Surprisingly good drama, avoiding the usual Hollywood cliché's

Rating: 9/10 (3 April 2010)

I was surprised how good "8 Mile" was, really. I thought this was going to be another one of those "rapper's road from rags to riches" type of films. And let me tell you something, this is NOT the case here. It's just a very good drama. I love the realism in this film, and the fact that it avoids cliché's. There is no big-time gangsters with big guns here, there is no certain way for big time success - it's about hard life of young men in the poorest parts of Detroit. Unlike 99% of the rappers out there (50 Cent being the best example), Eminem actually did a good job with his role, and he did show some emotion range. It would be interesting to see him in another film in the future, I think he has some acting talent... The supporting cast is very strong, and I think that helped Eminem too (although I agree that Kim Basinger's acting wasn't really convincing). The film itself is dark, realistic, down to earth. There isn't really a bad guy, and even the main characters' rivals The Free World crew aren't that awful. The freestyle battles were really impressive, you could see that a Lot of thought was put into that part of the film, especially the last 15 minutes. All throughout the story, you get to hear that every says Eminem's character is such a great rapper, but you barely hear it. Until the end of the movie, where the big battles go through, and then you actually see what his character is all about. Although Britanny Murphy's character's motives weren't clear, I liked that about her, because that's sometime how life is. You cannot always tell what a girl or a man actually want. I thought that all of the characters had depth in them, they were definitely not one-dimensional. By the way this is not supposed to be Eminem's biography, it's just based on some experiences he had growing up in Detroit. I really cannot understand how could anyone compare "8 Mile" to that piece of trash excuse for a movie "Get Rich or Die Trying". 8 Miles is heads and shoulders above the second film I mentioned, and to me it's the best rap movie behind "Huslte and Flow". I definitely recommend this movie, not only to Eminem fans (I am not a fan too). I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. It's not really a rap movie, come to think of it. It's a movie about life, about struggle, about finding the way to make your life better, rather than getting stuck in one place. And isn't that something we all search for?...