviews

...a pretty amazing labor of love...a DVD that anyone interesting in music, live shows and the creative process should see.

January 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | Comment (1)
Reeling Reviews

This Is It works, on a very simple level, because you get to see Jackson -- stripped free from his garish, almost willfully bizarre public persona -- doing what he truly loves, and almost inarguably was born to do.

January 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Shared Darkness
Shared Darkness

Not a ghoulish take-the-money-and-run rip-off, but a surprisingly sweet, sensitive, tenderhearted swan song you will never forget that will have you shedding a tear while tapping your feet.

January 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Sly Fox
Sly Fox

'This is It' is tied together by an aesthetic that can only be called Synthetic Intimacy.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Film Snobs
Film Snobs

This Is It gives us enough to see that this concert series was going to be the kind of show you tell your grandkids about, full of incredible dancing and innovative staging and energetic wowness. The missing elements serve to feature the star who has fal

December 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinerina

As breathtaking as it is heartbreaking.

December 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah) | Comment (1)
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

A piecemeal attempt at putting a bow on Michael Jackson's overblown and bankrupt career, this clinical behind-the-scenes collage of the rehearsal process for MJ's doomed London performance schedule is more propaganda than documentary.

November 24, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comments (4)
ColeSmithey.com

As much as This Is It recalls Jackson's genius, it perpetuates the exploitation that shaped his life.

November 19, 2009 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

Now, when I see and hear the fan worship, I don't silently cringe. Never again. I nod my head in affirmation.

November 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | Comments (4)
Cinema Signals

Audience Reviews for Michael Jackson's This Is It

The peak of all prolific MJ tributes.
June 15, 2011
spielberg00

Super Reviewer

After Michael Jackson's death i was addicted to knowing more about him and now he's my favorite singer, and when this movie was released in theaters, literally, everyone in my family went to go see it, and it blew all of us away, each and every music rendition Michael did from his hit songs (yet for some reason they didn't have bad, speed demon, will you be there, or black or white.) R.I.P. Michael Jackson we all miss you, your family, my family, everyone misses you, you were a true change to this world
November 20, 2010
michael e.
Michael Edwards

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on Michael Jackson's This Is It

November 16, 2011:
Michael Jackson's Estate Is Shopping a Biopic
Ivan Reitman is part of the early negotiations.

January 25, 2010:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: This Is It and Whip It
This week on DVD and Blu-Ray, we've got a lot of new releases - some of them more worthy of mention...

December 1, 2009:
Michael Jackson Had Plans to Make 3D Feature Version of Thriller
The director of This Is It!, Kenny Ortega, has stated that Michael Jackson had wanted to make a...

Foreign Titles

  • Michael Jackson: Esto es todo (ES)
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