WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’m going to be completely honest, I’ve never really been a fan of Machine Gun Kelly’s. It’s like the guy has never really found his genre as he has a habit of moving from pop-punk to rap to, I guess, a little bit of country. He fell even further down in my estimations when he decided it was a good idea to take on the rap-god himself, Eminem! He had to be crazy to think that was a good idea! Well, I may not rate him as a music artist but let’s see if his acting is any different…
The Dirt
This goes to show how little I know about Motley Crue – I always thought Tommy Lee (played by Kelly in this film) was the lead singer not Vince Neil, meaning that I was concerned about using this film as I had assumed he would sing. Thankfully, that’s not the case as Tommy Lee was their drummer. I guess this film isn’t exactly about Motley Crue on the whole, but more about Nikki Sixx as quite a bit of the opening to the film seems to be him growing up and the lead up to the creation of the band, meaning that Kellly doesn’t have as big a role as you would maybe expect at first. However, each member (including Tommy Lee) gets their own little voice over and “introduction” like the fact that Tommy Lee introduces himself as being “all love all the time”, unlike Nikki. I feel bad for saying this, and they always say you shouldn’t make the comparison, but I think Sebastian Stan made a better lookalike for Tommy Lee in Tommy and Pam than Kelly does in this film. What I was happy to find out, is that Kelly actually learned to play the drums in order to portray Tommy Lee properly. Kelly seems to play Tommy as this young naïve guy, almost like an exuberant child – especially considering he has no idea that his fiancé has been sleeping with Nikki! Each character as the film goes on has their own moment to break the fourth wall and I have to admit – Tommy’s a mixture of awesome and gross all at the same time!
Nerve
I’ve actually had this film on my watchlist since it first dropped in 2016 — not because of Kelly, funnily enough, but because the whole concept grabbed me straight away. When he first shows up as the character @TYdontDY, I honestly assumed that was going to be the extent of his involvement: a quick cameo, a blink‑and‑you’ll‑miss‑him moment. Then he pops up again during Vee and Ian’s dare in the clothes shop. I’m pretty sure he’s the one who steals their clothes, too! And really, that’s his whole function in the film as Ty — he drifts in and out of the dares, just another participant swept up in the madness that Nerve. He barely speaks, offering only a handful of lines to Vee and Sydney, which makes him feel more like a non-playable character in a computer game than a fully-fledged character, giving just enough to move the plot along. I’ll be honest: they clearly wanted to land a big twist with Ty being under the mask in the final showdown dare, but the tattoos kind of gave the game away long before the mask came off.
Midnight in the Switchgrass
Much like The Dirt, this film is believed to be based on the true story of the Truckstop Killer in Texas, however the location has been changed. We meet Kelly’s character of Calvin very early in the film, and I can only assume he’s supposed to be a pimp considering Megan Fox’s character of Detective Lombardo is posing as a prostitute when they meet. Let’s just say she royally kicks his ass! This is one of only two scenes he appears and in both he appears alongside his future ex-fiancé. His second scene is around an hour into the film and he’s only back because Lombardo goes to shake him down to find out who he had scared away when he busted her sting. It clearly hasn’t been a long time between them meeting considering his face is still battered from her beating him up in the hotel room. They try to give him a little bit of humanity I guess when he tells her about seeing his father commit suicide but it’s not really that important to his character or the storyline.
Honorary Mentions
I do have to admit, I wasn’t expecting Machine Gun Kelly to have done that many films but when I looked his list, there were definite quite a few – centred mainly around 2016, including Viral and The Land. Considering I’ve seen Bird Box it shocked me that he’s in it, but I guess I either didn’t really know who he was when I watched it, or he didn’t have that much impact in the film.
