Home :: DVD :: Musicals & Performing Arts :: Musicals  

Ballet & Dance
Biography
Broadway
Classical
Documentary
General
Instructional
Jazz
Musicals

Opera
World Music
8 Mile (Full Screen Edition)

8 Mile (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 .. 35 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Eminem can act
Review: Being an eminem fan I saw this movie the day it came out in theatres. I didn't know what to expect, I knew the Eminem could rap but had no idea about his acting skills.

I'm not going to say he was amazing and deserved an award for his performance but he was better than I expected. His character, Rabbit, came off as very real (although that was probably due to the fact that this movie had a strong resemblance to his actual life). Several other characters in this movie, from his friends Future and Cheddar to his alcoholic mother were likable in there own way.

I left the movie feeling uplifted. The movie had several good lessons in it and, thank God, did not have a sell-out hollywood ending in which Eminem would be on stage rapping his hit song and getting a record contract.

The acting was good, the rapping was amazing and the storyline had a good flow to it. I suggest that anyone who is a fan of Eminem to see this movie and even if you're not, you should give the movie a chance. You may take something away from it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: horrible
Review: Simply put, this is the most boring movie I have ever seen. The first 45 minutes is absolutely horrible. I didn't care about Jimmy Smith one iota, mainly because the first 45 minutes has absolutley no relevant dialogue. Most of the time I was dumbfounded at the lack of anything going on. Eminem's acting was alright but the script was either horrible or non-existent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Impressive debut by Eminem is a mildly flawed film
Review: I was extremely impressed with Eminem's screen debut, all the more so in that I am not at all a fan of rap. Unlike many other musical performers who try their hand at acting, Eminem is a natural in front of the camera, never coming across like an actor wannabe, never having dreadful moments in the film like one finds in similar efforts by Mariah Carey or Madonna. Moreover, the world in which Rabbit, the rapper Eminem portrays, lives is portrayed vividly and convincingly. It is a bleak, unpleasant, unforgiving world that offers little in the way of a future.

It is not a perfect film. Some of the characters struck me more as caricatures, like Kim Basinger's portrayal of Rabbit's mother. The mixture of friends wasn't completely convincing. Brittany Murphy's character is so vague as to be indecipherable. But despite the holes, the movie at its core is powerful and convincing.

The central event of the film is the "battle" of rappers near the end. At this point the movie feels more like a Western than anything, with young pretender to the crown of "Fastest Gun in Town" taking on and vanquishing all comers. These are among the best scenes in the film.

But in the end, many crucial issues are left untouched. One of the central dilemmas and contradictions of Eminem's career is his being white but having excelled in an overwhelmingly black musical genre. This crucial issue in Eminem's career was not addressed as explicitly in 8 MILE as I would have liked. It is referred to, but for the most part Rabbit's presence on the rap scene is accepted more than discussed. The central question of why a white kid would become a rapper is in the end not mentioned at all. Why did Rabbit cross over to a black musical genre? Interestingly, at one point in the film a movie is playing on TV. I recognized it as Douglas Sirk's IMITATION OF LIFE, a 1959 film in which a beautiful, light-skinned black girl passes for white, only to meet tragedy when the white kids discover she is black. Clearly this is intended to hint at the danger Rabbit is encountering in crossing racial boundaries, but it still doesn't answer the question of why he wanted to cross over to begin with. Why rap instead of punk? Why hip hop instead of a predominantly white form of music? None of this is dealt with, but it remains the central unresolved issue in the film.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Eminem can act, as long as he's playing a rapper.
Review: He won awards for this? I mean, come on! That's like giving Adam Sandler an award for being Adam Sandler. Basically you hear profanity every 3 seconds. His mom calls him bunny-rabbit because of his teeth and thats why he hates her. Big-deal. Go watch American Beauty, Goodfellas, Scarface, or This is Spinal Tap instead of this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My most favorite movie
Review: This movie was the beginning of me liking Em. I've been obsessed with Em ever since i've seen it. The week I borrowed 8 mile from my nieghbors, by the next week, I had all of Em's album CD's and 8 mile and I bought everything that had Em on it. It's a movie that tells you that you can make something of yourself,no matter what the circumstances are. It's such a terrific movie. Em is the most talented person in Rap. This movie tells about the talented Em and how he found his voice and became a legend.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All signs point to a Winner
Review: This movie is fantastic, i could sit here and tell you all my favorite parts.... but i wont.... all i'll tell you is as someone who's not even a huge rap fan or one of eminems in general..... this movie rocked..... definately worth buying before renting....

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Homeboy coasts, script dive-bombs
Review: Having grown up on 7 Mile (well, OK, far enough west of Detroit to own a horse) and with recommendations not only from 15-year-olds but my higher-ups at work, I was pretty curious to see this movie. Besides, "Lose Yourself" had already won my heart. Too bad "8 Mile" is not a full representation of that song, in all its angst and anxious ambition.

