The Dirt (Motley Crue)

[appetite4illusions]

As far as the movie is concerned, it's hard to believe they did it underneath 2 hrs. They could have conceivably done it as a mini-series with a couple more hours to flesh things out.

They left out some downright iconic moments that the book described as very cinematic:

- The ill fated Japanese tour and the mayhem on the subway train. Nikki being interrogated by the police and the games he played with the interpreter.

- The circumstances around the firing of Doc McGhee and his illustrious past as a drug smuggler  

- The hilarious MTV interview where the "new" Motley expressed open hostility and violence at the suggestion that their image consists of "women, hairspray and fire."

 

The book was an odyssey of madness at it wasn't all going to make the screen, but I remember reading some of that stuff and thinking "holy shit, that would make an unforgettable scene."

At one point in the long history of this project, David Fincher was going to direct. Now that...would have been something.

[RussTCB]

10 hours ago, appetite4illusions said:

As far as the movie is concerned, it's hard to believe they did it underneath 2 hrs. They could have conceivably done it as a mini-series with a couple more hours to flesh things out.

They left out some downright iconic moments that the book described as very cinematic:

- The ill fated Japanese tour and the mayhem on the subway train. Nikki being interrogated by the police and the games he played with the interpreter.

- The circumstances around the firing of Doc McGhee and his illustrious past as a drug smuggler  

- The hilarious MTV interview where the "new" Motley expressed open hostility and violence at the suggestion that their image consists of "women, hairspray and fire."

 

The book was an odyssey of madness at it wasn't all going to make the screen, but I remember reading some of that stuff and thinking "holy shit, that would make an unforgettable scene."

At one point in the long history of this project, David Fincher was going to direct. Now that...would have been something.

Oh man, I always forget about that MTV interview. So hilarious, in a bad way. I'm hoping to watch the movie tomorrow. Do they touch on Corabi much at all? 

[Angelica]

16 hours ago, appetite4illusions said:

As far as the movie is concerned, it's hard to believe they did it underneath 2 hrs. They could have conceivably done it as a mini-series with a couple more hours to flesh things out.

They left out some downright iconic moments that the book described as very cinematic:

- The ill fated Japanese tour and the mayhem on the subway train. Nikki being interrogated by the police and the games he played with the interpreter.

- The circumstances around the firing of Doc McGhee and his illustrious past as a drug smuggler  

- The hilarious MTV interview where the "new" Motley expressed open hostility and violence at the suggestion that their image consists of "women, hairspray and fire."

 

The book was an odyssey of madness at it wasn't all going to make the screen, but I remember reading some of that stuff and thinking "holy shit, that would make an unforgettable scene."

At one point in the long history of this project, David Fincher was going to direct. Now that...would have been something.

I really wish it had been fleshed out into a limited series. The material is there and the book lends itself more to that format. It’s super fun as it is, and props for eschewing all the Dewey Coxian trappings of the musical biopic genre, especially in the wake of the godawful Bohemian Rhapsody, but it still  feels somewhat like a missed opportunity. 

[gunsguy]

12 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Oh man, I always forget about that MTV interview. So hilarious, in a bad way. I'm hoping to watch the movie tomorrow. Do they touch on Corabi much at all? 

Goes like this... Vince leaves band... next scene is they have a new singer Corabi... next scene is welcome back Vince lol.

This was as many parts... too rushed.  The entire movie IMO is low budget and rushed.  Tommy was good, ozzy was ozzy... I feel like they made a mistake making this a movie, it should have been a mini series for sure.

Was it horrible?  nope but I would never watch it again.  It is worth a watch but the rushing for many things got to me very quickly.  If guns ever do one I think a series would be the way to release it, too much to tell! Although with the lineup changes they would need a big budget for cast

 

[Gordon Comstock]

I'm gonna watch it with a few friends later today... I expect it to be just 'ok', kinda looks like a cheesy made-for-tv movie based on the trailers. I read the book like a decade ago and there was a few things that would've been cool to see, but were apparently cut out... the subway train in Japan was one of the first things I thought of when I heard the movie was coming out, but I guess that's not in the movie? They briefly cover the Corabi era, but do they mention when Tommy left? (New Tattoo era?).

