8MM Review by Kota Yamaguchi
Starring Nicholas Cage Directed by Joel Schumacher
Nicholas Cage plays Tom Welles, the P.I. looking for the killer of the girl in the mystery 8mm reel. The reel was found in the safe of a millionaire(billionaire?), and the widow wants to know for sure if the murder is authentic or not. Tom takes up the case after concluding that the murder is real. He is given free reign over the budget to find the perpetuators. He travels to Hollywood after finding a secret note in the girls house, then to New York City to stalk the killer. On his stop in Hollywood, he befriends a porn store clerk. Max(Joaquin Phoenix) brings a welcome bit of lightness to an otherwise morose film.
8MM is a prototypical Schumacher film, as Joel bends over backwards to let us know that Snuff Films are bad. The mistake he made in "A Time Kill", and he repeats here, is that he tries too hard to make bad guys look evil to justify the ensuing vengeance. There is also a tedious subplot between Tom and his wife which should have been cut. I applaud Nicholas Cage and Joel Schumacher for tackling such a taboo subject, but the finished work is unconvincing as a study of someone who takes the law into his own hands.
**/****
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