No director in recent memory has been as villified as Joel Schumacher, the man responsible for the universally reviled "Batman and Robin." In truth, Schumacher has made some stylish entertainments in his day, including "Flatliners," "The Lost Boys," "Cousins" and "The Client," but to read some of the criticisms leveled against him on various Web sites, you'd think he was responsible for genocide rather than for killing off a movie franchise.
Faced with such derision, Schumacher might have seen "8mm" as a chance to restore his artistic credibility. Instead, the movie turns out to be an even bigger embarrassment than "Batman and Robin"; it's far more pretentious and self-important, and displays almost no hint of Schumacher's usually dead-on visual sense.
In terms of its content, "8mm" is closer to the infamous howler "Hardcore," in which George C. Scott plays a Grand Rapids Bible-beater who cruises Hollywood looking for his trampy daughter, than to "Boogie Nights." Even the setup borders on the ridiculous as private eye Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage, in his dullest performance since "Zandalee") is hired by a rich widow - named Mrs. Christian, just to make sure we all get the point - to determine whether or not a film she found in her late husband's vault features a genuine sex slaying.
Why's she so concerned? Who knows? The request is just an excuse to send Welles into a seamy underworld of sex for sale, where he teams up with streetwise Max (Joaquin Phoenix) to find the sinister sleaze merchants responsible for the movie. Andrew Kevin Walker's lethargic screenplay has to throw in such cliches as a secret diary and a fight to the death in a graveyard just to move its plot forward.
The second half of "8mm" turns into a sort of "Pornman and Robin" as our intrepid heroes are manhandled, handcuffed to beds, tied to crosses and threatened with all manner of debauchery. Meanwhile, Welles' wife Amy (Catherine Keener) drops in occasionally to bleat such time-honored standards as "why didn't you call me?" and "I can't go on like this!" offering some credence to Tom's heterosexuality as Schumacher routinely - and teasingly - makes it seem as if Tom and Max are moments away from wrinkling the sheets together.
Despite numerous shots of bondage gear and women in chains, "8mm" has little information to reveal about the S&M culture, and what information it does present is served up with sanctimony. Making a yawn-inducing movie about erotica is quite a trick, but Schumacher has somehow managed to pull it off.
Come back, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. All is forgiven.
James Sanford
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