[dontdamnmeuyi2015]

2 hours ago, gunsguy said:

Goes like this... Vince leaves band... next scene is they have a new singer Corabi... next scene is welcome back Vince lol.

This was as many parts... too rushed.  The entire movie IMO is low budget and rushed.  Tommy was good, ozzy was ozzy... I feel like they made a mistake making this a movie, it should have been a mini series for sure.

Was it horrible?  nope but I would never watch it again.  It is worth a watch but the rushing for many things got to me very quickly.  If guns ever do one I think a series would be the way to release it, too much to tell! Although with the lineup changes they would need a big budget for cast

 

Didn't show Corabi sing thank goodness! lol

After watching that movie about the Crue's crazy lives, I'm shocked they are all alive today! lol

I thought the actors who played the Crue were very good. Not just in the looks, but their mannerisms and body types. Although Mick was always super skinny. I didn't realize Mick had the disease since he was younger, I thought it was as he got older. I never thought Mick talked so much! lol

All in all I really enjoyed watching it. The scene with Ozzy was priceless and gross at the same time.

Anyway, I thought it was worth the wait and the Crue should be proud of it.

I think they should actually make a sequel to cover the next twenty years. I was disappointed that we didn't see Tommy marry Pamela Lee and have their kids, but I think if the movie was just like the book, it would be a 6 hour movie. lol

Anyway, I liked the ending. it made me smile. I would actually watch it again. You always see different things as you watch a movie again and again. lol

Thanks for posted Slash and Steven's cameos because I might have missed Steven all together.

Edited March 24, 2019 by dontdamnmeuyi2015
more

[downzy]

Wife and I watched it tonight.  Enjoyed the book so was hopeful the movie would be fun to watch.   Maybe it's just me but I thought it was god awful.  

Everything about it was subpar: acting, dialogue, pacing, directing...  Not a single thing about the film that worked for me.  Felt like a movie made by first-year cinema students.  The whole thing felt cheap.  I think someone said earlier that comes off as a Made for TV movie.  Completely agree there.  At least the bar isn't very high should they ever make a movie about Guns.  Though after watching The Dirt and Bohemian Rhapsody, I'm kind of hoping GNR never gets a biopic.  

I was able to get through the first half, but by the second half I was ready to turn it off.  My wife hadn't read the book so she was curious how the story ended so we kept going.  

As I said earlier, I enjoyed the book and though I wouldn't consider myself a MC fan (I find their music and schtick cheesy; though I like Kickstart My Heart and Don't Go Away Mad), this film does them a disservice.  

Still the greatest Motley Crüe associated entertainment made since Dr. Feelgood:

 

[downzy]

Other thing I found odd was that it's shockingly light on music from the band.  Would have expected to hear more Crue songs.  

Also, were they so short on budget they couldn't have replicated Tommy's drum cage?  

[penelope]

This movie sucks. I read the book and while it was entertaining, the movie  was the opposite, too  boring and pretentious, too many drugs and nudes and no music. No soundtrack!  I was expecting to hear their hits, I know they are no the Beatles but still they have catchy tunes, but I don't remember hearing any in the movie, maybe just one?  It was all too porny and drama,  to me it felt almost like some Mexican soap opera.

I felt embarrassed at some point (I was watching it with my mom),  I was expecting a more elaborated plot, like none of the characters cause in me any symphaty, just mick,  the rest are annoying, I mean the guy who plays Tommy lee was accurate because he was very annoying just as Tommy, but the Nikki one was almost gray, too meh, and  he was the one who wrote all the songs and stuff, why not give him a better approach?  I don't think the actor was the problem,  his acting as boy George was pretty cool. I think the problem here was Jeff Tremaine and Netflix. they should have gone with the paramount.

 

 the guy who plays Vince is ok.  the timeline wasn't  accurate either  and 2 hours  end this movie with a very lame ending.  I think the def leopard movie is better if we compare.  This shouldn't be compared to  bohemian rapsody,  they had a lot of budget. This is probably low.  The only part I liked was the part they show the clubs at the strip.

It isn't total crap but it could have been better, now I know why gnr members don't want a biopic. 

[toroymoi]

Watching this really felt like wasted time.

