"You can do anything you set your mind to, man."

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2020)

Eminem's head-on foray into the big screen is not as good as I remembered. While it is a solid film with a lethal soundtrack and some fine grim imagery of 1990's Detroit, it is fairly lacking when it comes to story and writing. Eminem is Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith. A steel-stamper at a car factory in Detroit. He is back living at home in his mother's trailer following the breakdown of his relationship. He dreams of making it on the rap and hip/hop circuit, but he is faced with prejudice on every stage as he is a white man attempting to make it in a black game. He chases this dream at 'The Shelter' where he engages in rap battles. After a bad night, he decides that something has got to happen with this soon, or he is out. He can't chase this dream on these bad streets much longer.
"Lose Yourself". One of Eminem's best songs was born from this movie, and it epitomises the soundtrack. Eminem is brilliant as Rabbit. It could have been a disaster, but watching his performance again last night I noticed he was modest and fairly humble. "8 Mile"s slight downfall is it's script. There is only so much Mathers can do here. We get a lot of what I'd call dead-end scenes of Rabbit and his crew bickering, meditating on life and getting in and back out of broken up Ford Escorts. Brittany Murphy's character was completely pointless. The last rap battle is truly epic and represents a tremendous character transformation. We root for Jimmy in them final scenes like we do for the underdog fighter in a million and one boxing movies.