No.171 : The Dirt (2019)

The Dirt at the IMDb

I’d read the book ‘The Dirt’ a few years back and rally liked its sleazy, grimy feel, so I was looking forward to this Netflix produced movie version. It’s pretty good but not a patch on the book, which leaves you needing a shower after reading a few pages.

The film follows the book closely and uses it’s same narrative devices with characters breaking the fourth wall to explain situations or to give opinions on the events unfolding. In the book the band members all write separate chapters and often contradict each other on key events. This is harder to show on film, so at times it does seem a bit of an unstructured mess - that’s not always a bad thing as the chaos and mayhem intended come across vividly.

The film opens with a young Nikki Sixx leaving his family for the rock and roll lifestyle. He’s wearing a Judge Dredd t-shirt from the ‘Judge Death Lives’ story line that post dates the timeline being shown - I hope someone got fired for that howler!

After the usual round of trashy gigs and failed auditions they end up with the starting line up for their band ‘Motely Crue’ - sorry can’t find the umlauts. After five minutes of struggle the band are soon playing stadium gigs and are behaving very badly.

There are some funny scenes with them trashing hotel rooms and sniffing ants with Ozzie Osbourne and oh so many groupies. There are more tits on show here than in the RSPB annual survey.

The band soon starts to fracture with their relationships with each other and their partners failing, leading to break ups and fall outs. They all get sober and fall off the wagon before splitting up and then reforming. It’s basically every rock band bio-pic that you’ve ever seen.

The cast is pretty good with most of them unknown to me apart from Mick Marrs who was played by Ramsay Bolton and their manager who was played by Gale Boetticher off ‘Breaking Bad’ - that’s were the drugs came from!

The Netflix description says the film is “Unflinching” and that’s true - the band come across as a shower of self centred dicks with few redeeming features. That’s good in terms of it being an honest piece of work but you have very little invested in them - a tour bus explosion wouldn’t have been a bad thing!

Of course as a bio-pic you have to stick to the facts and that is done to the smallest detail with the closing credits showing real and recreated images of the same event. It’s good they went to that level of detail with the authenticity, but they could maybe have delved a bit deeper into the band’s motivations and the consequences of their actions. Still you don’t watch a Crue bio-pic for some deep naval gazing.

There was a decent budget in play with the costumes and sets all well done. There were limits however, with the stadium shows looking a bit light and Tommy’s rotating drums cage just being a couple of metal bars over his head.

I liked that real people such as Ozzie and Heather Locklear were shown and there were some genuinely funny moments. I especially liked the A&R man turning to camera to say ‘Don’t leave your girlfriend with Motely Crue - they’ll fuck her”.

There were a couple of bits that took you out of the story such as when the voice over tells you certain characters aren’t going to be shown in the film - I don’t know why that was needed as it wasn’t billed as a documentary. Still I guess it’s in keeping with the book’s ‘warts and all’ approach.

I did think that the bands struggle to the top was a bit quick and they missed out the best story from the book where they all bought breakfast burritos before going home so they could stick their dicks in them to prevent their girlfriends smelling the groupies on them. I guess smelling of a McMuffin was fine!

Overall this was a good effort. It wasn’t quite as sleazy as I‘d have liked with the band looking a bit clean cut in places. They did however not shirk from the sex and drugs, with the rock n roll also present although they didn’t do my favourite Crue song ‘Wild Side’.

Well worth a look on you lock down Netflix odyssey.

THE Tag Line : Needs More Dirt!   73%

No.60 - Dredd (3D) (2012)

Dredd at the IMDb

The Definite Article Movie Blog gets dusted off for one last dance, to cast its gaze over ‘Dredd’. OK it doesn’t have a ‘The’ but there’s not much more definite than Dredd, and frankly unlike the great man we feel rules are there to be broken.