Also there's nothing endearing about their, to put it lightly, antics. From what I've read, they left out a lot of things that would make the band look like the monsters they were.

[DieselDaisy]

8 hours ago, downzy said:

Made for TV movie

I feel that about every music biopic, even the ones with a bit of financing like the Cash and Queen one. They all have this tv-movie feel to them for some reason. Probably the one exception is The Doors which tried to do things a bit arty at least.

Well, they seem like the latest thing what with Elton John's arriving and the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. Expect a lot more of them.

[Len Cnut]

21 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

I feel that about every music biopic, even the ones with a bit of financing like the Cash and Queen one. They all have this tv-movie feel to them for some reason. Probably the one exception is The Doors which tried to do things a bit arty at least.

Well, they seem like the latest thing what with Elton John's arriving and the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. Expect a lot more of them.

Last Days by Gus Van Sant is amazing and, to me, is the way to do biopics, just use the bare frame work of a character and/or their life and just extemporise the rest, put your artistic stamp on it.  Cuz if you think about it you're never gonna really do a satisfactory replication, especially when you're talking about things that are so obssessively followed and pored over, Last Days basically took the iconography of Kurt Cobain, the hair, the guitar playing etc and they basically made this movie about his stumbling around his little mansion, little to no dialogue, just him evading visitors and eventually topping himself, with it being made clear from the outset that its not really attempting to do an according to gospel biography of him.  In an odd way it feels more real (if painfully un-commercial) than a movie trying to precisely replicate the situation. 

Also, if you think about it, some big rockstar, whats the point of watching some fake actor doing it when there's often plenty of footage of the real thing in action.  The Doors is one is sort of a disordered pastiche of various occurances and things he said cobbled together into a linear narrative piece, it was quite good back in the day when a lot of real footage of them was kinda hard to come by but with the advent of the internet and the release of so much actual Doors footage I'd much rather watch the real thing, now I have the option. 

There's this pretty mental Bob Dylan one out there that I quite liked too.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Len Cnut

[dontdamnmeuyi2015]

Does anyone know which groupie was the one Tommy Lee just married? She's supposed to be in the movie, but after awhile, those girls all looked the same to me. lol

The part when Vince's little girl died was just too sad. The little actress looked a lot like the real Skyler.

Wish they would have had the part where Vince was married to Sharise and hitting on Bobbie Brown and Bobbie told her. They became great friends after that incident.

[Powerage5]

On 3/25/2019 at 9:18 AM, DieselDaisy said:

I feel that about every music biopic, even the ones with a bit of financing like the Cash and Queen one. They all have this tv-movie feel to them for some reason. Probably the one exception is The Doors which tried to do things a bit arty at least.

Well, they seem like the latest thing what with Elton John's arriving and the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. Expect a lot more of them.

Walk The Line was great. I should actually rewatch that, I haven't seen it in ages. 

 

Straight Outta Compton is still my favorite music biopic however. 

[moreblack]

Saw it, was not impressed. A lot of the acting was bad, the talking to the camera was weird, and they left so much out. "they continued playing for 20 years" Really? and nothing else worth showing happened in those 20 years?

[appetite4illusions]

2 hours ago, moreblack said:

"they continued playing for 20 years" Really? and nothing else worth showing happened in those 20 years?

As it pertains to the individuals, yeah.

As it pertains to Motley Crue? Nah.

They had  any number of “comeback” albums that were as forgettable as the one before it. No need to show the audience that they were creatively dead, just an entity that toured.

[dontdamnmeuyi2015]

Well, even though MC didn't release a lot of new music, their concerts still sold out. I have seen them many times before they retired and the places were always sold out.

The band released dvds "Carnival of Sins" tour, which was freakin amazing and their final retirement concert was amazing.

I still think after all this time, MC will make another comeback and make their fans happy.

[moreblack]

1 hour ago, appetite4illusions said:

As it pertains to the individuals, yeah.

As it pertains to Motley Crue? Nah.

They had  any number of “comeback” albums that were as forgettable as the one before it. No need to show the audience that they were creatively dead, just an entity that toured.

That being said, they completely ignored the whole Pam & Tommy story. That almost bigger than Crue were at times.

