Rating: 
Summary: OK movie
Review: This movie was alright but Nicholas Cage didn't seem interested in anything. I just wanted to let people know that there really aren't "snuff" films. Most people wouldn't film the murder of someone, and then sell it. It would be too easy to track down the person who made it. Some deranged people videotape the torture of someone, but rarely does the actual murder rake place on film. I just wanted to let some of your minds at rest. One more thing, the Faces of Death videos are not snuff, and anyways, most of the clips are faked. There aren't usually multiple angles on things like that that are real.
Rating:
Summary: drab drama
Review: Probably the most unique aspect of this film in this age of videotape and DVDs is its choice of title. No one uses 8MM anymore, do they? Actually, 8MM is an essentially routine thriller given a patina of originality by being set in the sleazy world of hardcore, violent pornography. Unfortunately, like most mainstream commercial productions, this film never really explores this world in any depth, but uses it as window dressing for a tired, by-the-numbers private eye meller. The film stars Nicholas Cage as a Pennsylvania-based private investigator called in by a wealthy widow to determine whether a "snuff" film she's found among her late husband's personal possessions is the genuine article. Cage heads off to Hollywood, the mecca of all things pornographic, hooks up with Joaquin Phoenix as a Capote-reading porn shop clerk and all around nice guy, and stumbles into a den of iniquity that leads him to the mystery's eventual unraveling. Unlike a courageous film like 1984's "Tightrope", in which Clint Eastwood's cop character begins more and more to identify with the sleazy world he's investigating and, in the process, unlocks dark, hidden recesses buried deep within his own psyche, 8MM's main character never seems even momentarily ensnared by the dark visions seeping into his brain. Indeed, Cage's investigator remains morally superior throughout. This allows for the film to settle for a routine, bloodsoaked revenge melodrama resolution and to avoid having to develop and cope with a complex central character. Even though director Joel Schumacher manages to create an initial atmosphere of dark gloominess, it's essentially wasted in a welter of action movie cliches and unconvincing heroics. Too bad that a film that promises to open up a world on film unfamiliar to mainstream audiences manages to make even pornography and all the denizens that toil in it seem hopelessly humdrum.
Rating: 
Summary: The most realistic movie of the cinema's history !
Review: I find that 8mm is very very good. It isn't violents scenes, but the director Schumacher gives the viewer the responsability to think what was happening, for exemple when Eddie Poole talked Welles about the murder in the motel. Schumacher shows the true reality of thousands of girls and boys who want to become stars in Hollywood. He shows what is behind the great world of the cinema. It is probably the first movie to show us that, and for that it is a very very good movie. It shows a wounded mother, when she learnt that her girl was killed. It shows the rich men who pay one million dollars to see a poor girl murdered. Finally, it shows the hell on Earth.
Rating: 
Summary: Vilified, misunderstood and darkly brilliant
Review: This is a tough film to watch and many viewers will be offended by Walker's polished script and Schumacher's unflinching direction. For the most part, they do not judge the people in the porn industry. Only when you reach the dregs of illegal porn do you feel their wrath directed at men willing to kill a girl on film in order to profit by it, or just because they enjoy killing. Far from being a simple vigilante film, 8MM treats its horrific subject matter with candor, humanity and maturity. The scenes of sexuality and violence are briefer than expected (cut down in fact, to achieve the R rating), and this is all for the best. None of the deaths are easy to watch, because (as part of the film's subtext) all human life has value. We are not supposed to become inured to killing, no matter what the provocation. Nicholas Cage plays Tom Welles, a private investigator prized by the wealthy for his discretion. Called in to determine the authenticity of a snuff film, he moves from the adultery cases he usually handles into a deepening nightmare that stretches from Los Angeles to New York City. By the end of it, when he has made the decision to kill (not just to avenge the dead girl and her mother, but also to protect his wife and daughter from future harm), he finds he cannot pull the trigger. This is a rare moment in a "vigilante" movie. Most heroes kill the villains with seemingly little forethought and few repercussions. But 8MM is about gritty realism, and Cage takes us through Welles' private agony and the shocking act that allows him to take human lives. He returns home bearing scars he cannot share with his wife if he is to continue protecting her from what he has seen and done. Cage's quiet performance is perfect for this unsettling film. While not innocent of human behavior, Welles is shocked by the increasingly strange deviant sexuality, and Cage brings this across without bravado or hypocrisy. The early scenes between Welles and the dead girl's mother are subtle and heart-wrenching. When he finally explodes, it is not exhilirating, it is terrifying. The supporting cast of stage and film actors is outstanding. This film, which admittedly is not for everyone, is still an excellent effort, and Walker and Schumacher are to be commended for avoiding so many possible stumbles in this difficult work.
Rating:
Summary: 8MM
Review: Disturbing and thought provoking. Not for you faint of heart people, but if you want to see what real life can be like for the thousands of lost girls (and boys, although that is not explored in this movie) who dream of making it big and end up ground meat in the porn industry, rent this movie. I recommend every parent see this film to realize just how precious their children are. The scene where Janet related how her daughter hated her stepfather and ran away just to try to find a better life broke my heart! Some better life she found. Dead at hands of a sicko to make a few bucks. I thought the film was well made and Nick Cage's performance was only rivaled by that of Joaquin Phoenix as Max. I would like to have seen the relationship between Tom and his wife explored further (that's why I only gave it 4 stars). Although I am sure it gave Tom nightmares, I too am glad he killed them. They deserved it. God knows our justice system wasn't going to do anything about it.
