The posthumous campaign to polish Michael Jackson’s tarnished reputation continues apace with this Spike Lee infomercial, commissioned by Sony and the money-grubbing Jackson estate to promote the 25th anniversary of his 1987 album “Bad.’’
A parade of talking heads — everyone from Quincy Jones to Mariah Carey to Justin Bieber — assures us that Jackson was demonized for his “eccentricities’’ because people were jealous about the success of “Thriller,’’ which preceded “Bad’’ by five years. The stories about his hyperbaric chamber are labeled lies, but unsurprisingly nobody mentions those repeated allegations of pedophilia.
Lee’s least personal film is a less ghoulish exercise than the schlockumentary “This Is It,’’ which presented the sorry spectacle of the former King of Pop struggling to get through rehearsals a few days before his drug habits killed him.
This one has footage of Jackson near his prime, including filming the video for the title track in a Brooklyn subway station (director Martin Scorsese says the crotchgrabbing was strictly Jackson’s improvisation). But no need to rush out and catch “Bad 25’’ during its one-week run to qualify for an Oscar nomination it won’t get. It’s airing Thanksgiving night on ABC.