Edited March 27, 2019 by moreblack

[Powerage5]

2 hours ago, appetite4illusions said:

As it pertains to the individuals, yeah.

As it pertains to Motley Crue? Nah.

They had  any number of “comeback” albums that were as forgettable as the one before it. No need to show the audience that they were creatively dead, just an entity that toured.

They didn’t really though; after Dr. Feelgood, the classic lineup only recorded two more albums - Generation Swine in 1997, and Saints of Los Angeles in 2008. But you’re right that both were either mediocre or terrible. 

2 hours ago, dontdamnmeuyi2015 said:

Well, even though MC didn't release a lot of new music, their concerts still sold out. I have seen them many times before they retired and the places were always sold out.

The band released dvds "Carnival of Sins" tour, which was freakin amazing and their final retirement concert was amazing.

I still think after all this time, MC will make another comeback and make their fans happy.

Okay, great. So they went on a decade-long never-ending nostalgia tour that sold well most of the time where they were creatively dead. There’s no story to tell there, so there’s no reason to put it in the film. 

[appetite4illusions]

58 minutes ago, Powerage5 said:

They didn’t really though; after Dr. Feelgood, the classic lineup only recorded two more albums - Generation Swine in 1997, and Saints of Los Angeles in 2008. But you’re right that both were either mediocre or terrible. 

Okay, great. So they went on a decade-long never-ending nostalgia tour that sold well most of the time where they were creatively dead. There’s no story to tell there, so there’s no reason to put it in the film. 

New Tattoo was another Comeback album. Even though it’s missing Tommy Lee - you can clearly tell the band wanted their old status back. Nikki claims at the end of the Dirt book that New Tattoo is the “real” follow-up to Dr. Feelgood.

It might be their all around worst album. The songs aren’t just bad - the sound of it is dead - flat. Which says a lot for Mike Clink, seeing as how the celebrated producer was hired for how tits he made GN’R sound.

I think you could have defintely gone on to tell the stories of the guys lives, but you couldn’t have done so without going through the albums they were making and it would have really illustrated how poor the albums were in comparison to the eighties.

They ended the film at the proper moment because the music just couldn’t hold a candle after that.

[dalsh327]

On 3/22/2019 at 4:53 PM, GNRfanMILO said:

Check again, I’m 99% sure that Steven sitting in the floor against the wall. The hair is identical 

Robbin Crosby was also in the room so they might have blended the blondes.. 

[janrichmond]

1 hour ago, Powerage5 said:

Okay, great. So they went on a decade-long never-ending nostalgia tour that sold well most of the time where they were creatively dead. 

Sounds like another band we know 

[DieselDaisy]

I used to have a friend who loved Generation Swine. He considered it their magnum opus. 

[Gordon Comstock]

Were Motley even that big of a draw after the Carnival Of Sins tour? They were a relatively successful touring band but on one of those tours they were the opening act (Route Of All Evil tour) and the Cruefest's benefited from having a bunch of other bands. The last time I saw them was 2013, they didn't sell out the arena here (capacity is about 7,000) and tickets were $25 for the back half of the bowl.

 

I watched the movie on Sunday, it wasn't awful but definitely wasn't great either. The 'Motley Crue Story' would've worked so much better as a mini-series or two-part documentary... the movie format was rushed, cheesy and (at times) inaccurate, which was expected, but still, they shopped this movie around for over a decade and this was the best result they could get?

[appetite4illusions]

4 hours ago, moreblack said:

That being said, they completely ignored the whole Pam & Tommy story. That almost bigger than Crue were at times.

There’s no doubt about that. Pam and Tommy were one of the most salacious media spectacles of the 90’s, but their relationship had zilch to do with Motley. 

Why they didn’t factor into the film can be speculated but beyond what I just wrote, there’s a couple of reasons why you didn’t see Pam.

I think that her and Tommy are not on good terms and haven’t been for quite awhile. With the family drama that has played out in the media, Pam may not have given consent to appear as a character. With all the domestic turbulence that went down in the 90’s, Tommy himself may have asked that they not show their relationship for fear of further damage to his relationship to their kids.

Tommy is supposedly on the outs from his family.