Lose Yourself in 8 Mile

Rating: 8/10 (4 September 2012)

I guess anybody could act in a movie about their own life but Eminem still did do a good job. 8 mile is a neighborhood in Detroit where young Eminem tried to become known. 8 Mile is a story of Bunny Rabbit, Eminem, struggling to make it in the rap industry and life in general. He attempts a rap battle and fails. He draws a blank and completely embarrassed himself. Rabbit then decides to put his life on track and focus on his actual job and less on his friends, the 313rd gang if you will. He stays loyal to his friends and still tries to rap but he struggles throughout the movie with love, work, rap, his mother, friends, enemies, and life in general.
As a rapper Eminem is fantastic, my favorite even so I'm a little biased towards the movie to be honest. His acting was sub-par but I had very little expectations. The character Rabbit was very interesting. He flipped his priorities a lot between his family, his job, his friends, and his musical career. He was unsure of what he really wanted and he tried to do everything at once. He is a great character. He is smart, talented, funny, and even relatable. Everyone has been through tough times and everything seems to go from bad to worse. This is basically what happens. The movie starts with Rabbit breaking up with his girlfriend, embarrassing himself at the rap battle, he is poor, he hates his job, frustrated with his life, himself, his friend, and everything else in general. He goes home to his mother and daughter and she is having sex with a gross man who is just a few years older than him. His life is just pure hell and it was based off of his real life so I really hope it wasn't that bad.
It is based on a true story, it isn't the real story. Rabbit is Eminem. Lily is his daughter Haley. His mother resembles his actual mother. His girlfriend who cheats on him and he has problems with is Kim, the 313rd is the rap group D12 and Future is his lifelong friend Proof. True Eminem fans like me pick up on little details that are from his real life and are appreciated. This movie also shows the culture of Detroit and the projects. African Americans struggling and their only way out is rap. The story is brilliant and I'm a sucker for rags to riches story lines. Sure it's cheesy but it does work here.
Problems with the movie were few but they do exist. The movie is so depressing and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. In the end Rabbit wins the rap battle and gets back at his enemies but he is still poor, he still has a poor job, he still lives with his mom, and his life is still horrible. All the ending brings is hope, but sometimes hope is enough. During the rap battles I could not understand a thing they were saying. They spoke too fast but subtitles easily fix that problem. This is no Oscar wining movie but it was a lot bigger than it was supposed to be. 8 Mile was incredibly popular and it deserves the credit.
Many rappers were in this movie which was interesting. People who don't normally act were thrown into a movie and acted. Granted they were just being themselves so it was more of an extreme documentary than a movie but I loved it.
Overall 8 Mile is great. It won't go down in history as one of the best, Eminem should never be on the big screen as a major role again, but he was entertaining. The movie was entertaining bringing many memorable scenes and moments true fans will never forget. This movie definitely gets the WillyT seal of approval. Being a loyal fan of Eminem and this work I do enjoy hearing about his struggles and how he was inspired to write his music. There are many faces to Eminem and he portrays them well in 8 Mile. I was entertained; I can watch it casually or with friends and I can see it again and again. I actually watched it twice in the past week. Once with friends and once alone and I loved it just the same both times. 8 Mile is a great movie for what it is. It exceeded expectations and deserves to be known in the movie world.