Rating: 
Summary: A very disturbing film¿¿but
Review: To say this movie leaves you feeling bad is an understatement. However, this move makes you look and think about things that happen in real life and our overlooked or swallowed in the sea of apathy that is prevalent nowadays. Can you make yourself forget things you have seen and heard? Who knows its up to the individual to decide? Nicolas Cage does not give his best performance in this movie, but a solid performance nonetheless. This movie is definitely worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: Another Potentially Great film that never gets going
Review: This was the weekend of Potentially Great Movies, and Joel Schumacher's dip into the world of the infamous "snuff" film tops the list. It could have been an astounding movie, had it tried a little harder to break some barriers down (and had Nicholas Cage's role been better cast-- Cage just doesn't play a guy slowly having a nervous breakdown well) and been a little more subtle in its approach. As it was, it was a little too gratuitous, a little too exaggerated, and a little too detached. Which is too bad, because in the places where it shines, it really does shine.
Rating:
Summary: Snuff evil in our midst
Review: This film is a masterpiece. It starts with a vision of children in Hell's Kitchen, a deprived neighborhood of New York City in the sixties, where four boys, deeply religious or at least deeply influenced by religion and a priest, one day sink into a prank that turns criminal. They destroy the cart of a hotdog vendor, a Greek man who is working hard to bring his family to the US, and by doing so cause severe injuries to an innocent man who is crushed by the cart. They are sent to a boys' institution. This film shows how some young guards or wardens take advantage of the kids to give way to their sadistic violence and their perverted peadophiliac sexual drives. It is hell and not reformation, the hell of rape, beating, torturing, sexual assault in all possible forms. That is the first dimension of the film. The second dimension is revealed by the fact that two of those four boys recognize the worst of these guards in a restaurant one night (twenty or so years later) and just kill him on the spur of the moment and out of cold blood. The other two boys will organize their defense, with the help of some older people of the community and the trial will be rigged by the prosecutor who is one of them and a lawyer hired to go along with the setup. The trial becomes then a full denunciation of the hell those kids have lived in, through the counter-examination of a prosecuting witness, one of the two particularly vicious guards, a good friend of the one who was killed. This witness will later be killed by some black people, because the band of guards he belonged to managed to kill the brother of a black artist because he stood in their way and tried to prevent the « torturing ». This is the second level of the film. The third level comes with the search, by the fourth friend and the girl who was associated to their group, for a witness to give them a perfect alibi on the night of the murder. They find that witness in the person of the priest who had been their close adviser and religious friend all along. He swears on the Bible to tell the truth, but he lies skillfully and unquestionably to give them the alibi they need to be acquitted. But he does not really lie, in the eyes of God, because for him the condemnation of such hellish boys' institutions is more important than the freedom of the two boys. He saves the boys (close to thirty by then) to force public opinion and justice to look into those institutions, thanks to his priestly authority. This reveals that in life you never have to choose between good and evil, the truth and a lie. You have to choose most of the time between two evils, two lies, and you have to ponder in your soul and mind, in your human and religious responsibility, to know which evil and which lie are worse and then decide to support the least evil and the least vicious lie, and then your « lying » is between you and your soul, between you and your ethics, between you and your God, if you believe in God. This level is absolutely superbly done. Finally the film is in a way pessimistic about society that can only move on from lesser lie to lesser lie, from lesser evil to lesser evil. Society improves because the lesser lies and evils are chosen by the men and women who have some kind of humane and humanistic inspiration, based on personal ethics or on their religious beliefs. This film should be shown to all teenagers to demonstrate to them how ugly life can be at times and how they have to react with their souls, minds, thinking and intelligence, rather than with a pre-constructed code of behaviour or a set of pleasure-directed spontaneous feelings. God always forgive a lie if it reveals some evil and enables our human society to correct this evil and hence improve. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Universities of Paris IX and II.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing and Unpleasant.
Review: I still remember waiting for this one to come to the theatre. First of all, the previews gave no suggestion as to what the viewer was in for. When I finally saw it, I was disappointed as the story topics and images were so disturbing and graphic, it was hardly entertaining and definitely unenjoyable. I am a Nicolas Cage fan but he couldnt save this one. The whole idea of his going undercover as a lover of deviant and illegal pornographic film to solve a case is a little much to believe. Especially when he has a wife and child at home. It reminded me of how Al Pacino's character in "Cruising", went undercover as a frequenter of low-life, s&m, gay bars to catch a murderer of homosexuals. Who would volunteer to do that? Cage's character becomes obsessed and mentally disturbed by everything he sees but ultimately solves the case. The tone is set with the scene where Cage first views the "snuff" film of the murder. The way he reacts to it is how you will probably react to most of the movie, Shocked and sickened. The story is unpleasant and by the time the climax arrives, you'll probably be as numb as Cage's character. It's an experience all right, but not a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Disgusting
Review: I nearly vomited when watched this disgusting movie. Is that the director's will?? I must ask,and I really do not understand, why our director eagerly stress on evil side of the society so much, making this film all under a heretical atmosphere. And, the second half of it is full of blood. Cage, although with good performance, was very gray and negative here, both in tone, style, mood. This is an totally unhealthy film.
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