'Michael' Review & Clayface Teaser Trailer Reaction

Hello World! Caleb is back with a review of the biographical film 'Michael'. He talks about why the performances mainly worked and how nothing else did. After that, he goes over the first look at DC's 'Clayface'.

Hosts: Caleb & Chase
Producer: Caleb

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello world, this is I'm no podcast. Today is Thursday, April 23rd, 2026. This is Film Intelligent Podcast where we talk about our favorite film intelligent. My name is Caleb. Um, no chase here today. Um, I'm gonna talk about the movie Michael. I went and watched that movie last night, got early access screening at uh Marcus Theaters in O'Fallon, Illinois. So uh uh took the lady to go see that for her birthday, um Pack Theater. Might just talk about that later. Um, but I'm gonna I'm gonna give my little review for it. Um, this isn't gonna be that long of a review because just to be completely honest with you, I I didn't enjoy this movie that much. Um so I'm not gonna take up a bunch of time with it, but you know, we're gonna talk about it. Um, this movie directed by Antoine Fukua, starring Jafar Jackson, uh uh Coleman Domingo and Neil Long. Um this movie all black cat, Miles in there. I don't even know. I think that's about it. Um let's get into it. Um, this movie pretty much chronicles the beginning of the Jackson Vive in 1996 and goes all the way through 1989 when uh Michael was uh on the uh the the tour for his album Bad. Um alright, I'm gonna get right into it. Um as an experience, I love this. It was amazing. Um the theater was packed, full of black people. Like, shout out to black people, man. Um I don't know why I underestimated that, I didn't think about it, but like he must he means a lot to fucking black people. I didn't I don't know why it never crossed my mind like that. Um just full disclosure though, uh I'm 34, I was born in 1991. Um, so like at the time period when this movie ends, I'm not even born yet. And like, you know, I'm I'm aware of like his music and stuff, but Michael Jackson's never been like a big part of my life at all. Um, you know, no disrespect. You know, he's the GOAT, he's just never been that big a part of my life, so I don't have that like emotional connection a lot of people did. I'm obviously aware of the music and whatnot, but he's just never been that big a part of my life. Um But yeah, like I haven't seen niggas turn up like that to a movie since like Black Panther. Um so like even though although though the reviews on this movie are bad, it's gonna make a shit ton of money. Um I hope it cracks a billion. I want it to do really well. So I'll just flat out go ahead and start out by saying it's an experience. This is this is a great experience. So I think you should go watch this, go see it in like a full pack theater with like a really big screen. Um like it's like like the performance stuff is amazing. I mean, let me just let me just get into it. I'm gonna start with the performances. Um, first off, Jafar Jackson. Him is my I thought he was I thought he was great. Like, he looks like him, he sounds like him, he moves like him. Like the cadences are all there, the voice. It's it's insane, but like I don't know what they did to get this kid ready. This is his first acting performance, but he was fucking amazing. So like much respect to him. I don't know if he's like gonna continue acting or if this is just the one-off for him. Um Coleman Domingos, Joe Jackson, um controversial character. Um terrible father, like really, really terrible father, terrible person. Oh it's funny where having kids now. Like seeing the scenes in this movie of him like beating Michael with the with the belt, like I don't know if it's just like PTSD from when I was a kid, but like that shit just I don't know, that shit just kind of like tore me up a little bit, you know? Um Nia Long's mother, I can't remember her name, sorry. Um she was really good. You know, shout out to Nia Long. She's a she's a legend. Um I just don't think she gets as much like I don't know, like mainstream roles. Um she was in a lot of like black movies, but I don't I can't lost my scene in like a big blockbuster. I'm I'm gonna have to go through her like her IMDB or something, because um yeah, I'm curious about that, but no, she was she was really good in this movie. Um but yeah, the positives for me were the performances and uh the music stuff. Like anytime there was singing involved or performance involved on stage, to me that stuff really worked. Like it was really clean, really clever, like it was so well done, man. Like I'm telling you, like I felt like I was at a concert. Like the movie theater was it was going crazy. Um and it's like this moves like really loud. Um, it's like really, really loud. And it's really, really bright. Performances are really, really bright and eccentric. Um, and I'll be honest, like I said earlier, like I'm not a big Michael Jackson guy. Like, I got like I'm acknowledging the music's amazing and all that. I've just never like been a like a fan, but I'll admit, bro, like I was getting goosebumps watching these watching these performances. Like, it was amazing. I'll be honest with you, it was amazing. So