Michael (2026) Movie Review

Hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network.

I am your host Kevin Reed and welcome to the review of the biographical film

Michael, which is directed by Antoine Fuqua.

This is the story of Michael Jackson,

at least a portion of his life.

In the film,

Michael Jackson is portrayed by his nephew.

Jafar Jackson,

who is the son of Jermaine.

And in the film,

it follows the life of Michael Jackson.

And it covers the involvement with the

Jackson 5 through the

60s. And we go into the

80s during his bad tour.

Also in this film,

you have Nia Long,

Miles Teller,

Mike Myers pops up in this movie.

And

Carmen Domingo playing Joe.

jackson in this movie uh i mean come on everybody's a michael jackson fan i don't care black white male female adult child christian atheist monkey

everybody is a michael jackson fan and young old we all enjoy michael jackson going back to the jackson five all the way up

to his untimely passing and you know watching him in concert i'm talking real michael jackson watching him in concert and in witnessing grown men burst into tears and not

from the performance it was a it was a concert that i think hbo did and this was like in the

90s and it was a special his uh

It could have been bad.

No.

Well,

I don't remember.

But either way,

the start of the concert,

Michael Jackson,

he pops up from underneath the stage.

And he's just standing there like a statue.

And he stood there for a good five minutes.

It could have been longer.

It could have been shorter.

But it felt like 30.

But he stood perfectly still.

No singing.

No dancing.

just still and the crowd was going insane it was somewhere uh overseas where he was performing this i want to say london england or something like that and grown

men were just crying at a statue you know he was he wasn't doing anything he was just standing there in the mirror sight of him

invoked this reaction and then hey he went into his full michael jackson performance after that of course and then there's of course the famed i think 25 year motown anniversary

show or whatever it was it was the motown show when he broke out the moonwalk for the first time on live television in that performance epic you know it just he he is

pop culture he is uh a vast majority of the population on planet earth's childhood it was a moment man it it was a time to be alive when michael jackson was at his peak and

he always was at his peak michael jackson even till his passing was michael you just knew him as michael which this movie being named Michael was

perfect because you didn't need his last name we knew it wasn't michael uh jordan we knew it wasn't about mike tyson we know it's about michael jackson because he is one of the most iconic pop

culture uh pop music r&b music icons of all time i'd say all that to say this this movie had

none of that aura this movie was not good and and it's it's sad to see this because you know when you have such a powerful figure like michael jackson you would think you would get a

quality film i mean elton john

Rocket Man was awesome.

I liked that movie.

Was it great?

No,

it wasn't great,

but I actually enjoyed Rocket Man.

I enjoyed Bohemian Rhapsody,

even though it was flawed,

just like Rocket Man was flawed.

All bio flicks are flawed because you're not going to get an uncut,

realistic depiction of that person,

especially if they're alive and especially if they have a fan base that...

exceeds over five people you know you don't want to anger the fan base and now i knew going into this we weren't going to get dirty with with michael jackson we weren't going to explore the uh sexual

abuse allegations that took place in the latter half of his life i knew that because the family.

was involved in this.

The Jacksons were involved with the production of this movie.

And of course,

they're not going to do anything to sully his name.

And honestly,

I'm fine with that.

We didn't have to show all that.

We all know that.

We know everything about Michael Jackson's life,

which is another reason why this movie did absolutely nothing for me.

This movie didn't

Take one risk when it...

concerned michael jackson's life we knew everything about this movie this movie did not uh uh show us something that we didn't know you know like oh michael jackson used to do this and

nobody knew oh he was into he was into just sitting at home watching he-man oh that's what he did it didn't show that it didn't do anything anything extra

this was a glorified concert film it was we'll have a scene it would show michael jackson buying bubbles then we jumped to him making the album and then jumped to him performing the song off that album at a concert then we'll get another scene there's

something that's going on oh he's signing this deal with the record label uh with the management team whatever whatever

He goes in the studio,

makes an album.

Then we cut to the concert of him performing a song.

It was so messy looking.

It was glorified.

Lifetime movie of the week level movie.

Coming into the film,

I was already skeptical when I saw the trailer.

When I saw the trailer and I saw the makeup on...

all these actors not just Jafar but on all these actors in in particular

Carmen Domingo that makeup was so bad it was so bad

I understand they tried to make him look like Joe Jackson which they they didn't do they didn't even get close if they would have got close and it looked all right fine at least you tried I can say

Well,

they gave it their old college try.

It didn't even look,

it looked like Carmen Domingo with a bad makeup on.

I don't understand where the money went in this movie.

They couldn't have been skimming on the budget here.

I mean,

it's Michael Jackson.

It made no sense.

And it looked even worse when the movie was actually in motion.

Now,

I thought it was going to look bad throughout the whole film.

I will give it credit.

As the movie went along,

the makeup got better,

or at least I didn't notice,

or I just grew accustomed to it.

I just let it go.

I stopped worrying about it.

Either way it went,

it was bad.

The makeup on Jafar Jackson was bad.

It was just bad,

and I'm not even talking about the album.

It was bad,

but the movie wasn't all bad.

You did have some good qualities here.

Going back to Carmen Domingo.

Even though the makeup was shoddy,

his performance was great.

He managed to give a good,

borderline awesome performance as Joe Jackson through that makeup.

I guess that's why the makeup kind of dissipated while I watched the film,

because his performance was making you draw your attention away from it.

Because,

man,

he really,

really dove into this role.

And this is one of the best

Carmen Domingo performances I've seen.

He really embraced the role of Joe Jackson.

Unlike his counterpart,

Nia Long,

who plays the mom,

Katherine

Jackson.

Don't know why she was in the movie.

I have no idea.

