8MM (1999)
*1/2 out of *****
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Anthony Heald Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker Directed by: Joel Schumacher Running Time: 124 minutes
**The following review contains spoilers**
"Please someone stop Joel Schumacher before he vomits into a film canister again and tries to pass it off as a movie." -- Chuck Dowling, The Jacksonville Film Journal
I wrote the above sentence in my review for 1997's Batman and Robin. Apparently, no one heard my words. Oh, how I wish you had heard them. Oh how I wish someone had stopped him... because he's done it again.
The plot of 8MM is similar to the 1977 Paul Schrader film Hardcore, a surprisingly decent and engrossing tale. In fact, it was everything that 8MM is not. In the opening minutes of 8MM, we see private detective Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) working on a case for a prestigious member of the U.S. Government. Keep this fact in mind, Cage is trusted with an important case, which he solves. He returns home to his wife and new daughter, and even finds time to rake his yard (keep that in mind too, it's important as well).
He's hired by a rich elderly woman to solve a mystery. After her husband's death she comes across a film in his private safe. It appears to be snuff film, a sort of urban legend of the pornography industry in which someone is actually brutally murdered for the camera. The woman wants Welles to locate the young girl in the film, hopefully to disprove that it is in fact a snuff film. So he sets off on a journey into the sordid underworld of sleaze to discover the truth about the film.
The main problem with 8MM is that the whole film is completely pointless. Welles is actually selected for the case by the old woman's lawyer (Anthony Heald, an actor who always plays the same type of character, that being a bad guy). When you first see him, your first instinct is that he's behind the whole thing. The choice of casting does the film in. Then, as Welles begins his investigation, at times we will see a shadowy figure following him. The only person it could possibly be is the lawyer (or someone sent by the lawyer) because no one knows Welles is even investigating anything yet. So your first instinct has now been confirmed. Then, when it is in fact revealed that the lawyer is a part of the whole thing, he tells Welles that he was chosen for the case because he was young and inexperienced (in one of those ridiculous "since we're going to kill you anyway, why not tell you the whole thing" moments). But earlier when we see Welles being hired for the case he's told that he was hired because he comes highly recommended. Huh? Also, when the lawyer reveals himself to be a part of the whole thing, his main goal is to get the film back. SO WHY DID HE GIVE IT UP IN THE FIRST PLACE?! The lawyer had the film the whole time, then gave it away to the private detective thinking that he would just give up on the case and return the film?! It's totally absurd... and this is the screenwriter of Seven?
Late in the film there's a confrontation between all the main characters, and after a struggle one of the character's guns ends up underneath a car. Cage, who has been handcuffed to a bed, is rapidly trying to get to his gun, which is on a table. James Gandolfini's character goes for the gun under the car in what is supposed to be a scene of "suspense". You see, the gun is just slightly out of reach from the side of the car he's trying to reach it from, and so instead of going around the car to the other side (where he can easily reach it) he just keeps stretching. GO AROUND TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR!! This goes on for minutes. Then, after Cage gets his gun, Gandolfini then decides it would be best to go around to the other side of the car. Boy, Schumacher is really really getting on my nerves. I think the final straw would be when Cage returns home, devastated by everything that he's seen on this case, and then IS NO LONGER ABLE TO RAKE HIS LAWN! We actually see a shot of him pathetically poking at leaves in his yard.
Other things that bugged me about 8MM: One would be the music, if you can call it that. Whenever the score starts up, it sounds like techno music, and then this awful Indian or middle eastern type music will accompany it. Awful decision there Joel. Another is Cage's performance. At this point he's capable of a wide range of performances, either good or bad. For 8MM, he delivers a very wooden one, and only shines when he's interacting with Joaquin Phoenix (who gives a great performance as a porn shop clerk with a heart of gold who helps Cage with his case). You're capable of much better Mr. Cage. Now as for you Mr. Schumacher... I'm starting to doubt if you're capable of anything else besides urinating onto the institution of American cinema. [R]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net
© 1999 of The Jacksonville Film Journal. No reviews may be reprinted without permission.
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