The Dirt

I remember autumn of 1989, especially because i had two crazy girls who had a crush on me, and send me letters ( i did not choose anyone of them, they were too much to handle ). During the autumn of 1989, my class mate Tom ( who played a lot of acoustic guitar ) picked up his guitar in class and started singing Dr. Feelgood. I did not know that this was a new song from heavy metal band Mötley Crue, but Tom told me i have to listen to this album. So i did, and i was knocked out of my chair, when i heard Kickstart My Heart for the first time. I knew who Mötley Crue was, especially for their Girls, Girls Girls album. But it was in 1989 when i really discovered the band for real, with the Dr. Feelgood album. I will admit that during this time, i listened a lot to the Queen album The Miracle as well, and Faith No More´s album The Real Thing ( especially since i really digged their single Epic ). Mötley Crue is a powerful band, and during this time they were still making a big impact worldwide. When the 90´s arrived, i remember hearing that singer Vince Neil was no longer a part of Mötley Crue, so their next studio album with singer John Corabi did not really made me interested at the time. I did listen to it, not awful, but i suppose i missed Vince´s voice. When Vince returned in 1997 with their studio album Generation Swine, the original line up was back. And the album did sell better than the 1994 album, but was still considered to be a flop in sales. Generation Swine was a very different album for Mötley Crue, they experimented with different music stiles. I will say this, i do enjoy some songs from this album such as Glitter and of course Let Us Prey ( my favourite song of this album ). Mötley Crue continued after the millenium and worked on new songs, and more tours worldwide. Even if the band decided to stop touring a couple of years ago, their music still lives on. If you say the band name to any metal head, i guarantee that they will start singing classics such as Live Wire or of course Shout At The Devil. When the band released their autobiogrophy in 2001, simply called The Dirt, the book sales were amazing. Everyone wanted to read about the insane life of Mötley Crue. After many years, a film based on the book have been made, based on the book. A movie about Mötley Crue, this must be a nightmare for all those Jim Bakker fans out there ? I am sure it is, so of course i had to see The Dirt, to see if this movie adaptation would tell the band´s incredible career in an honest way. Is this film almost as good as Bohemian Rhapsody, or should The Dirst stayed as a book instead and never have been made as a film ?

Nikki Sixx ( Douglas Booth ) is fed up with his family, and is trying to survive in Los Angeles as a musician. One day he is confronted by Tommy Lee ( Machine Gun Kelly ) who is a drummer and a huge fan of Nikki. They talk for a while, when Nikki reveal that he wants to put together a new band, that will make a big impact. After having guitar sessions, they find the right guitar player known as Mick Mars ( Iwan Rheon ). But they don´t have a frontman, so Tommy suggest they go check out a school friend of his known as Vince Neil ( Daniel Webber ). These 4 guys start working together on songs for their first album, and decide to name their band Mötley Crue. After their debut album Too Fast For Love is released, Mötley Crue is about to make history worldwide with their personalities, their songs and their crazy lifestyle.

Netflix have made some really good films so far, so i was worried that they would not let The Dirt become as wild as this film should be. Since we are talking about a band like Mötley Crue, you know you can´t make a film unless you show the real Mötley Crue. And i have to say, this film actually manage to find a good balance and show how wild this band was, especially during their drug and alcohol years in the 80´s. Everyone is having sex, doing cocaine and even destroying hotel rooms. Of course this film could have been even more wild, but that´s ok. Sometimes you have to find a limit, and i think they did a good choice here not to reveal every single scandal. Then the plot would have been very thin. We follow the band very early, before their first album Too Fast For Love was released from here we get to see different details about their career, their personal lives and how the band finally had their first number 1 album. The acting in this film is very divided. The best performance if i had to choose between the band members, is from actor Machine Gun Kelly as drummer Tommy Lee. He really nails the personality of Tommy Lee in a positive way. The second actor i also think managed to capture one of the personalities in Mötley Crue, is Ewan Rheon ( probably known from Game Of Thrones ) as Mick Mars. His grumpy identity fits in with the character of Mick, and you can tell that he is the old man in the band. Daniel Webber ( known from Netflix TV show The Punisher ) is pretty good as frontman Vince Neil, and you can sense that he is trying to capture the magic of Vince Neil´s stage personality. The only actor who could have done better with his character, is actor Douglas Booth ( who you probably have seen in Mr. Bingley  in the film Pride And Prejudice And Zombies ) as Nikki Sixx. The overdose scenes are ok from an acting perspective, but you never really feel like he is Nikki Sixx. Is there anything else that is positive about this film ? The time periods are captured pretty good in this film, with clothes, hair style and the music style as well. And i have to mention the live scenes also looks pretty good. Director Jeff Tremaine ( the creator and director of Jackass ) have made a film that will especially please the fans of Mötley Crue, but might also find a younger audience as well. He have clearly had a passion to tell this story, and even if i find a few details he could have improved i still think The Dirt is a fun ride. Mötley Crue will always be a nightmare to extreme feminists and prude people, and that is the way it should be. When you hear Mötley you just want to headbang and have a good time. If you love metal and classic 80´s songs, The Dirt is the film you should check out and....just so you know.... be prepared to dance.

Rating: DDD