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8 mm
Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is a surveillance specialist - what used to be known as a private eye - but his version of the profession is hardly the stuff of which legends are made. He has a modest, home based practice in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he lives an existence remarkable only for its normalcy with wife Amy (Catherine Keener) and their baby daughter, Cindy. Respected but still waiting for a big break that will improve his professional status, Tom spends most of his time on routine cases involving unfaithful spouses and the like. Nothing too dangerous, nor too threatening...
... until a small, innocuous looking plastic reel of film turns Tom's life upside down. It's a job that will lead him down an increasingly dark and frightening path, as he relentlessly follows an bizarre trail of evidence from Harrisburg to Cleveland and North Carolina, and then on to the streets of Hollywood and New York City. Meticulously assembling the maddening puzzle piece by piece, Tom's only assistance comes from a streetwise adult bookstore clerk, Max (Joaquin Phoenix), who's smart enough to know the milieu he works in without giving in to it.
It's also a road that takes Tom further away from his family, as his work turns into an obsession with the fate of a girl whom, although a complete stranger to him, begins to haunt his imagination and conscience. From missing persons archives to shelters for runaway girls and into society's seamy, unspeakable underbelly, Tom relentlessly wends his way to the truth. and what he learns is beyond his wildest dreams and worst nightmares, as he comes to realise how deadly a small reel of 8 mm film can be...
Target demographic movie keyword propaganda
- Film drama thriller detective snuff movie pornography crime mystery
Persons of interest
- Nicolas Cage .... Tom Welles
- Joaquin Phoenix .... Max California
- James Gandolfini .... Eddie Poole
- Peter Stormare .... Dino Velvet
- Anthony Heald .... Daniel Longdale
- Chris Bauer .... George Higgins/Machine
- Catherine Keener .... Amy Welles
- Myra Carter .... Mrs Christian
- Amy Morton .... Janet Mathews
- Jenny Powell .... Mary Ann Mathews
- Anne Gee Byrd .... Senator Michaelson
- Jack Betts .... Butler
- Luis Oropeza .... Archive Director
- Don Creech .... Mr Anderson
- Norman Reedus .... Warren Anderson
- Andrew Kevin Walker .... Screenwriter
- Joel Schumacher .... Director
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
20 minutes too much.
This is a standard Hollywood (ie clichéd) thriller cum murder mystery with some faux porn thrown in for titillation. Which is not to say that it's a crappy film, but The Godfather it ain't.
8 mm is directed by Joel Schumacher of Batman forever, Batman & Robin, The lost boys and Falling down fame. Just so you know, it sits somewhere near Batman in terms of quality. This film is 123 minutes long - that's fine for a great film but not for a merely ok film. There is some cool gross-out stuff (blood and violence) and a couple of funny lines but the moralising is just too much for me.
Nicolas actually said Tom is "Like a symbol of the collective consciousness of the United States (of America)... he wants the community to be a good place. But the world where his work takes him starts to trigger a darkness inside of him." A symbol of the collective consciousness? Getting a bit excessive there, aren't we, Nicolas? Still, that suits his acting in 8 mm, which is excessive, melodramatic and entirely unconvincing. Much of the blame for that must rest on Joel's shoulders but Joel always has been excessive. Heavy handed is another good way to describe it.
Like Face/off, but less funny, 8 mm is a throwaway film to fill in an evening at home. The descent into darkness is overdone, the porn is unreal, the S&M is stereotyped and the director needs a few weeks at Jenny Craig. But, *Sigh*, it's still interesting enough to be watchable. If you really need to.
NB: If you want real porn ask the guy behind the counter of your local video shop.
Security censorship classification
R 18+ (Medium level violence, adult themes, sexual references)
Surveillance time
123 minutes (2:03 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
VHS rental: 13 October 1999
Cinema surveillance images
