Mediocrity at it's best

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 2003)

8 Mile is a solid film, but highly overrated. Eminem is a talented lyricist, but a bad actor. It's no mystery that this movie is based on Eminem's life, but Eminem does almost as poor a job at playing himself as Evan did on Joe Millionaire. However, the the supporting cast does a tremendous job of playing off Eminem's character, thus making this film watchable.
Kim Basinger (in her role as the only woman in Detroit with a Southern accent) could have easily garnered an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Stephanie Smith if this film hadn't been seen as a "teeny-bopper" trend movie by critics.
Mekhi Phifer's performance as Future completely compensates for his horrible performance as Odin James in "O".
Brittany Murphy just tried too hard. She almost became a serious actress with her performance in "Girl, Interrupted", but she slipped in this movie. Fortunately, Eminem was able to play off of her character to make her seem believable.
Make no mistake, this is a solid movie, and I'm a fan of Eminem's music. Unfortunately, I don't feel that this film was able to reflect the true talent of any of it's major players.