YMMV / The Dirt

• A Day in the Limelight: Mick is an odd example since he gets the least amount of focus in the movie which is fitting since he’s long been known as the quiet one in the group. However during the band’s biggest days there were persistent rumors that the band was planning to replace him (a rumor that Mars himself would seemingly confirm in his 2023 litigation against his bandmates). The movie makes it very clear that he was the true leader of the band and that the other, younger, guys all look up to him and that likewise he always has their backs. In real life he was with the band uninterrupted from 1981-2022 when he retired at the age of 71 due to his notable health reasons finally catching up to him.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Were Motley Crue as a whole just a bunch of "boys will be boys" hedonists or were they a bunch of misogynist assholes who were criminally irresponsible as well as gross in their behavior? The movie offers evidence for both while getting accusations of downplaying the latter interpretation.
• Critical Dissonance: Much like the band themselves. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 39% critical score, but by comparison has a 95% audience rating, holding the highest audience score on Rotten Tomatoes for a while. It also became one of the most watched Netflix original movies and resurrected the band's popularity to the point where they officially announced their reunion in 2019.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: A major criticism of this film in that the band gets people killed, suffer crippling addiction, and engages in domestic abuse on-camera. It also shows immense amount of Fanservice, sex, and partying that looks amazing for the vast majority of the film. The band also ends on a happy note, reaffirming their statuses as True Companions.
• Draco in Leather Pants: The real-life Motley Crue got away with a lot of questionable behavior in the eyes of their fans due to their good looks and bad boy attitudes. Art imitated life with the release of the film, which saw a huge fandom ignite due to the attractive leads, leading to plenty of adaptation-based fanart and fanfic that tends to depict the members as wild, hopeless romantics while downplaying the vulgar debauchery and abuse seen in the film. (Not to be outdone, even the real-life members saw a revival in popularity after the film's release, with the band's Tumblr tags exploding in popularity with throwback gifs and videos)
• Harsher in Hindsight: The found family elements and triumphant ending are sadly undercut by Mick Mars suing the band in April 2023, accusing the rest of the group of trying to replace him — even as far back as 1987 — and not giving him the respect he deserves, ending with him signing a severance agreement.
• Ho Yay: Tommy ditches his girlfriend to gush over Nikki to his face when they first meet, and Nikki's irritation towards Heather often reads like bromantic jealousy. They end up as the closest bandmates, and Tommy is the first member Nikki reunites with when trying to get the band back together. The dynamic is fairly accurate to real life, considering Tommy jokes in the memoir that he loves Nikki, as they've "practically been married for twenty years."
• One-Scene Wonder: Ozzy’s antics arguably make up the most memorable scene in the movie, and became the film's Netflix thumbnail despite only appearing for a few minutes.
• Retroactive Recognition: Who knew Nikki Sixx's mom was once a Philadelphia homicide detective?
• Signature Scene: The "day in the life" sequence, where Tommy details a typical madcap 24 hours on tour, is one of the most well-known and parodied sections of the memoir as well as one of the film's best-known scenes.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Netflix film is based on a controversial book that included many more disgusting elements from the band's history that were Adapted Out. Despite this, many reviewers comment on how gross and despicable their behavior is (particularly toward women). While the movie comments on the band's drug use, it seems to revel in their womanizing, cheating, and dismissive attitude in general to the female gender.
• Values Dissonance: As with the original biography (written by the same man who wrote The Game (2005)), the movie has been criticized as sticking too much to the 80s idea that the band's treatment of women was to be admired rather than repulsed by during the #MeToo era.

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