She had nothing to do.

And Nia Long can act.

But they gave her nothing.

Nothing to work with.

Absolutely nothing.

The big question mark going into this was

Jafar.

How would he handle the role of Michael Jackson?

His uncle.

If anybody should know about him,

it should be him.

Well,

I will say this.

Not bad.

It wasn't a bad performance.

Now,

did I 100%

like it?

Not really,

because I don't think Michael Jackson acted like that.

You know,

it was moments in here

Dad made me question.

Now,

they would know better than I know.

That's his uncle.

So he should know how his uncle performed or how he acted in real life.

behind the scenes because i've heard stories if that michael jackson wasn't like that childish soft voice you know that that that soprano voice that that he performed

with and did interviews with i've i've read interviews i've watched interviews of people who were very close to michael jackson now he was guarded with his private life he didn't really

you know reveal it to a lot of people his circle was pretty small but to the people that were privy to witness him just letting loose michael jackson had a baritone voice he was he had a deep voice he was he'll

talk like me and you and you know it just just just shooting it you know and i believe that to be true the reason i believe that

I saw multiple interviews from people,

different people,

who don't travel in the same circle,

so they have no reason to lie and say the same story,

you know?

That Michael didn't talk like that for real.

So that part kind of disturbed me.

Now,

this is somebody who watched documentaries about Michael Jackson,

who followed Michael Jackson my entire life.

I had no choice.

He was everywhere.

So,

I was really into Michael Jackson,

and I told the story before a million times.

Now,

this is going to make it a million and one that the reason I really followed Michael Jackson so closely is because his family,

the Jacksons from

Gary and Deanna,

is a part of my family.

My on my mother's side,

the bakers who are from Gary and Deanna,

cousins,

distant cousins.

You know,

we ain't go to cookouts and stuff,

but we were distant cousins.

He couldn't pick me out of a lineup.

Janet Jackson walked past me right now and just scoffed.

You know,

because we're not family family,

but there is a lineage there.

And so I always followed him,

you know,

because I always had this dream,

like one day he's going to search for his long lost cousin.

and he finds me but unfortunately that didn't work out that way but in any event uh i say i said all the stuff that i said because i already knew and i know there's a lot of people who didn't you know they didn't follow that closely and they you may go to this movie and feel that

you learned something new and i envy you you know that's great but

the movie did nothing man it was a pointless move i knew it 10 minutes in this movie is going nowhere it was going nowhere i knew that this was mainly going to be a concert movie no

more no less and the little story that we did get in here was so sanitized it was so sanitized it was

zero controversy in this movie nothing no drama in this movie and i think the most hurtful thing it it's not even offensive to the michael jackson fan in me that's not the part that i'm bothered by because i expected that the part that bothers me is

antoine fuqua the fact that he directed this mood.

Antoine Fuqua has given us such

films as the replacement killers.

Tears of the Sun.

Most recently,

Emancipation with Will Smith.

But he is...

crowning achievement that everybody knows the film that he put out there was a little film he directed uh with denzel washington starring uh led him to an academy award win and training day the

man can direct the man knows how to direct the movie this this was a dumpster fire man i don't know i don't

There's rumors that he didn't really direct this film.

The film that he wanted to direct,

they cut it,

changed it.

He walked away from the movie.

He walked away,

and that's why the movie was pushed back.

The film was supposed to come out last year,

if you all remember.

And

I think around Thanksgiving or something like that.

or October,

somewhere in that vicinity,

the fall of last year.

But they pushed it back because they wanted to do reshoots from the ending that Antoine Fuqua made,

and it went into the child sexual abuse stuff and all that there,

the legal side of his life.

But the family got involved,

and that was the end of that.

They changed everything.

He walked away.

Someone else finished the film.

Now you may see him walking around promoting the film,

but the studio paid him to do that.

So he had to obligate and promote the film.

And his name is attached to it.

But it's it's you can clearly see that this film wanted to go in a different direction.

And it did.

It just stayed planted in the.

Oh,

Michael was an angel.

level of film and hey for me that is completely boring the movie bored me to death now was it poorly choreographed and made like in that sense uh not not in the sense of the concert footage and the performances and from

a couple of the actors here other than that it wasn't it wasn't all that

This could have went straight to

Disney Plus or something.

Straight to Hulu.

Straight to

Netflix. It did not need to be released in theaters.

Not this version of the movie.

It should have went straight to HBO.

Now,

if you wanted to make the grittier version that Antoine Fuqua first intended it to be,

oh yeah,

I'm all in on that.

I want to see.

how Michael navigated through that.

That's the portion of his life

I don't know,

and millions don't know.

That's the movie we want to see.

Not this.

Michael,

which is currently in theaters,

which depicts the life,

or a portion of the life,

of the great

Michael Jackson,

gets a letter grade of a C-.

Yeah.

I...

it would have been an F but the reason I'm giving it a C minus is

Jafar Jackson did a really decent job as his uncle uh Carmen Domingo did a really good job as Joe Jackson the uh concert sequences are great but ultimately this

is a dramatic film with zero drama

I want I want to know.

I want to know,

is it just me?

Did you enjoy Michael?

Or am I just set tripping?

I would love to know.

I mean,

film is subjective.

Maybe I missed something.

Maybe it went over my head.

Please enlighten me.

I want to like it.

Maybe you can change my views.

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Oh,

man.

Everybody,

thank you for joining me for this review of Michael.

I was hoping for better.

I kind of knew this was coming.

But I was just holding on to hope.

Unfortunately,

hope didn't come around,

didn't turn a corner for me.

But it's all good.

In the meantime,

I want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

And until we speak again.

You all be blessed.

Michael (2026) Movie Review

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