djoetma

IMDb member since February 2015
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    IMDb Member
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Reviews

Michael Jackson: Chase the Truth
(2019)

A personal testimony from several people about their long-time experiences with Michael Jackson on a personal level
'Michael Jackson: Chase the Truth' is a testimony about Michael Jackson from mostly Mark Lester and Mike Smallcombe. Lester is Jacksons long-time friend and Smallcombe a biographer that has followed Jackson for a long time.

It's a pity this film isn't on any of the streaming services and needs to be paid for. As viewer, you are paying for the personal story of Mike Smallcombe and Mark Lester plus some other people about their long-time experience with Michael Jackson. These people lived around MJ and still believe in his innocence and think highly of him while they had access to the man on a personal level for a very long time. The message is that since they knew him closely and didn't see anything close to what Leaving Neverland claims, people should question the legitimacy of the Leaving Neverland.

The added value of 'MJ: Chase the Truth' for the discussion around MJ and the claims Leaving Neverland made, can be questioned. But then again, does it need to have that? People can criticize this as being very one-sided, but this film is a reaction to Leaving Neverland which was very one-sided as well, and really is nothing more than just a testimony of two men. People talk about how 'the other side' should be shown. 'The other side' would be the talk about pedophilic behavior, right? What if it wasn't there?

If we look at 'MJ: Chase the Truth' as a rebuttal vs 'Leaving Neverland' it's fine I guess, since they do mention some things that attacks the legitimacy of Leaving Neverland, provide proof for it as well as argumentation. But if one is actually interested in all the fact with all the relevant arguments, documentation and receipts including the sources, YouTube is the place to be. 'Lies of Leaving Neverland' is a fine summary of all the arguments from 'the other side vs Leaving Neverland. It also uses 'Neverland Firsthand: Investigating the Michael Jackson Documentary' which in itself is a fine documentary that was put together on short notice by it's creator. Yes, they are 'youtube-documentaries', but if all the sources are mentioned, one can make a judgement on the legitimacy I assume? Further, Danny Wu and 'The Rageaholic' made some very complete video's in which they talk about all of the allegations and counter it with mention of the related documentation and receipts while Nicole's View did a very interesting interview with Scott Ross, investigator on the 2005 case. And the several interviews with Taj and Brandi Jackson did with several media are definitely worth a watch as well.

Anthony Jeselnik: Fire in the Maternity Ward
(2019)

Good, but repetitive and predictable
I like Jeselnik's comedy a lot. This special however, was a disappointment for me. For the major part of the show, he's repeating this trope becoming idea of short jokes that consist of a short setup and then an ending that turns the expected context around. While most of these were smart and funny, you come to expect the turnaround. So he starts with something, and as a viewer you already know, 'ok, he's going to end it with something to change it.....and.....there is is'. Funny at first, but then nothing more than simply 'cute'. The shock effect runs out if you repeat these kinds of jokes and Jeselnik does this over and over in 'Fire in the Maternity Ward'. In three cases I was even able to predict the complete joke.

His baby/abortion jokes are just ok. It didn't make me laugh. I guess the shock-effect has to be a big thing here as well, but it's nothing I haven't seen others do. Also, maybe for Americans, since in the US abortion is still a delicate issue, these jokes might have a bigger effect; to me however, they didn't do much.

All in all, for the most part these jokes seem suitable for these little books that are released as toilet-reads. Smart quick jokes that hold up over time and are funny to most people and don't require a lot of time to set up.

I wonder if 'Fire in the Maternity Ward' is a better watch when you do it in two or three stages or something; so that the 'setup-context changing turnaround'-effect holds up.

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