8 Mile (DVD 2003)

Ah, a movie starring a music star, never something that invties feelings of joy and anticipation (Glitter, anyone?). What we have here, however, is not a badly written, directed and acted pop song vehicle. Instead, 8 Mile is an extremely well written, well directed and well acted (yes, well acted) piece of film-making.
Like him or loathe him, his lyrics or whatever, Eminem is an undeniable presence in today's world, no matter what people like Tipper Gore in the US would have you think. He is also a good actor, at least when he is not required to stretch himself. Here he plays moody, resentful ands angry, all parts of his natural personality as it appears in public. I mean, this is man who wrote 'Stan'. But he can act, that is a fact. His persona has been watered down for the movie (or beefed up for Slim Shady, whichever you prefer). Here he is not homophobic (he even defends a gay man in a rap sparring battle at work), he is not a gangster (he gets beaten up by them), he is, despite his group of friends, pretty alone. He is prone to bursts of random and ferocious violence and temper tantrums. Okay, so you still sometimes see him as a rap star with somewhat objectionable views rather than the character he plays, but that's not the point. Overall, Jimmy Smith Jnr. is a pretty well drawn character, definitely not 100% likeable, but not wholly unsympathetic either.

After he chokes in the opening scene of the movie, a rap battle where rappers spar with each other, producing ingenious slices of rhyme, he is booed and ridiculed by all but his four friends and Alex (Brittany Murphy), a girl he meets. This is not a totally happy movie, it deals with a bleak landscape and bleaker lives, people stuck where they are because they can't bring themselves to leave, caught in a cycle of violence. That said, it provides a superb climax, when Jimmy (Eminem) enters a rap battle again in order to win out over the gang who have abused and beaten him. Here Eminem's verbal skills come into their own, and come the final, he owns the crowd. To the reviewer who took the moral high ground and said that this movie should never be compared to 'Rocky', due to the immoral nature of it's star, why is a man stringing together rhymes to overcome adversity worse than a man who is paid to beat another man into a pulp? The character Jimmy goes after in the final battle is ridiculed for reasons this reviewer saw as commendable, but the character is a violent, murderous bully who was threatening to kill Jimmy earlier in the movie, so why stand up for him? This is a movie about the underdog, and it has the likes of Rocky on the ropes from the word go.

You may not like Marshall Mathers III and his views on race sexuality and women, but for now, that's not the point. Yes, the movie is violent and full of swearing, but so are Scorsese movies, and he's hailed as a genius. Yes, the female characters are not held up as role models for young girls, but Alex does at least show her support and affection for Jimmy in spite of what happens. To conclude, you should watch 8 Mile, not because it's got Eminem in it, but because it is a very good movie.

In Marshall Mather's debut film he sends you through the life of Jimmy 'Rabbit', a white man trying to amke it big as a rapper in a community full of black rapper wannabes. Many people have questioned if Marshal has used this film to mirror his own early years, but some big differences and big simeralities have been put in to neither confirm or deny this comparison. The acting is top notch and the freestyles are amazing showing why exsactly Marshal is seen as proberly the best rapper around, its not just the film that makes it so good in my mind as the fact it shows how the individual can succeed in a world where he is the minority. Jimmy shows determination and grit to reach the top taking the downs in his stride, this is not just a rap film but a great drama with some great twists and turns.

Watch Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith played by Eminem deliver a mid-blowing Hip-Hop battle lyrical miracle. I must think this rhyming is rubbing off on me or something!

The film is based on his own life and experiences of growing up, although it is not a strict account of his own life.

Rabbit knows the way to establish himself and prosper with any kind of future is to battle using his rhymes to shred his opponent to pieces, therefore gaining respect in his run down neighbourhood in Detroit.

Along the way, Rabbit has a somewhat meaningless sexual encounter with Alex, played by Brittany Murphy. He grows fond of Alex and she later hurts him as he catches her having sex with another man.

