The Dirt

An entertaining biopic, well acted and written. I enjoyed the film even though I know nothing about the band.

I went into this with extremely low expectations and was more than pleasantly surprised. The casting is near perfect. Machine Gun Kelly knocked it out of the park as Tommy Lee. Being a huge Crue fan in the 80's none of the material in this film is new to me and yes I was very aware of inconsistencies that were presumably done for theatrical and story telling purposes. None of that bothers me. To me, this is the right kind of awesomely cheesy. I'm impressed with the actors in this film. They inhabited the personas of Vince, Mick, Nikki, and Tommy really well. And I think that was the idea. Lastly, I've always resonated most with Nikki and seeing his childhood trauma depicted on the big screen was deeply moving. It's truly a miracle that guy is alive and well.

Great movie that takes you back in time and if you lived through that time then its a nostalgic trip. It's rude, loud and crude, but that's the Crue, so if you're offended then why the hell are you watching it. Sure some timelines are a little all over the place and there are a number of key Crue moments that are left out or glossed over. However at 1hr and 48mins it's to be expected. This is a movie that should have ran for a full 3 hours and really dragged you in, but instead it was nearly 2 hours of fast paced fun, debouchous, alcohol (and drug) fueled escapism, which is what the Crue are and were all about for many growing up. Throw in there the tissue moments as well as the self reflection and you've a movie that could easily see a sequel.

For a film depicting some of the craziest people and moments in the history of rock and roll, it sure does play it safe. The Dirt is a pretty formulaic rock biopic about the notorious Motley Crue. As a fan of the band, I was definitely interested in seeing their debauchery detailed on film. While there is some fun to be had enjoying the music and craziness, the movie just doesn't go far enough in covering their absurd exploits. There's too much condensed into too small of a window. Machine Gun Kelly is perfectly cast as Tommy Lee and the rest of the cast is decent. I wish that the filmmakers put a little more effort into realistically showcasing the story of such an infamous band.

I've watched it twice already and I can see this will be a movie I can rewatch a bunch n still enjoy. Do I wish it was longer? Yes. Do I wish they included 'Wildside" on the soundtrack? Yes. Will I buy this on blue ray when released?? Absolutely!!! - if you've read the book it will of course make the movie better (as they left many parts of the book out for better or worse) but I watched with some friends who didn't read the book (n aren't Crüe fans to the extent that I am) and they loved it. People will likely nip pick it to shreds but it was so fun and dark and sad and heavy - a little music lite for me in that I wish they featured so many more of their songs but the movie was really great and I'm glad they did this movie with reverence as it could have so easily been campy and cheesy and it's wasn't at all to me - I LOVED IT!!