I do think you should go see this movie in theaters because of that. Um you know, because of that. But I alright. See a negative. Um I don't know, like it's almost didn't feel like a movie. Like I felt like it was like I'll put it like this. To me, the first act when they're forming in Jackson 5, to me that was good. I felt like there was a story. Um, there was like something going on. Um and it and it and it just felt it just it just felt like we had like a story that was going somewhere, it was leading to something. Um now when we you know get farther into like let's say second act where we finally see Jafar is Michael Jackson when he's like uh a teen going into his twenties. I don't know, like to me it was all performance-based. Like anything wasn't performance-based. I just wasn't locked into it. Um like I don't know, like it was just scenes, you know, like stuff was happening, but stuff really wasn't happening, you know. The dialogue was a little sketchy, and like I don't know, like I said this in my letterbox review, but like if I was to go on YouTube and just Google Michael Jordan Michael Jackson's best performances and just watch them in like some kind of compilation video, that is what like the second half of this movie felt like. You know, it's just performance after performance. Like we don't really see him, we don't really see him talking to nobody. Like we like we've seen him talking to his lawyer, like Miles Teller. By the way, Miles Teller is uh John Brockett, his attorney or whatever. Like, bro, that's a terrible wig, bro. Like, what are we doing? Like, there's some okay wigs in the movie. That one was that was a weak ass wig, Miles Teller. What the fuck was up with that? Obviously, it's not Miles Teller's fault, but um, I thought he was okay in the movie. Um, but yeah, there's just not much happening. Like the stuff with him and his dad, like, to me it's not really going anywhere. And even then, like, like I don't know, like there's no art. You know, obviously this is based on real life, so maybe I mean, I don't know, maybe and like I said, I'm not familiar with this entire story. Like, I'm aware that Joe Jackson's a terrible person, a terrible dad, da da da this and that. But I don't like I don't like so accuracy-wise, I don't know. I'm gonna go I'm gonna assume it's accurate. I mean, the family was a big part of making it getting the movie made, so I'm gonna assume it's accurate, but just I don't know. Like, I just feel like the second half is just full of performances, bruh. And like I said, like it's an experience to me that really worked, but like it's a story in a movie, it's it's like it's not fleshed out at all. Like, it's it's it's just scenes, you know what I mean? It almost like reminds me like you know, it's gonna feel like weird, dumb comparison, because it's a comic movie, but like like Deadpool and Wolverine, where like there's uh there's no story, it's just uh it's just scenes, it's just jokes, you know. Um so yeah, that was I'm gonna say that was like probably my biggest issue is probably just like the writing of the story period, and then also like the pacing. I mean I don't know, man. This is supposed to be a biopic, and I just feel like time just like moves so fast. And it's like it just goes performance for performance. Um, you know, obviously I don't I never looked up Michael Jackson's like love life, but I did find it weird that like he does he has like no friends. Like, is that accurate? Like this guy just didn't have any friends at all, like he never had a girlfriend. Like that was weird to me because you know it shows him at like what like 17 where he's like really famous. Like everybody knows who he is, but we never see him with any women. It's just like him and his bodyguard guy, which I thought that actor was I thought he's pretty good actually. Um, but yeah, man, I just felt like it just felt like nothing happened, like we didn't learn anything. Um, and I guess that's you know, I mean, I I learned a lot because I didn't know shit about Michael Jackson, but like just overall, bro, story-wise, I just feel like nothing happened. Like it was just like all performance-based. Like I said, as an experience, that stuff was like really good and it was really amazing. But like story-wise, there there just wasn't a store. There's just it's just like nothing. Um, it's just like, oh, he fires his dad, you know, he goes album to album, doing this and that. But like, where's the relationships? Like, we don't see him form any kind of connection to anybody. Like, is it was this I'm like, look, maybe I'm maybe this all sounds dumb because I don't know shit about Michael Jackson, but it just felt weird that the most famous person in the world has like no friends, no family, no friends. We only see him interacting with his family, you know. That stuff was really weird to me. Um, like in the last dance, Michael Jordan, he's an introvert, he's a loner, but we still see him interacting with people, you know, like columnists and stuff and teammates and stuff. Michael Dragon, he's just he's just in his own world. Um, which so yeah, I mean, I don't know. Are these nitpicks? I don't know. Like I said, as an experience, it was amazing. As a movie, it