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Actors: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about 8mm |
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Private investigator Thomas Welles (Nick Cage) is hired by a rich widow to find out if a snuiff film found in her late husbands vault was indeed authentic. During his trip he befriends Max California (Joaquin Phoenix) a struggling goth musician working behind the register in an adult bookstore. Max takes Tom on a tour of the seedy underworld of the porn industry as Tom fights to keep his head straight while seeking out the indentity of the girl on the tape.
--Bobby Blades, Resident Scholar
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Tom Welles, private eye, is hired by a wealthy widow, whose well-known husband passed away recently. She has found a reel of S8-film in a safe, which shows a young girl being raped and butchered by a scary masked guy. Welles takes up investigation, which leads him to the girl's mother and from there to Hollywood, into the office of a porn flick producer. Welles' rising obsession to solve the case also carries him away from his wife and new-born daughter. But when finally names are at hand, Welles suddenly finds himself on ice much thinner than he planned.
--Julien K, Resident Scholar
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A private investigator is hired to discover the true identity and fate of a girl seen on an S&M ponography shot on 8MM film. His search leads him into the underground of urbania, and he gets in much deeper than he wanted to...
--Emily M., Resident Scholar
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The widow of a very wealthy man finds what looks like a snuff film among his effects and hires private investigator Tom Welles (Cage) to find out whether it's authentic. Welles descends into the underworld of pornography and organized crime, partly guided by Mephistophelean Max California (Phoenix), a retailer in the sex business. The result is slick and at times churningly violent; Cage and Phoenix work hard, but this movie is expensive trash. Director Joel Schumacher is probably not as much to blame for this slimy piece of manipulation as writer Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven, The Game), who tries to give the makers of Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction a run for their money. "8mm" died a well-deserved death at the box office.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of 8mm |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 30%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1980's-1999
Crime & Police Story?
Yes
Taboo Sex Story?
Yes
Crime story:
- criminal kidnappers
Kind of story:
- voyeurism!
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- private investigator
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
- sad
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- a criminal organization
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Dirty, grimy (like New York)
- dangerous
- rude people
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
- very gory visuals of deaths and torture
How many deaths in film?
- 4-8
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- use of artificial tools
- actual description of sex
- seeing breasts
- seeing nude female butt
- seeing nude male butt
- sex under blankets
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 1 (None)
Kind of violence:
- hand to hand
- guns
- knives
Unusual forms of death
- rough sex
- perforation--swords/knives
Any profanity?
- A lot of foul language
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Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Bobby Blades
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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