Mediocre, but I expected far worse.

Rating: 6/10 (21 September 2004)

A young factory hand wants to become a rapper - but he is handicapped by being poor and white.
All right, cards on the table. I don't like Eminem. Well, in truth, I think he is a bit of a moron. I also don't like rap much either. So I guess I didn't come to this movie with much hope for it - but you know, it is not that bad. Not that good either, but for a star vehicle it is not at all bad. I expected much worse. A modern Elvis movie, maybe.
This is a film from the put-filters-on-the-camera and wobble-it-a-lot school. Makes it look like a documentary and, therefore, more real. Or so the propaganda goes.
There isn't a lot of originality here, but it is at least a good taste stealer. Rocky and the Karate Kid spring to mind. The thing that surprises is that Marshall Bruce Mathers III (Em') is cool and collected before the camera. A bit one-note, but not a bad first try. Maybe his secret is that he couldn't care less about how he looks or acts - like the way he says things to offend people in his lyrics.
Wrong-side-of-the-tracks Detroit looks like the slum it really is and the support characters look real enough too. If only the central music was any good it might please this over 40 - but it doesn't. Doggerel verse is no big deal and besides - where has rap gone in twenty years? Nowhere! Rock has taken some of its tricks, but rap remains dumb and stuck. Guys moaning and about their lot and girls they would like to have sex with.
There might be a sequel - and if this makes enough money there is bound to be - but I won't be watching. This was plenty for me. There are enough pros behind the scenes to keep this going to the end, but there is little to really make it essential viewing. Even for a hardened rap fan.