just doesn't work for me. Cause like I I need some kind of story. And then also, I will admit this though, like, I hate I hate music biopics. Like, I feel like they're just like cheap Oscar Bait. Um, so I probably went into it with a bias against biopics. But like I said, there's just no story there. Um, this movie's gonna do really well though, and I want it to do really well. Um, like I said, go see it in the movie theater, go see it in the packed movie theater. That's the best experience for this movie to me. Um, like if you watch it at home, you might be underwhelmed. But I will say though, like, like I remember talking to my therapist about it beforehand, and you know, she wanted me to tell her, you know, if I think the movie's good enough, she can go see it. And I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna fly out and tell her, like, like, look, the movie is not good, but I think you're gonna love it. Um, and if you're my host action fan, that's the that's what I can that's what I can say. Like, I'm gonna be honest with you. There are parts in this movie where I'm almost thinking, you know, this is a good movie. Because between the performances and the and uh the musical performances, I'm like, man, this stuff kind of blocks out all the bad parts of it. But after thinking about it for about 12 hours of about 18 hours, whatever, I'm kind of just like, eh, didn't really work for me as a movie, but as an experience, it was amazing. It really was. I I was getting goosebumps. Um I was getting goosebumps, so yeah, as an experience, it was amazing as a movie, didn't quite land for me, but I'm also not a Michael Jackson person. Um so yeah, that's my review of uh Michael. Um one last thing I didn't like, the movie kind of ends on a cliffhanger where he's like performing, and then it just says something like the story continues or some shit like that, and it ends. And to me, like that was that's just whack. Like, first of all, this is a biopic, bro. Like, why why are we ending a movie like that? Like it's fucking Marvel or something, like like oh, Michael Jackson will return and Avengers Doomsday, like type shit like that. Like, I'm sorry, but like that shit just does not. That shit is dumb. Like, this this movie does really well. I mean, I'm gonna sh apparently there is gonna be a part two if this movie does great, I guess. Um I don't know. I don't really get part two, to be honest with you. Uh I don't really get why they would do that. Obviously, this movie ignored all the all the outside of music stuff, you know, stuff that Michael got in trouble for in his uh later years. Um but yeah, I I don't know, man. Like, is that something they're gonna touch on in future movies? I don't know. Um but yeah, that's my view of uh Michael. Um great performances all around, great experience. Um here, I'm gonna go ahead and talk about the clayface trailer actually, real quick, because that came out yesterday before this movie. Um yeah, Clayface. Directed by James Watkins, written by Mike Flanagan, starring Tom Reese Harry's, uh Welsh actor who I've never heard of. Um he's a he's a good looking kid though. Um but yeah, we it's it's it's a what it's a one-minute little trail. We don't really see much. We just see him laying in the hospital bed bandaged up, looks looks all sorts of fucked up. We see another clip of the doctor doing something to his face. Um, and then we see a brief shot of him in a bathtub and his face is like falling off. Um and then there is one sequence where we see like a shadow of him lifting his arm up and it like expands. You know, that's where like the cartoony play face part of it comes into it. Um I'm locked in. You know, I love horror. Um, and I am uh I'm locked in for it. You know, Substance, I love the Substance, I was Body Horror. Um, there's a movie that came out last year called Together that I watched on Disney Plus a few months ago. I love that movie too. Um I don't know. I I'm I'm I'm here for it. R-rated DC movie about a Batman villain. That's like right out of my alley. You know, Batman's the goat to me. And uh Clayface, he's probably not he's not a tier one Batman villain, he's he's tier two, but I'm excited for it. And the fact that this is based on like Batman the Anime series, I'm like, hell yeah. I can't wait. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm excited for Clayface and uh we'll see how that goes. We don't really know what Ken Haven's story wise. Um, but yeah, I cannot wait for it. Um, and I also can't wait for more Daredevil next week in case you're gonna keep going with the Daredevil Borne and talk. Um Daredevil, the boys, um, Devil Wars Prada comes out in like two weeks, I think. Uh one week, actually. Yeah, Daredevil, Devil Wars Prada comes out next week. Um, so I'm excited to go see that as well. Um, but yeah, that's all we got here for today on the I'm no podcast. You know, follow me on the good old letterbox that lipswoman forever. I've been kind of slacking on letterbox, but I'm gonna I need to log back in on it and get back to where I was as far as using it more than uh I should be. Um so definitely gonna start doing that soon. So stay tuned with uh me and Chase next week on the I'm no podcast. I'm out.