The following review is supplied by www.dvdfuture.com
Director: Joel Schumacher Producor: Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund, Joel Schumacher Writer: Andrew Kevin Walker
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Characters: Tom Welles - Nicolas Cage Max - Joaquin Phoenix Eddie Poole - James Gandolfini Dino Velvet - Peter Stormare Machine - Chris Bauer Longdale - Anthony Heald Amy Welles - Catherine Keener
Review: I was originally going to write a review of the new Joel Schumacher/Nicolas Cage flick 8MM, but determined it was too short to carry itself, so I'll include it here as a part of a larger overall editorial.
If Joel Schumacher wanted to make a movie about snuff films, he started out on the right track. What he should have done though, is set up a camera, then given some poor hapless viewer a gun, one bullet, and a copy of this movie. Voila! Instant snuff.
Now, I'm not saying that 8MM was a bad film, it was terrible! From the terrible shots, to the terrible editing, to the bland lighting (there's a scene in a bedroom where a light switch behind Cage is turned on...only there's no light!) to the boring sound mix. This film just reeks of bad.
The blame here lies squarely on the shoulders of Joel Schumacher, who hasn't made a worthwhile film since 1987 (The Lost Boys), and has never made a film which has had a large social impact (unless you count the negative impact of Batman & Robin).
Schumacher took Andrew Kevin Walker's (Seven) script, and homogenized it to the point where Walker left the picture. Walker's take on the new version of the script? "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
Now, anyone who's ever watched a movie knows that great movies start with a great script. Schumacher has managed to screw up more great scripts than anyone in Hollywood history. Don't believe me? Let's look at a list of his film work:
His career in film work started with The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981 starring Lily Tomlin. Mediocre at best. This segued into D.C. Cab in 1983. Again, mediocre. We then have Schumacher's first genuine "hit", St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Lots of people absolutely love this movie. I found it bland, boring and pretentious. This is followed by The Lost Boys (1987), which I enjoyed, but would hardly call a classic like some people. He followed probably his two most popular movies with Cousins (1989) starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini. Great...a flick about wife-swapping. He then went on to make Flatliners (1990), which could have been fantastic. Of course, Schumacher screwed it up. He decided the best way to follow up a film about death was with another film about...death...this time starring Julia Robers and Campbell Scott, Dying Young (1991). A movie which absolutely failed in its effort to bring emotion to the screen because of its absolute desire to be as dark and depressing as possible. Note to Schumacher: people with terminal illnesses still know how to have fun sometimes, and if you would've showed that the dark moments would've had more emotional impact. If everything is depressing all time, nobody knows what to relate to. Schumacher then created what is probably one of his most controversial films, Falling Down (1993). Michael Douglas carried this film. His performance was outstanding. Schumacher's direction was far from special (go back and watch it again, you'll see exactly what I mean). Schumacher then proceeded to screw up The Client (1994) by making it too preachy. After that, some drunken fool at Warner Brothers gave Schumacher the Batman franchise and he wasted no time in driving it into the ground. First by letting Jim Carrey do all the work in Batman Forever (1995). I felt sorry for Carrey, because it has to be hard to be the only good thing in a film. Then he put the final nails in the Batman coffin with Batman & Robin (1997). In between his two Batman "films", Schumacher had time to screw up another Grisham novel, A Time to Kill (1996). Samuel L. Jackson carried the film this time (but he wasn't in it enough to actually save it). That brings us to the present, and the ever- excellent Cage in the incredibly bad 8MM. Not exactly a stellar record.
This brings me to the point. Schumacher is directing a new film now, Flawless. This film is due sometime later this year. Once again he has somehow managed to con a great cast (led by Robert DeNiro), and I'm sure the film will have a fantastic marketing campaign (as all his films do). I think I've finally had enough. I'll be skipping this one. I'm a huge DeNiro fan, but Schumacher is just too much of a hack to make it work. I'm skipping it, and his next one, and his next one. Maybe if enough people do this, someone will force Schumacher to stop making films.
SOMEBODY FIRE THIS MAN!
Argh...
Until next time, go see a movie (not 8MM!).
Ken Pierce Contributing Editor: www.dvdfuture.com
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