Michael… It’s not a biopic, but a Coronation of a Nonce.
In fact, it’s the not-true story of pop music’s most notorious kiddy-fiddler who got away with it, because money talks and facts take a walk. For an oversanitised ‘biopic’, who’s next for this treatment? Puff Daddy’s sex-trafficking case? Can’t wait for “Diddy? No, he didn’t!” Good Lord…
I could say the lad is encouraged to lie from an early age, told to say on stage that he’s 8, when he’s actually 10, but then Jackson admitted in a 2003 interview with Martin Bashir to sleeping in his bed with lots of children under 10, including Macauley Culkin and all his brothers and sisters. Some say, “Well, what about Elvis Presely meeting Priscilla at 14?” – They met, but didn’t do the horizontal mambo until she was ‘of age’, getting married when she was 21/22.
At the 10th anniversary of the Purple one’s passing, Prince was far more deserving. Where’s his biopic??
"I slept in the bed with many children" pic.twitter.com/5MJP5ELKle
— Sam Green (@SGR5N) April 24, 2026
For want of a plot… and this film REALLY sucks in finding one, it opens in 1966, at the Jacksons’ home in Gary, Indiana. Gary… who’s Gary?
Intially, his Dad, Joseph Jackson (Colman Domingo – Wicked For Good), is over-demanding in what he wants from his sons, later taking his belt to Michael, while Nia Long (You People), as matriarch Katherine Jackson, just stands there like a waxwork dummy, doing nothing.
Beyond that, it’s a canter through the rise to fame the self-proclaimed King Of Pop, with his bizarre choice of pets, showing a llama and giraffe walking about, and then Bubbles enters the chat… making it a shame that this film isn’t a sequel to Primate. Hopefuly, the eventual Scary Movie 7 will work on that.
The other 4 brothers are a sideshow, while KeiLyn Durrel Jones plays his bodyguard Bill Bray, looking like a wet flannel would knock him down. He never has to do any physical work, so how is he a bodyguard?
Even former Wayne’s World star Mike Myers pops up out of retirement to cash the cheque. He made for a good turn as a record exec in Bohemian Rhapsody, but here, his record exec just sucks up to the biased mantra.
Even discounting “Michael” being a disingenuous retread of Jackson’s life, it’s a lazy and tedious TV movie stuck up on the big screen; and if you look on X, it’s gaslit beyond all recognition by some members the black community as if it’s the celluloid equivalent of the Second Coming. Just look at all those ‘effluencers’ who attended special screenings where people were allowed to wave big lights, “sing and dance in the aisles”, and Moonwalk about in front of the screen, as if it happened everywhere.
After all, they claim that a load of footage had to be shelved that was shot about Michael Jackson’s noncing with Jordy Chandler, even though the family already KNEW that they weren’t allowed to make such content following Jackson paying the kid off with $20m, which also led to the court trial surprisingly being found in the singer’s favour. Perhaps I can interest these ‘fans’ in some magic beans?
And if it was an episode of Friends, it would be “The One Where He Doesn’t Sleep With Children In His Bed”.
I’ve even Wacko Jacko’s bedtime behaviour explained away as “He didn’t see the world in the same way the rest of us do” – Well, I can gather that from the aforementioned Martin Bashir interview, but that still does NOT allow paedophilia!
I do also wonder how many box-office tickets have been bought by the studio, since as of Saturday evening, the film had amassed a staggering $217m in sales. That’s as believable as Donald Trump being innocent of insider trading over making money from bombing Iran.
If there is a follow-up film made, presumably entitled Michael 2: The Return of Jaafar – given this one concludes with “His Story Continues”, emblazoned after a performance of Bad, in 1988 – the Jackson family won’t want to be treading over ‘bad stuff’, and that certainly won’t fly for a 12-certificate.
Some random asides…
- When this sick man visits sick children in hospital, one of them exclaims “Duh!”, which was never a saying I ever heard in 1981.
- The Pepsi advert where his hair caught fire… always good for a laugh. Karma delivered.
- The last night of the 1984 Victory tour leads into a performance of Bad, at Wembley in London, 1988, with the exact same stand and CGI audience in the background, led by the same few rows of human faces. Funny, that.
- Where’s Janet? Only La Toya is on show, and frequently, but Janet was very close to her more famous brother.
- As for Colman Domingo as his Dad, Joe, he either snarls for a bit like a cartoon baddie, or just stands there in apparent surprise, with his mouth wide open, as if he’s trying to catch flies.
- And for me, the most egregious lie in this film, a white kid sees the protagonist in a store, while queueing up to buy Adventure on the Atari 2600. Jackson tells him, “I play that all the time”, adding the advance, “Toggle left to fire, and don’t forget to power-up”.
Oh, writer John Logan, you have clearly NEVER played that fucking game! There is NO powering up in Adventure. There is NO firing! At most, your little square can hold an arrow – meant to represent a sword – as a dragon sees you and then bumps himself off by running into it, because they’re a bit thick.
And as great as the game is, it’s very short, even with its three difficulty levels. Once you’ve completed those, you’re just replaying to get a faster time.
If Logan had wanted to begin to have some credibility, he could at least have had Jaafar reference the hidden screen within the game, considered the the first “Easter egg” in videogame history, showing a secret room containing the text “Created by Warren Robinett”.
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.
Michael is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 127 minutes
Release date: April 22nd 2026
Studio: Lionsgate
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (X-OCN ST(8.6K))
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 0/10
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Producers: John Branca, Graham King, John McClain
Screenplay: John Logan
Cast:
Michael: Jaafar Jackson
Joseph Jackson: Colman Domingo
Young Michael: Juliano Valdi
Katherine Jackson: Nia Long
Bill Bray: KeiLyn Durrel Jones
La Toya Jackson: Jessica Sula
Walter Yetnikoff: Mike Myers
Don King: Deon Cole
Young Jermaine Jackson: Jayden Harville
Young Marlon Jackson: Jaylen Lyndon Hunter
Young Tito Jackson: Judah Edwards
Young Jackie Jackson: Nathaniel Logan McIntyre
Young La Toya Jackson: Amaya Mendoza
Jermaine Jackson: Jamal Henderson
Marlon Jackson: Tre’ Horton
Tito Jackson: Rhyan Hill
Jackie Jackson: Joseph David-Jones
Gladys Knight: Liv Symone
Berry Gordy: Larenz Tate
Quincy Jones: Kendrick Sampson
John Branca: Miles Teller
Toy Store Woman: Anna Carini
Toy Store Kid: Kameron Brummer
‘Thriller’ Girlfriend: Asia Fuqua
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.