After being together for 34 years, the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe disbanded at the end of 2015. The umlauts are not pronounced, and the group do not discuss it. This movie is a record of their final concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on 31 December. For a non-believer like me, there is something fascinating in their almighty “screw you” attitude. Admittedly, in an arena of adoring fans, there is really no one to say “screw you” to – except of course the critics, who have never much liked Mötley Crüe. And Mötley Crüe, like Millwall FC, don’t care.
Their show is of course madly over the top, including hair-raisingly dangerous pyrotechnic displays and huge sheets of flame. Their pyro-technicians were told: “Make it so obnoxious you can’t stand it, and then double it.” Their cover version of Brownsville Station’s Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room, comes unsqueamishly with a riff-quote from, erm, Gary Glitter’s Rock and Roll. There is a very Spinal Tap moment when drummer Tommy Lee plays on a kit that is transported through the air over the crowd’s heads on a rollercoaster-type monorail. Of course it gets jammed and Lee has to be rescued, though without relinquishing his rock’n’roll attitude.
