8MM
** (out of 4) - a fair movie
Release Date: February 26, 1999 Starring: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Christopher Bauer, Catherine Keener, Amy Morton Directed by: Joel Schumacher Distributed by: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment MPAA Rating: R (strong perverse sexuality and violence, strong language) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1999/8mm.htm
Graphically intense movies can be thrillers and they can be exposés, but 8MM is neither and therein lies its problem. There's too much fiction for 8MM to deliver any sort of social message about the underground world of pornography; and there's no sense of intense storytelling for 8MM to be considered a successful thriller. Instead, the latest film from BATMAN AND ROBIN director Joel Schumacher is a run-of-the-mill detective story with darkly ambitious overtones.
The movie is dark to the point of repulsion, and in this respect it is most successful. Advance word from critics and the MPAA's reasons for certification trumpeted tales of a very raw and very edgy movie; instead, Schumacher plays up the movie with smoke and mirrors. Given the horrific nature of the tale, it's a testament to Schumacher's brief moments of genius that he actually shows very little substance. Much is assumed in 8MM.
What isn't assumed are the story's basic facts, which never really change throughout the course of the movie -- destroying any hope for suspenseful thrillerism. Nicolas Cage stars as private investigator Tom Welles, who is called upon the recently widowed Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter) to investigate the contents of her dead husband's private safe. Of particular concern is an ominous reel of eight millimeter film which contains a pornographic movie that ends with a brutal murder. Mrs. Christian asks Tom to find out if the film is real, and more importantly, if the girl is still alive.
All of this is laid out in the film's opening scenes, and so the audience is not left to ask any questions. Within moments, Tom has several solid leads, one of which takes him to Los Angeles where he meets up with streetwise porn dealer Max California (Joaquin Phoenix). Max provides the movie's dark comedy, and to great effect. The Andrew Kevin Walker script handles supporting characters like Max awkwardly, thus resulting in the movie's muddled nature. It does not do well to reject the character of Max, one of the audience's only sympathetic ties to the plot, and it makes much ado about the identity of the masked man, which has no bearing on the plot's outcome.
The rest of the movie is standard fare. Nicolas Cage sleepwalks through his role and provides little entertainment benefit other than the guaranteed box office minimum for Columbia Pictures. And, despite seventeen films and twenty-five years in the film industry, it's still hard to call Joel Schumacher's work anything but goofy. For most, this will not be an essential film to see.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush
-- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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