His alcoholic mum, Stephanie played by Kim Basinger is threatened with eviction from her trailer park home and her boyfriend leaves after physically abusing her. Rabbit defends his mother by fighting her boyfriend and tells his mother to sort herself out for Hayley's sake.

Rabbit eventually comes good by defeating Papa Doc in the final battle by depriving him of his own lyrics by anticipating everything he had to say in his own script.

The film is a good movie for any hip-hop fan and you can appreciate the genius that is Eminem with his truly magnificent freestyle rapping abilities.

Wayne
24 Hour Shopaholics (eBay shop)

Eminem makes his feature debut in Curtis Hanson's film about an aspiring white rapper from the wrong side of the tracks in Detroit. Inspired by the star's own story
The road to Hollywood is littered with the corpses of pop stars who've tried their hand at acting and found the world wasn't ready for their close-ups (stand up Michael Jackson, Maria Carey, Madonna). Which is probably why 8 Mile has the oddball pairing of Eminem and Curtis Hanson. Just as Dr Dre lent Marshall Mathers III credibility when he emerged onto the hip hop scene a few years ago, Wonder Boys director Hanson gives the rapper cinematic legitimacy for his big screen debut - and, man, does he come off well.

As Rabbit, an aspiring MC from a broken home who's trying to work his way up through Detroit's black hip-hop clubs, he's essentially playing a fictionalised version of himself. However, rather than turn 8 Mile into an Eminem vanity project, Hanson and writer Scott Silver (Johns) hone the star's personality traits to create a strong, socially-aware character-driven drama.

Like Hanson's L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile has a strong sense of place. The title refers to the street that separates Detroit's affluent white neighbourhoods from its poor black ones and Hanson - by way of Amores Perros cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto's fluid-but-raw hand-held work - brilliantly captures the chaos of a once great industrial city gone to ruin. Rabbit, or Jimmy Smith Jr (Eminem), is the nominal white kid from the wrong side of the tracks who dreams of using his MC skills to get out of Detroit's run-down 313 area. By day he works in a steel plant, at night he works on his lyrics in the trailer he shares with his boozy, bingo-addicted white-trash mother Stephanie (Basinger) and adoring six-year-old sister Lily (Greenfield).

In the opening scenes we see Rabbit choke in front of a sea of black faces at a free-style battle hosted by his friend Future (Phifer). He scuttles off stage to catcalls of "Vanilla Ice" - something the real Slim Shady endured on his way up. The rest of the film is built around Rabbit finding his voice. On the surface it's a hip-hop Rocky, but while the subtext of Stallone's film was about putting a smart-talking black man - namely Muhammad Ali - in his place, 8 Mile is about defusing racial tension and focussing attention on the economic deprivation that intensifies division. As Future tells Rabbit: "When they hear you, it's not gonna matter what colour you are."

If there's a fault with this set-up it's that the women are under-served. Rabbit's love interest Alex (Brittany Murphy - looking like Courtney Love circa 1991), is a wannabe model who is trying to make it by screwing someone to help her get a portfolio together. As for Basinger, her moment of redemption comes when she wins the bingo. For a film that skilfully negotiates racial and class-issues with a minimum of clichés, it's a little depressing that it is so reductive with its female characters.

Verdict
Another fine effort from a director currently on a critical roll. Hanson is great at teasing the audience with little samples of his star's lyrical dexterity as he builds towards the finale.

With "8 Mile" Eminem cements his position as the noughties Madonna.

A new parent-worrying icon for disaffected youth, he already bosses pop music with his infectious rapping and controversial lyrics. Cinema is next.

Not that his celluloid bow is anywhere near as incendiary as the Daily Mail thinks his music is.

Rather, in the hands of "LA Confidential" director Curtis Hanson, it's a solidly built, rather old-fashioned yarn about a plucky underdog who triumphs in the face of adversity. Think "Rocky" with rapping.

