Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Paul J. Nemecek There is a close-up two-shot near the end of Eight Mile where Jimmy Smith (Eminem) is facing Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie). Both characters are in profile in a shot very reminiscent of Sly Stallone facing off with Mr. T in Rocky II. This is as it should be. When we look at the structure and theme of the film, Eight Mile could easily be described as Rocky does rap.In the Rocky movies (and for that matter in Flashdance), working-class nobodies in dead-end jobs are given a shot at the big time-a title match and admission to an elite ballet school respectively. While the formula is similar in all three films there are marked differences that make Eight Mile more than just another formula film.In this film, the American dream mythology is pushed to the background, and the lives of the inhabitants of the neighborhood are moved to the foreground. This movie also ends differently than the others, and the difference is important, but giving movie endings away is a major violation of the film critic's creed.I like movies where the setting becomes a character in its own right. Here the setting is just south of Eight Mile Rd. in Detroit. Eight Mile Rd. separates the poorer black community from the wealthy white suburban community, and Eminem plays a white rapper on the wrong side of the tracks. As the movie begins, we see him nervously preparing for a "rap" battle in which contestants go onstage and disparage each other in their rapping. Jimmy chokes and is forced to leave the stage in disgrace. Among his interracial group of supporters, Future (Mekhi Phifer) is the one who sees real talent in Jimmy's rap and continues to push him.Kim Basinger plays Jimmy's mom, a woman who attaches her dreams to empty promises, alcohol, and bingo games. When Jimmy's fortunes take a downturn he is forced to return to the trailer where his mother lives with her live-in boyfriend and Jimmy's younger sister.If the movie were primarily about rap music, I probably would not have seen it. When I do listen to rap it is usually in my role as sociologist (as opposed to my role of music lover). I am not a fan of rap, particularly the misogynistic, homophobic form that Eminem is noted for. But the film is primarily about social conditions in America's abandoned cities and the inhabitants who are trapped and disenfranchised. While I am not a fan of Eminem the rapper (or for that matter, Eminem the person) I am now a fan of Eminem the actor. His performance is solid and has a stamp of authenticity that serves the film well. His work is enhanced by solid supporting performances from Phifer, Basinger, and Brittany Murphy. If you are interested in an engaging, slice-of-life film depicting the part of American society that most citizens ignore or avoid this is worth a look.If, however, your primary moral/aesthetic criteria for art involve the presence or absence of the big three (the big three being language, sex, and violence) be forewarned. Because the film depicts rap artists the coarse language is a given and it is pretty raw. The violence is minor compared to other similar films, but there are several scenes depicting sexual promiscuity here. The sexual promiscuity is used to reveal character (or lack thereof) and while graphic it is thematically redemptive in that it does show the negative consequences and shallowness of these fallen encounters. While the sexual encounters depicted are more graphic than viewers will see in the upcoming James Bond film, they are more positive precisely because they don't glorify the promiscuity as the Bond films do. In the end, this is a powerful film that goes beyond the cliches to give us an interesting depiction of urban America, but it is a rough ride. If you are easily offended by depictions of fallen humans in all of their brokenness, this film may just leave you shaken, not stirred.

TracerFanboy I've seen my fair share of movies. This one has to be one of, if not my favorite. In short, it's a story about a struggling rapper (played by Eminem) living in a trailer with his mom. If you're a fan of hip-hop, I highly recommend you watch this film.Even if you're not, the movie as a whole is great.

SquigglyCrunch 8 Mile is a biography following rapper 'Eminem' in a week leading up to when people started to notice his talent more, starting with a couple of freestyle rap battles. Eminem was hired to play himself in this movie, and he does a great job...at rapping. He really does, the rap battles are the best parts of the movie, and whenever the script demands that he open his mouth to do so it's something of a treat to listen to. As for his acting, I really can't say the same. He holds the same deadpan expression for the entire movie, whether he's being beaten up or trying to show compassion. It's always just wide open eyes like a fish, a drooping face, and a slightly gaped mouth constantly moaning 'duuuuuuuh...' At least that's how it looks. With the subject matter this movie handles, an effectively emotional performance would make or break pretty much every major scene, but all we got was deadpan Eminem trying to put some level of emotion into his voice or face but failing miserably. He's a horrid actor, and I'm so happy he never continued. As for the rest of the cast, they aren't anything special either. This is closer to being the writing's fault, but nobody bothers to try to push their characters past black stereotypes. They all talk the same, walk the same, and act the same. They're just different sizes and shapes. Now you could argue that they actually acted like that in real life, this is a biography after all. However, I am all for changing the source material for the betterment of the film. This is a film, it's entertainment. If a better actor were chosen for Eminem we could have gotten a deep and engaging character, but we just got Senior Deadpan over here. I'd have changed the source material if Eminem really was this boring of a person, then hired a better actor. As for the writing, it's one of the main reasons this movie sucks. None of the characters are written to be interesting or deep or anything. I didn't care about any of them, especially not when they decide to spend their nights lighting houses on fire with people still in them. And yes, there is actually a scene where that happens. It's absurdly stupid. There are plenty of other dumb scenes, like two characters sneaking off during their lunch break to engage in intercourse in a factory, surrounded by machinery. Machinery that could probably kill them if turned on at the wrong moment. Then the male party in this scene has the audacity to get mad when his female counterpart goes and engages in intercourse with someone else. Maybe that would be a bigger deal if they'd known each other long enough to be 'going steady'. They knew each other for two whole days, and spoke maybe twice. It's a one-night stand, male party, do you seriously expect her to be committed to you? Apparently. I don't want to say much more, but more stupidity ensues from this already dumb situation. Seriously, there's nothing to this writing. Even the dialogue is uninspired and uninteresting. It's hopelessly average at best, horridly stupid at worst. It's like the screenplay was written by a sixth grader who just learned some new swear words and had a couple sex-ed classes. The movie is overloaded with cussing, and while I have no problem with cursing in movies, it's used in so much excess that the audience becomes numb to it, and whatever effect it had beforehand is completely lost. I couldn't tell when a line of dialogue was supposed to be emphasized because a) cussing happened in every sentence, which would normally bring emphasis to a scene but instead blended in with the rest of the dialogue and b) because all the acting was so dull that it was impossible to tell whether the characters were trying to emphasize anything they were saying. Like I said earlier, the characters are all completely bland. Every single one is just a blatant embodiment of their own racial stereotype, save for Eminem. Although he's just a white guy acting black, so there's really nothing to his character anyway. There's this fantastically awful scene where a character forgets to take his finger off the trigger of his gun and shoots himself with it. It makes me wonder how completely stupid you'd have to be to actually manage that. And again, I don't care if it really happened, though I find that to be the most unbelievable part of the whole movie. Overall 8 Mile is a walking trash can filled with all it's qualities. The writing is garbage, the characters are junk, and the acting is rubbish. There's nothing to this movie, save for the handful of rapping scenes. In a near 2 hour movie, there really wasn't enough rapping to save it, although even that would get old after 2 hours. In the end I would never recommend investing even a second in this movie.

Irishchatter I have to say, I never seen Eminem be in a lead role before. He absolutely killed it! He is such a legend like I wish he acted in more films like this! I like the fact he just was himself even if he was only just acting. I'm also glad that Brittany Murphy (RIP) played his love interest. I wish they didn't make her character cheat on Eminems character. Both herself and Eminem were just an amazing couple together. You can see in the sex scenes, they just were so passionate of each other. I'm not sure if they went out in real life but you know well that they had something between them! It's too bad Murphy isn't with us anymore, she was such a great actress ;(A very good strong movie about rap culture. I give this film a rating of 8/10!