Weekend Movie Alert: “This Is It”

The title of this week’s Weekend Movie Alert is true in more than one sense. Not only is “This Is It” the title of the new Michael Jackson backstage tour rehearsal movie, but it’s also really the only interesting release this weekend — and the movie actually came out earlier this week in some areas.

So, how weird must it be to be Michael Jackson’s parents, watching your recently deceased son on the silver screen, larger than life and by all accounts, happy doing what he does best? A couple of the family members have stated that they will not see it — at least, not for a while. Will it be any weirder for them than for the average MJ fan? They’re going to see a movie about their idol, preparing for what he hoped would be his comeback tour, which will now never be. Would it be better to hope that what they’ll see on-screen is bad, knowing it’ll never happen?

Is it at all ghoulish to have made this documentary in the first place? Is it a little too soon? I liked some of the guy’s work, but his increasingly bizarre appearance and offstage antics turned me away from being an actual fan, so I can’t answer these questions. Maybe “This Is It” will provide some closure for people. Maybe it will be a life-affirming show. I hope that whoever you are, you get out of it what you want to. Check out the trailer below: