Midgets, strippers and Motley Crue

REVIEW

By Wayne Parry

updated 5:10 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2005

“Motley Crue: Carnival Of Sins” has all the crazy antics that make the band great: unicycle-riding midgets, fire-eating lesbian strippers, topless female fans ... oh yeah, there’s music in there somewhere, too.

The DVD chronicling the legendary heavy metal band’s 155-city reunion tour this year embraces the best — and worst — clichés of the live concert video for a show that faithfully represents the delightful decadence perpetrated on a willing audience for 2 1/2 hours each night.

The concert disc starts with the Claymation-style animated video that introduced each concert, where the band hears about a killer planetoid hurtling toward Earth. Initially bummed that it might disrupt their reunion tour, the addled band members later try to knock the giant rock off course by shooting a silicone-enhanced groupie at it, with disastrous results.

Then the concert itself starts, with a midget wearing an evil clown mask dancing onstage as two fishnet-and-lingerie-clad strippers emerge from a box on the floor, simulate a sex act, then make way for the band, who roar into “Shout At The Devil” as flames shoot skyward and a red-and-white-striped big top curtain surrounds the stage.

The strippers, or “aerialists and dancers,” as the credits refer to them, are a recurring prop throughout the concert, providing something to look at once you’re tired of guitarist Mick Mars’ skeletal pallor, drummer Tommy Lee’s clown makeup, vocalist Vince Neil’s baby fat and bassist Nikki Sixx’s best blood-spitting Gene Simmons impersonation.

The most entertaining portion of the first disc comes on “Tommy Cam,” where Lee grabs a hand-held video camera and exhorts buxom female fans to take their tops off for the giant video screens, which dozens do.

Their playing is tight throughout, and the set list includes hits like “Looks That Kill,” “Too Young To Fall In Love,” “Home Sweet Home” and “Kickstart My Heart.” There are also steaming covers of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter,” and the closing number, the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The U.K.” in which the entire ensemble — midgets, strippers and musicians alike — cavort in joyous celebration of, well, anarchy.

Disc two is the predictable mix of bonus footage including interviews, backstage stuff, and four music videos. The two-disc set, clocking in at 210 minutes, is rated R for nudity, sexual images and language. Lots and lots of language, dude.

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