'80s Roulette: MOONWALKER

I have (almost) every single movie released in theaters in the ‘80s in the United States on a hard drive, and once a week, I’m going to hit shuffle and review whatever film comes up first.

Welcome to ‘80s Roulette!

DECEMBER 2, 1988 (SPECIAL CONVERSATION)

Moonwalker
Michael Jackson, Joe Pesci, Sean Lennon, Kelley Parker, Brandon Quintin Adams, Jeff Adkins, Patrick Alan, Brenda Barrett, Scott Benson, Bonnie Buetler, Lindell Blake, Kim Blank, Shelby Brown, Geron Canidate, Cindera Che, Chris Coaley, Gary Coburn, Raphael Douglas, Debbie Esposito, Bruno Falcon, Lorraine Fields, Alison Fusco, Eddie Garcia, Nick Garfield, Frank Gatson, Greg Gonzales, Hugh Huizar, Beth Impey, Cooley Jackson, Douglas Jamochian, Lisa Kellogg, Clinton King-Keen, Tina Landon, Lance MacDonald, Joseph Malone, Keith McDaniel, Carol Lee Meadows, Odis Medley, Todd Niles, Glenn Padgett, Dane “Robot” Parker, Michael Perea, Larry Ramirez, Louis Rangel, Gina Consuela Rose, Sebastian Russell, Alif Sankey, Chris Check, Liz Sibert, LaVelle Smith Jr., Chris Solari, Mari Winsor, Smith Wordes, Ben Aaron, Bilal, Brent Kelly, Danial Brown, Khiry Abdul-Samad, Jose Chaidez, Garland Spencer, DJ Dellos, Dylan Stewart, Dove Dellos, Tajh Abdul-Samad, Amaris Dupree, Dion Turner, Hakeen Abdul-Samad, Cory Tyler, Tony Williams, Reggie Williams, Dionysio Basco, Eric Ryan, Nikki Cox, Maurissa Tancharoen, Kimberly Duncan, Tisha Tucker, Jermaine Jackson II, Terrance Williams, Frank DiLeo, Clancy Brown, Ladysmith Black Mombazo
cinematography by Thomas E. Ackerman, Robert E. Collins, Frederick Elmes, John Hora, Crescenzo G.P Notarile
music by Bruce Broughton and Michael Jackson
screenplay by David Newman
story by Michael Jackson
produced by Jerry Kramer and Michael Jackson and Dennis E. Jones
directed by Jim Blashfield, Colin Chilvers, Jerry Kramer, Will Vinton
Rated PG
1 hr 33 mins

An anthology of promotional videos to promote the release of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ album.

My first issue with that poster is that I don’t really think you can call this a movie.

Michael Jackson certainly wanted to be a movie star. I’ve written before about my many personal interactions with Michael, all of them taking place in the early ‘90s when I worked at a laserdisc store in the Valley or when I was a tour guide at Universal Studios. Those glimpses of him and the stories I’ve heard from dozens of people over the years who worked with, for, or around Michael have given me a very different picture of him than the public persona that he created for himself, both intentionally and accidentally. While Moonwalker doesn’t work in any way as a film, it does offer a portrait of who Michael was at a particular moment in his fame, and the chaos of the movie feels like the most personally revealing thing about it.