The bouts in this setting are rap battles - in which rival rappers insult each other in turn, using the most imaginative and funny rhymes they can manage.

"8 Mile" opens with Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith (Eminem) freezing in his first such contest at the Shelter (where the Detroit-born star used to perform in real life).

Humiliated, he returns to the drudgery of his menial job and living with his trailer trash mom (Basinger - too glamorous for the role) next to the 8 Mile road, which separates the white suburbs from the largely black inner city.

The following week's battle could offer a chance of redemption - but will he take it?

Not hard to predict, obviously, but Eminem's semi-autobiographical drama at least manages not to embarrass its star or the audience (so the Madonna comparison ends here).

Scott Silver's script garnishes its clichés with effective social commentary. The former Marshall Mathers, meanwhile, is fine, if somewhat self-conscious, as he skulks about wearing his trademark look of wounded insolence.

The rapping is the real star. When Eminem takes centre stage, he's back in an arena he knows - and his charisma and remarkable linguistic dexterity make these profane, clever and funny scenes the best of the movie.

I LOVE THIS FILM.. ITS AMAZING!
DONT MISS OUT.. BUY IT!!

=]

...........................................................great film............................................................

yeah this one was one i will watch again for sure.

thought it was great as you followed and gained insight into the life of marshal mathers.
really educated you about the real Eminem, i definitly learned a lot about the guy, the raps are very funny, especially when eminem was rippin Xzhibit out of pimp my ride, humerous and also towards the end you are left sharing mathers feelings of happynes as he wins the raps.

5/5 from me!

this was another bargain from a great seller with 5* delivery and contact would highly recommend this seller

i liked the dvd because i like eminem and rap and hip hop music and iu think it is a really good film. i decided to buy the dvd because it is my kind of thing.

This is a great classic film with one of the best most respected rappers in the world.

It has an amazing storyline, even better music, and really good actors, Eminem acts as the main role, providing us with a breath-taking story, which can be related to real-life, and even more interesting - his own life.

This is definitely recommended for any eminem fan, or music fan alike.
You can also pick it up really cheap nowadays as I have just done (£4!!!), which is hardly gonna break the bank for an all time classic movie!

Get it ebayed now! =]

Wanted it cos love Eminem .. seen the film loads .. just everything about it .. thought with it being so cheap on ebay why not treat myself lol ! x

I'm no fan of this kind of music but this film is absolutely superb. Very well produced and the photography is excellent. Just buy a copy!!!

A great film.

What more can I say.

Not so good acting by Marshall, but a great film none of the less.

It's worth the money for the battles at the end, and the battles in the bouns section.

Decent storyline, decent action. A film that should be in every collection!

5*****

i brought this dvd for my son he said it was a great flim and i was plesaed with it cause it was a bargin

Very pleased all round, just love the film in every way, ive seen it before and wanted to own my own copy, thanku very much

top artist top film enjoyed all of it sick tunes,a story of a begining as well as a end a better life for his litte sister who he thought the world of,a world full of pain an suffering he nows he can overcome ,PEACE OUT RABBIT,

the rapping battles, i bought it because i have never seen it before and was new too ebay so decide to buy something cheap but goood

Amazing dvd. not many sratches if there were any it didnt effect the playing of the dvd case was in good condition

my girlfriend likes eggs. she has them fried, poached, boiled and scrambled. she really loves them. she has them on toast for breakfast dinner and tea. she even eats them with a roast dinner.

This is an excellent tale of rags to riches. Based loosely on eminems life before he became famous. This film tells how hard it is to get where you want to be, but that you have got to push yourself or else you wont make it! An excellent soundtrack represents this album.

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recommended buyer :D :D

decided to buy it because am quite big fan of eminem and realised i'd lost my video of 8 mile :D

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I like this film. I have seen it many times and will never tire of watching it. I think the acting is a little shaky at times but overall a good watch and good story line.