Most of the reviews you read of ‘Dredd’ will offer comparisons to the 1995 shambles ‘Judge Dredd’ starring Sylvester Stallone. This took a couple of core ideas from the comic hero and added some flying motorbikes, kissing and, lamentably, Rob Schneider. The new Dredd is so far removed from the first attempt that, apart from the helmet, you wouldn’t recognise it. ‘Dredd’ 2012 is a visceral, hardboiled thriller where the wise cracks are dead pan and the violence bone crunchingly realistic.
The film opens with Judge Dredd on patrol, in pursuit of some drugged up perps who are creating carnage on the roads. Any idea of comic book violence is quickly dispensed as a pedestrian and then the perps are dispatched in eye watering fashion. Make no mistake, the ‘18’ certificate is justified and the splatter is all the worse for being in eye-popping 3D.

The film proper opens as Dredd is summoned to a meeting with the Chief Judge and assigned a rookie to assess. The rookie, Anderson, has mutant psychic abilities and is viewed as a potential asset to the struggling department, but has fallen short of the Academy of Law’s pass standard. Dredd is charged with assessing the rookie’s capabilities and is immediately unimpressed with his charge’s potential. He rhymes off the problems the city faces with the depleted Judge force only capable of handling 6% of reported crimes.

Given a free hand to chose their first call Anderson picks a triple homicide at the Peach Trees Block - Huge mistake! This block is the domain of Ma-Ma, the crime boss in charge of ‘Slo-Mo’, a new drug sweeping the city that lets the user experience reality at 1% of real time. The Judges arrive to assess the crime scene but Ma-Ma is ahead of the game and with the help of a cyber-eyed hacker locks down the building and tasks her addicted inhabitants with the job of dispatching the law enforcers.
With no back up available Dredd and Anderson have to stay alive and try to knock the evil drug lord from her perch at the top of the block - 200 floors away. Can they survive the battle against the criminals and other forces sent against them? Will the rookie save the day and will Dredd’s helmet stay untouched for the duration?

As a near life long fan of 2000ad and Judge Dredd the development of this film has been high on my anticipation last for nigh on two years, and I’m amazed to say that it managed to live up to my expectations.

Firstly, Karl Urban is excellent as Dredd. His voice is pretty much how I’ve imagined Dredd to sound for 25 years and his lip curls and jaw acting are fantastic. His delivery is on the right side of caricature and although he doesn’t engage us with much empathy we’re never in doubt that he is a devoted and single minded servant of the law. His character arc isn’t great but frankly I wouldn’t want him to learn about himself in the course of the film - his resolve is unbreakable, just how it should be.

The rookie Anderson was played by Olivia Thirlby and again, she was excellent. Many fans, myself included, feel Anderson is a bit touchy feely but here her vulnerabilities added to the character and in truth it’s really her film by way of character development. Her building of confidence as the film progresses is expertly judged and believable.

Of the three main characters, the villain, Ma-Ma is the weakest. I wasn’t convinced that she had the drive or charisma to lead legions of cannon fodder gangsters and her powers were limited to looking a bit thoughtful. Given the down to earth reality of the film this wasn’t a major problem, but a memorable and frightening bad guy would have made for a better spectacle overall.

Much as been said of the contemporary look of this sci-fi thriller and it’s true that some of the vehicles look more 1990 than 2090. There is however plenty of good tech such as Dredd’s wrist com and weaponry, and the new, set against the old, does highlight the divisions in the future society.
The film runs a lean 96 minutes and although I spent too long looking for the in-jokes and references I didn’t feel it flagged at all. I did have some minor quibbles with the appearance of bent Judges which harked back to the Stallone film and undermined the Justice Department as an elite force, but these were negligible.

On balance though, the film is a triumph with amazing 3D effects and a body count to well justify the ‘18’ certificate. Not for the squeamish or art house lovers but ‘Dredd’ is pure escapist enjoyment that will see repeat viewings from me and hopefully many others.

THE Tag Line : Dreddfully Good 89%