Life is a dumpster

Rating: 2/10 (1 February 2004)

Well, Eminem looked in the dumpster that sits malodorously behind some trailer park and said, "Yo, here's the makings of a movie like on my life, yo!" So they took the rotting, dripping remnants of a bunch of real movies, added a past-its-date movie star (Kim Basinger), and, knowing a huge audience pre-existed for any Eminem offering, voila!
I happen to be an Eminem music fan, but his first acting effort is flawed by a few things, some may be beyond his control: The relentlessly depressing and muddled story of the existence of the main character, an actual lack of good rap, a lack of any sympathetic character the viewer can care about, and direction that one can almost hear as "now give us (him/her/it/them/me) a long angry glare, Marshall".
The parts they found to put this mess together were ripped from the rotting corpses of, "Permanent Record", "Rocky", "Bye, Bye, Birdie", "West Side Story", "Flashdance", "Karate Kid", "Dirty Dancing", "Sling Blade", "Footloose" "The Champ", etc.
Despite all this, Mathers does show some potential as an actor. With some training, practice, and a good director he may actually be able to turn in a decent performance. He's a talented guy, once he gets his hand away from his groin.