If you're a crue head like me you should watch this movie. You really should.
I am a big crue fans. I've been for a long time, their music is like religion to me. I love Nikki Sixx, he's like my favorite musician and beyond he is one of my favorite persons. He never NEVER EVER tried to be what he wasn't. He never pretended. Never faked.
What you see is what you get with him.
And so with the movie.
I was worried. As I said I am a big Nikki fan. I was very concerned about the actor chosen for his role. To be honest, I was like whoever they will choose will not be enough. Nikki is unique. He has a certain attitude, a certain melancholy, a certain shade in him that's impossible to duplicate.
So I began to watch the movie knowing that I was going to be disappointed.
Well I was wrong. Douglas Booth did a hell of a job.
I knew him before. I've seen him in few things, but I gotta say he left me speechless. As I said Nikki is not an easy character to portrait. Beyond the character in public, on stage, Nikki has a certain melancholy in his eyes, the way he talks, the way he lives that is so hard to do.
I think Douglas captured the essence of Nikki and made him eternal. Beyond the look, the way he talked, the way he would just stand there, with that sadness in his eyes.. he did a great job. Chapeau.
I was positively impressed by all the actors I gotta say. For example Richard Colson Baker captured the naive essence of Tommy Lee. Now I know what you're thinking: Naive? Tommy Lee? If you think so, you have never read the book about Motley Crue.
Read it. You will understand the child like soul Tommy had. And maybe still has.
It's like a child, a little boy with sparkling eyes looking around. And wow he did it.
But who impressed me the most was Iwan Rheon.
Now I am a huge fan of his. He's a great actor, I think a bit underestimated. He's very talented.
Portraing Mick Mars is not an easy task. Again.
But there's a reason. Now portraing Nikki Sixx is hard, but he's under the lights. Nikki is a character.
While Mick is the one a bit in the shadow. The one who doesn't talk much, he does that only when it's necessary. Playing this part and leaving a mark is a hard task. And Iwan made it all the way.
Not many lines, few moments, but those moments you have them marked on your skin. It's not easy. But Iwan did it.
Now to the movie.
The risk of this movie was that it was maybe going to be too excessive. The risk of falling toward ridicule. Too much exaggeration.
Balance, on the other hand, is not a word that relies in the Crue's story. No balance, it would be heresy.
Jeff Tremaine had something very difficult on his hands. He had a story of a band that made its history on excess: drugs, alcohol, girls, everything beyond the limit.
How can you find the right balance to tell a story without falling into the ridicule?
Jeff found the right key. He simply told what was to tell: he simply showed the Crue, nothing more nothing less. What he offered was the truth, whether you wanted it or not, he put on the screen what happened and he did it with class. Of course, class within the story: not elegance, but the Motley Crue class.
Do not expect this movie to be right. Do not expect this movie to be politically correct: if you want one, change movie.
If you wanna see a little bit of what Motley Crue were, if you wanna take a hint and see what the golden, rotten, rock world of Motley Crue was, you gotta see this movie.
I appreciated one thing.
The honesty of the movie. The choice of showing crude scenes such as Nikki doing heroin was brave. Most people would have skipped that or maybe they would have moved the camera from the needle.
Instead they decided to show the truth. I appreciated it because that is the sign of what Motley really are: they are no fucking dolls, no rock and roll stars placed there to show you only their good side.
Nikki shows the rotten world of what was like to be him in the 80s.
It's crude. It's real. It's the pure fucking truth.
Now you can say it's a horrible scene. You can say it's too raw to show, but without scenes like these ones the movie would have been... not Crue at all.
Because as a fan I can say that you love them for their music but you also love the fact that they are who they are.
Nikki never faked. he never pretended to be some saint. He actually used his story to help others. He wrote a book and showed people what heroin is about and showed how gruesome it can be.
He never sweetened a thing. He offered you the truth.
You can accept it or not, that is your choice.
But as everything in the Crue's story, this movie is raw and savage and it fucking rocks.
Kneel down ye sinners toStreetwise religionGreed's been crowned the new KingHollywood dream teensYesterday's trash queensSave the blessings for the final ring Amen!
