8 Mile: 5/10

Rating: 5/10 (27 June 2003)

Basically, Eminem's acting `showcase' 8 Mile is one thing: unremarkable. Acting is unremarkable, direction, location, music, plot, all basic and nothing to write home about. About the only thing that could be said about this movie is the amount of language that was used (although it's nowhere near as much as South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut), and that's not something to brag about. The characters were all basic, no or barely any development to them, and they were just general people in Detroit.
The plot is nothing new, just basically a `day in the life of' movie. We follow Jimmy Smith, Jr. (Eminem). Could screenwriter Scott Silver think of a cleverer name? His nickname is Bunny Rabbit, aka Rabbit, aka B-Rabbit, and he's a struggling rapper who has to move in with his mom Stephanie (Kim Basinger) and little sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield), while being the only white rapper out there, being that this is supposed to be semi-autobiographical. He is `discriminated' against, but he works his way uplove these deep plots in movies today!
Well, what's there to talk about? I didn't feel anything for any of the characters, because there WERE none. I would have liked some development to all of the characters, since most of them were just thrown in there. Also, since everyone looked exactly the same, it was hard to tell everyone apart (well, obviously). We find out bits and pieces of Jimmy, Future (Mekhi Phifer), and Alex (Brittany Murphy), who pops up in various places. She must have used tons of hair gel to get her hair to stick out to make her look in poverty. LOOK in poverty, which isn't as good as Murphy actually acting like she was poor.
Eminem's acting was like this movie was: either love-it-or-hate-it. As in the movie, I didn't love it nor hate it. He's not that great of an actor-he shouldn't quit his day job-but he's not like Charlize Theron. Basinger, after winning Best Supporting Actress in another Curtis Hanson movie (L.A. Confidential), thought she could be worthy of another one, and she tried, by God she tried, but I'm sorry, you just didn't cut it. Phifer was okay, while Murphy was stiffer than her hair was during the movie.
Something that made this movie hard to believe is that it was `based' on Eminem's life. I can NOT believe this. This is not where Eminem had to live, it just seems so wrong. Also, I couldn't make sense out of that everyone was using the f- and n- word every second and had nowhere to go but still used 50-cent words. Basically, after you see 8 Mile, you won't learn anything new, your life won't be changed, you'll just have used up two hours of your life.
My rating: 5/10
Rated R for strong language, sexuality, some violence and drug use.