I got the book several years ago (the 10th anniversary edition) and loved it. While I was never a massive Motley Crue fan I grew up listening to metal in that era and was well aware of their notoriety. The book is a warts and all expose of the bands antics and off them as people. It's a fantastic read.
And there's the first problem. The film is 1 hour 40minutes long. Three hours probably wouldn't be enough to do the story justice. It feels rushed and the timelines of certain events become jumbled. And that leads to the second problem.
Certain key things in the book are glossed over. The recording of one entire album is ommited (Girl's, Girl's Girl's). The subsequent tour in the film is covered by a brief look at the band on a flight. This is the tour where the wheels really fell off. The Japanese part of the tour was completely ommited and shouldn't have been as by this point Tommy and Nikki were totally out of control. It was shortly after this part of the tour that Nikki overdosed but that wasn't the first time. His fall into an absolutely chronic heroin addiction feels rushed.
The film doesn't really show how they changed as people enough either. Reading the book to go from liking Nikki to disliking him to kind of liking him again. Vince comes across as a self obsessed dick most of the time up until a personal tragedy. The film doesn't do enough to capture this but then doesn't have time to.
Lastly This is a film about one of the most debauched bands ever. Yes the film shows sex, groupies and drug taking, but it still felt sanitised. They left a lot of stuff out. Definitely a missed opportunity.
Overall it feels rushed. Credit for the portrayals of Sixx and Tommy though. If you know nothing of the band or very little then you'd probably like it. If you've read the book you might like me be a bit disappointed. It would have been better if it was twice as long. A shame I had been really looking forward to this.
And there's the first problem. The film is 1 hour 40minutes long. Three hours probably wouldn't be enough to do the story justice. It feels rushed and the timelines of certain events become jumbled. And that leads to the second problem.
Certain key things in the book are glossed over. The recording of one entire album is ommited (Girl's, Girl's Girl's). The subsequent tour in the film is covered by a brief look at the band on a flight. This is the tour where the wheels really fell off. The Japanese part of the tour was completely ommited and shouldn't have been as by this point Tommy and Nikki were totally out of control. It was shortly after this part of the tour that Nikki overdosed but that wasn't the first time. His fall into an absolutely chronic heroin addiction feels rushed.
The film doesn't really show how they changed as people enough either. Reading the book to go from liking Nikki to disliking him to kind of liking him again. Vince comes across as a self obsessed dick most of the time up until a personal tragedy. The film doesn't do enough to capture this but then doesn't have time to.
Lastly This is a film about one of the most debauched bands ever. Yes the film shows sex, groupies and drug taking, but it still felt sanitised. They left a lot of stuff out. Definitely a missed opportunity.
Overall it feels rushed. Credit for the portrayals of Sixx and Tommy though. If you know nothing of the band or very little then you'd probably like it. If you've read the book you might like me be a bit disappointed. It would have been better if it was twice as long. A shame I had been really looking forward to this.