The plot (what there is of one) has already been thoroughly discussed in prior reviews (B. Rabbit, resident of the "uncool" burbs north of 8 Mile, chokes during his first rap face-off, meets a girl, hangs out with his buds from the cool, burnt-out slums south of 8 Mile, and eventually blows away the crowd with a rap worthy of Slim Shady hisself.)Actually, there is a great deal of potential in this story, which is the greatest disappointment.

The rap scenes are great, unsurprisingly. My favorite is the informal contest Rabbit gets into on a lunch break at the factory. And he's not Sir Laurence Olivier, but Mr. Mathers scores somewhere between Elvis and Madonna on the "Sure, the kid can sell CDs but can he act?" applause-o-meter. Anyway, you don't watch Eminem in a movie to watch him act, I presume; you go to hear him rap.

The other scenes are very difficult to either sit through, or understand. For example, Kim Basinger is downright embarrassing as Rabbit's mom. Just what we need: a movie enforcing more stereotypes, like the welfare mom in a trailer who is oversexed, neglects her kids, and has a fake southern accent (in Michigan?). And it took the whole movie for me to figure out that "the 810" and "the 313" refer to area codes...and I LIVE here! The rest of Rabbit's friends' dialogue flew by so fast I frequently was lost in the dust.

Finally, the values promoted in the film seem at cross purposes. Rabbit stands for loyalty, both to his friends and his family (even his wayward mom), trying to shield his sister from the violence that comes his way in the film. But after his girlfriend flippantly cheats on him, her re-entrance into his life without remorse or forgiveness is completely unexplained. (did a major scene get cut?) So is loyalty important, or not? And anger about urban blight leads to the gang burning down an abandoned, burned out house where they've learned someone was raped. No consequences ensue. The sentiments are understandable, but it would have been more interesting to at least touch on the fact that commiting a felony could leave a young life in ruins. The film never addresses the subject again.

So, when he's rapping, the star shines. When he's not, the script is confusing.

For Eminem devotees only. Everybody else, just fast forward to the rap scenes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I Didn't Want to Like Eminem
Review: Eminem always drove me crazy. I always saw him as one of those people so desperate for attention he was willing to say or do anything. With his inflammatory lyrics and personality, I assumed he had little talent and instead tried to get noticed by being controversial. I refused to give him any attention, even negative attention because I thought that was what he wanted.

Then 8 Mile came out. I am a huge film buff and I read a lot of reviews. Reviewer after reviewer kept saying good things about it. I finally admitted that I wanted to see it - for curiosity if nothing else. And I have to (begrudgingly) admit that he is talented, both as an actor and a performer. That almost makes me even more angry - if he really is talented, and I believe he is, why not allow that to carry him to the top? I always think that people who use shock value to get attention do so because they can't get attention on talent alone.

In any case, he can act. Eminem plays Rabbit, a guy in the poor section of Detroit, going through the motions of life, desperate for escape. He has two moods - depressedly morose, or explosively angry. I don't know if this is indicative of the real Eminem, but I hope that he smiles sometimes in real life. I don't think Rabbit ever does. To escape the monotony and sadness in his life, he participates in "battles" at a club where two rappers hurl insults back and forth at each other on stage.

I wasn't crazy about the Brittany Murphy character, Alex. I thought a lot more could have been done with this role. I would have liked to see more development with her and Rabbit. But all in all, it is a gripping tale. The final showdown between Rabbit and his archenemy at the club is astonishingly climactic and full of an energy that will leave you buzzing. I came away not necessarily an Eminem fan, but certainly with a newfound respect for him and his talent.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good story, [weak] acting, eminem rules, soft plot
Review: 8 Mile is the inspirational story of Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith, Jr., whose life revolves around fighting each day with his unstable, alcoholic mother (kim basinger in her worse, yet entertaining performance), taking care of his little sister, and overcoming his greatest fear: stage fright. This movie really loses its plot from the end of the first shelter sequence, and may be the most boring movie ever made, however the last half-hour make up for [weak], sparse action, a plot that has no solid ground, some [weak] performances [...], and mediocre directing all in all. Well done, interesting scenes throughout however, may keep you on your seat, and i do not see why eminem wasn't at least nominated for an oscar. The film won best song "Lose Yourself" 2003, and for any die-hard eminem fan, this movie is surely a winner, anyone else...well... in EM we trust to make it worth watching.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: so-so take on Eminem's "real life"
Review: I heard a lot of great things about this movie and was very interested in seeing what all the rave reviews were about. I was disappointed. While I think Eminem does a good job of portraying the character of Jimmy aka Rabbit, it is really just a somewhat autobiographical view of his life. While I think Em may have some acting ability, it is hard to judge based on this performance, as another reviewer pointed out, since he is basically playing himself in the film. The film does drag a bit and has a somewhat anti-climatic ending. It is inspirational in some regards, but I think it should have delved deeper into the characters. I have enjoyed Britney Murphy in other films but feel her talent was wasted here, as they simply made her character shallow and sluttish. I think the film did a fair job of portraying the rap battles, but again, could have been a bit deeper with some of the background story. All in all, it was okay. If you are an Em fan you will probably enjoy the film but others may be bored and disappointed.


<< 1 .. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 .. 35 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates