Great Film overall

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

When I think of 8 mile I think of the word "Realistic." I wouldn't say "Good" nor "Bad" but realistic.To start, the characters are very realistic, layered, and each one of them behaves in ways you'd expect people in their situations to be like. This is a heavy foundation of the film as you enjoy seeing these characters on screen and how they react to new situations. Also the direction was surprisingly well done. I went in expecting this film to be carried by it's star actor but the direction, especially the atmosphere of the city at night, was very authentic.However, the story is not the greatest. Don't get me wrong, the idea is great and I suppose all boys have at least dreamt about being a rapper, but the film fails to support it's realism in the story. Things happen in this film to inconvenience or convenience the main character, and don't happen naturally. Sometimes there is hinting that these things will happen but that is the most you are given. This makes the films three act structure really forced. Another problem I had was that the film sort of forced you to agree with its opinion. Staying spoiler free, the characters do things, or make some rhymes, and the film sort of says "Yeah that's right, this is cool, and this is right!" without leaving you the space to make your own mind. Final problem, for a film about music, there is quite a lack of music and original songs. There was only one original song, which was "Lose Yourself." It did deserve to win the Oscar as it matched everything in the film and, by itself, is a good song.Overall, I would recommend this film to watch as an example of what a totally realistic film looks like, for better or worse.

8 Mile is a 2002 hip hop drama film starring Eminem, Mekhi Phifer, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy and Michael Shannon. The movie is directed by Curtis Hanson. The Plot: The year is 1995 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith, Jr. (Eminem), a worker and a poor man, struggles with life. He has moved back north of 8 Mile Road to a run-down trailer home in Warren, Michigan. There he lives with his alcoholic mother Stephanie (Kim Basinger), his little sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield), and Stephanie's abusive boyfriend Greg (Michael Shannon). Jimmy is a rapper who his friends think that he is very talented. However, Jimmy has a lack of confidence about his ability. This anxiety causes him to choke and lose his rap battle at the hip-hop venue, "The Shelter", leaving the stage utterly humiliated.Jimmy works at New Detroit Stamping (a car factory). When he asks for extra shifts, his supervisor laughs in his face and rejects his request due to Jimmy's lateness to work. Jimmy becomes friends with Alex (Brittany Murphy). Over time, Jimmy becomes a lot more responsible for his actions and behaviors in the directions of his life. After he gains much improvement in his work ethic and behavior, his supervisor grants his request for extra shifts that he gave earlier.Stephanie receives a notice declaring that, because she and her family can not afford to pay the rent on her trailer, she and her family must vacate the premises immediately. Stephanie tries to keep it a secret, but Greg eventually finds out about it. Greg and Jimmy have a long and brutal fight, and when it's over, Greg leaves Stephanie for good. Jimmy has friend named Wink (Eugene Byrd), a radio DJ with links to a famous record label. Their friendship becomes torn after Wink does promotional work for Jimmy's rivals, "The Leaders of the Free World", a hip-hop group. Jimmy and his friends get into a brawl with the Free World and Jimmy's friend Cheddar Bob (Evan Jones) takes out a gun and accidentally shoots himself in the leg. He survives but is crippled and has to wear crutches.On lunch break at work one day, Mike (Xzibit), a lunch truck rapper insults a gay co-worker Paul (Craig Chandler). Jimmy joins the battle, roasting Mike and defending Paul. Alex is impressed by his actions and they go out on a date. Wink arranges for Jimmy to have a recording of a rap demo done at JLB, but when Jimmy gets there, he sees Wink doing it with Alex. Enraged, Jimmy beats up Wink. Alex yells at him to stop and eventually he does. In revengeful style or retaliation, the Free World assaults Jimmy and Papa Doc (Anthony Mackie), the leader of the gang, nearly kills Jimmy before being persuaded not to by Wink.Jimmy's beast friend and rap-host David "Future" Porter (Mekhi Phifer) encourages him to get revenge by competing against the Free World at the next rap battler at The Shelter. Jimmy's work conflicts with this, but Paul covers for him as a thank you for what Jimmy did earlier. Jimmy goes to the battle.Jimmy competes against the members of the Free World in every battle. 1st Round 1 - Lickety Split - wins. Round 2 - Lotto - wins. After winning the first two rounds he has to face Poppa Doc, the gang leader and the defending Rap Battle Champion. Jimmy raps first and exposes both his and Poppa Doc's weaknesses. Embarrassed with nothing to say back at Jimmy, Poppa Doc gives the mic back to Future. Jimmy wins the battle and is declared the NEW RAP BATTLE CHAMPION!After being congratulated by Alex and his friends, Future offers him a position as rap-battle host, alongside himself. Jimmy declines the offer stating he has to get back to work and make success on his own. He walks back to work with confidence and hope for the future. A rap masterpiece. 10/10.

8 Mile (2002) Great acting debut. Racial divide in Detroit, Cliché, dull until Epic final rap battle: Eminem versus Falcon. (Tanka (短歌 tan-kah) poems are unrhymed short poems that are five lines long, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format. #Tanka #PoemReview

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.