Mopower

OK, I tried searching but since you can't search for anything less than 4 charactors "8 mile" didn't work. Nothing came up under "8mile" Either. So, what was the point of the movie? Was it just a story about a white trash rapper wanna be that lives in the ghetto and the trials and trebulations that follow? Because his dead beat mom winning at Bingo and him finally going to "Battle" doesn't seem like that great of a storyline. I did think Eminem did a good acting job though. But am I missing something?

Darkfriend

I liked "Flashdance" so I didn't bother with this one sorry

badger1997

Well, my take was that the heart of the movie was that it's all right to dream and talk about what you want to do and where you plan to be, but if that's all you do, you're never going to get there. That's the message Rabbit learned by the end of the movie. That as great as it was to win in the battle, it didn't matter for crap unless he got off his ass and worked hard to make his life a success. Maybe I am just reading too much into it, but that's what I got and I thought it was a well-delivered message and a very realistic ending.

Jackskeleton

It's like the rocky of the rapping world....

Aaron Amos

To make Eminem a movie star?

badger1997

Nice to see we can get some serious discussion going on what I felt was one of the year's best films. But if everybody wants to be juvenile about it and crack wise, fine with me.

vdadlani219

Wow, thank god you have 2 "p"s in rapping, for a second there...

Mopower

I guess most of the responses have been juvenile and wise ass. So why do you think it was one of the best movies of the year? I would believe that there are some people that live like Rabbit and their lives go as such. I think of it as a just a movie about a few weeks of someones life. With no real plot of substance but maybe I am missing something.

Blade

There are a couple threads about this in the Feedback forum...but as a suggestion for the future (as this search engine problem isn't likely to change soon), if you can't use the words you want, try to think of other words that are likely to be associated with what you are looking for...in this case searching on eminem or rabbit should have worked. (mile works too, but you'd get a lot more hits and the other two are more efficient and specific).

Rogue588

Well...just got done watching Flash Rain...er...8 Mile.

What a waste of time.

Story? Stupid.

Acting? Barely there. Though, Em's friends didn't do that bad. I actually liked Mekhi here [but I can't stand him on ER].

While Em's last album was very good, the latest one sucked hard. The same could be said about his acting. I'm amazed that the mainstream critics/media all jumped on him as if he was the second coming of Brando [pre-Island Of Dr. Moreau ].

This was directed by Curtis Hansen, right? Or is Curtis Hansen the new name that directors use when they don't want their names attached to a film? [RIP Alan Smithee]

Gotta agree with Mopower on this. [Except for his assessment of Em's acting ability.]

Grimfarrow

I agree with youir analysis, badger1997. Not only doe sthe film advocate working hard, it also advocates doing it *by yourself*. Ultimately he learns that he cannot depend on others - he must make it happen himself.

IMO, I thought the film was pretty darn good. Heck, I gave it a four-star rating, same as my ratings for "Talk to Her" and "Time Out".

Pants

here is the collected posts of Yours Truely in reguards to 8 Mile which I named as one of the worst films of the year.

here was my first review 2 days after seeing the film:

Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible

I thought my life was boring untill I saw how boring a life eminem has.

Saw it Friday night and so far it is the worst film I've seen this year. I was so drasticly disapointed in this movie I don't even know where to start.

Number one, it commits the worst sin a film like this, aimed at a youth demo and popular appeal, can commit: IT IS F***ING BORING AS ALL GET OUT!!!!

Nothing happens for 1hr. 45min. then there is some rapping for 10min. and the movie is over. The plot is exactly like Rocky, except instead of seeing the relatively interesting sequences of rocky training for the fight, all we get in 8 Mile is Eminem driving around with his friends and doing nothing.

Now I like "driving around with friends and doing nothing" movies. I love Dazed and Confused and American Graffiti. But those films have incedent and good dialogue, AND THEY ARE FUNNY!!! This film is humorless, it has poorly writen dialogue, and when these characters hang out their lives have so little dramatic incident that the filmmakers resort to clumsy interludes where they burn down a house or shot a paintball gun out of a car. No drama + no suspense + no depth + no ambiguity = total auto-pilot wretchedness.

Then to top it all off THERE IS NO MUSIC IN THE MOVIE. I really like eminem and I thought this would be a musical that injected a half dozen or so song performances into the film (like its equally boring but nontheless MUSICAL cousin, Purple Rain, did so well). To discover that the whole movie is freeform rap battles was a real disapointment. There is only one Eminem song and it is over the end credits.

The packed theater I saw it with did not seem enthusiastic about the film, and they HATED Britney Murphey and (unlike Eminem) never forgave her for cheating. The guys and girls behind me were calling her a ho and a bitch up untill the last frame of the movie.

Total garbage. Total letdown. Biggest disapointment of the year. Waste of top tallent. Waste of eminem's musical tallent. Don't waste your money at the theater or on a rental.

Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible Horrible

And what the hell happened to Basinger's character. Talk about an underwriten part! She disapears 25min. before the end of the movie. Given Eminems well publicized battles with his mom I thought the film would explore more conflict betweent the mother and son. Instead her story is neatly (and hapily) wraped up and she disapears never to be seen again.


Here is another post from the following week:

The only people who like 8 Mile are idiot teen agers who don't know what a good movie is, and old fart film critics who think (incorrectly) that they can "buddy up" to the idiot teen agers by saying they like the film. All these old, white idiots think they can get some street cred' by liking this film. What's worse they distance themselves from the film's focus (eminem) by claiming they admire what the director (Curtis Hanson) brought to the table, which, after my viewing of this film, I deem to be NOTHING. This is not a Curtis Hanson movie. He brought nothing to the table. This is an eminem movie from start to finish, contrived to make him a star with synergy. The director with "artistic cred' " is there as a way of justifing this horible crass, commercial endevoure. Eminem's music is bold, brash, controversial, and (love it or hate it) never boring. His movie is cold, calculated, limp and BIGGEST SIN OF ALL boring, boring, boring.

And here is the quote from by Worst of 2002 list:

8 Mile: the musical that wasn't, and the film that geezer critics put on their top 10 list so young readers will think they are hip. I loved Eminem, untill now. What we need now is a new rapper to write a song calling Eminem a bitch for being in this turd. He went from being the supreme disher of disrespect to the person most worthy of recieving it. What a joke

kneijst1

I thought this was a great flick. I think Em's acting is getting too much praise, but I like how it wasn't a musical. It showed real life struggle and how one man overcomes it. I don't think the movie was as good as Hanson's earlier flick(LA Confidental), but that had a better story and better talent.
I thought the rap battles were excellent, as well as having a whole bunch of 90s rap hits on the movie's soundtrack(not the one you can buy in the store, even though that has some great "new" Em tracks)
Overall, I'd recommend it and am purchasing the DVD.

lesterlong

I was disappointed by it. I wish Eminem would of wrote the movie. His songs on his albums tell terrific stories whereas the movie didn't. The movie was unimaginative and cliched - everything Eminem's music is not.

JoeyOhhhh

To put Eminem in a movie, plain and simple.

Not like he was gonna beat out any actors in (insert random title that was released last year) for a role.

Josh H

I thought it was a pretty decent flick as well. Nothing spectacular but worth my time. I actually saw it a time and a half. My friend came down with the stomach flu and had to run to the bathroom and throw up the first time we saw it. So we went back the next weekend and watched the whole thing.

I thought it was a good (if some what over done and cliche) story of working hard to reach your goals and make you dream come true. Eminem was much better than I expected as well.

Giantrobo

The point?

$$$$$$ from young white suburbanites