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Michael Jackson's Number Ones DVD: Classic Videos, Primitive Concept
Date of Review: Jan 2, 2004
The Bottom Line: This is a set of some of his greatest videos, but there's something lacking, severely.
Just like his last musical project for Sony, Michael Jackson's DVD compilation with the same name Number Ones, lacks any sort of thought process in putting together something that should define MJ's career. While the selection of videos is fine, it's the lack of detail and extras that makes this just an average compilation. The DVD itself is one you'd expect to have been released when DVD's were in their infancy. As you start the program, all you see is a menu of song titles. There are three screens, each with song titles, and that's it. No extras, no special features, and no easter eggs.
With that in mind, the videos are the real reason to buy this set. But with three Michael Jackson DVD releases and numerous tapes including those out of print, what's the real reason to buy this? For me, while it was a gift, I would've bought it had I not received it as a gift, and the reason I would've bought it is because I didn't have You Rock My World and Blood On The Dance Floor on DVD or video. I had all the other videos on tape or DVD. I had hoped we'd see some of the extended versions of the videos like the beginning of Bad when in black and white, you see MJ in a hoodie. Or the first sequence of You Rock My World where MJ and Chris Tucker spot a nice looking woman while eating lunch and MJ stiffs Tucker for the bill, and Tucker says that's why he doesn't like eating with black people. But, just like the album where the songs were all radio edits, the DVD is full of video edits. Just the bare bones of what MTV or VH-1 would play. If MJ put Bow Wow in a video, maybe they'd show him on BET.
I watched this DVD with my two sons to see how many videos they could watch before being MJ'd out. To my surprise, they got through 5. Both kids loved Beat It, and how could they not? The dancing is so fun and inspired and I saw both kids (ages 4 and 3) trying to simulate what they were watching on the TV. The You Rock My World video was a little long and slow, and Michael was a very angry dancer, but it was ok for them. They did not want to walk away from the TV just yet. Billie Jean was cool to them as they loved how Michael would light up the sidewalk as he danced, even if they didn't know what MJ was singing about. I just told them that the kid was not his son. Both kids enjoyed Black Or White even though my oldest didn't like how mean Maculay Culkin was to George Wendt. He said Mac was a mean guy. The dancing in the video where MJ tried simulating the different styles was excellent. And, since I saw a pattern, I wasn't surprised that this wasn't the long version where MJ smashes David Duke's car. The final video they watched was Smooth Criminal which was not met with their thumbs up. Before I could change it to Earth Song, they were long gone. Earth Song is a very beautiful video with the great scenery.
Basically, I had to watch the rest alone, except for the last two videos being Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Rock With You, when my wife got home and watched them with me. Rock With You just makes you want to put some glue on your clothes and roll around in glitter.
The Way You Make Me Feel was great, even though MJ ties his shirt in a knot at the front. Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer did get that humping the ground technique from this video. My favorite part of the video is when MJ sings, "You knock me off of my feet now baby", before screaming, "woo!". I decided it was time to see some naked Lisa Marie Presley even if I had to see naked MJ as well. I guess you have to give something to get something. Lisa Marie was exceptionally beautiful in You Are Not Alone. I'm not a Bad fan, and since it was the video edit and not the full version which I've only seen once, I wasn't much too excited to watch it. How can you not like Man In The Mirror which might just be the classiest work MJ's done. Dirty Diana isn't the regular MJ video as much of it looks like concert footage, but the song is still stellar. And finally, Blood On The Dance Floor is hokey, but I hadn't seen the video in a long time, so all was good.
The videos are classic. They should be the bulk of the reason why you buy this DVD. But I can't leave slightly disappointed that there wasn't much to it. How hard is it to add long version footage as extra material? How hard is it to add special footage of his concerts in New York? How hard is it to show any sort of footage that they've put on CBS in the past two years? Not very hard in my book and that's why I'm going to recommend it, but only slightly, and mostly for people who are either die hard MJ fans or people who don't have the videos on any other format.
