Created by Andrew Kevin Walker
Everyone take a shower.
Happily-married, and boasting a new-born daughter, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania surveillance expert and private eye TOM WELLES is hired by a wealthy widow to track down the origins of a reel of 8mm film that seems to depict the murder of a young girl.
Tom’s soon in way over his head, in a dark, hellish morass of pornography, human trafficking and snuff films (and those who enjoy them) in the 1999 Columbia sleazefest 8MM. Maybe he should have paid attention to the flick’s tagline: “You can’t prepare for where the truth will take you.”
In this case, it takes him from Hollywood to New York City, and the shocking discovery that some people are just bad to the bone.
The film got decidedly mixed reviews upon its release, and didn’t fare particularly well at the box office. It was rated R for strong perverse sexuality and violence, and for strong language, and with its subject matter was definitely not intended for the squeamish.
If you’re into this sort of thing, it’s a nasty little thriller, deliberately disturbing at times, reminiscent of the equally twisted Se7en (1995), which had come out a few years earlier, and done quite well. It should come as no surprise, though, since writer Andrew Kevin Walker also wrote that sick puppy. Both gleefully present plenty of cheap thrills… while allegedly condemning such stuff. Mind you, Se7en has David Fincher directing — 8MM had Joel Schumacher.
Maybe it’s me. I found it disappointing and far too predictable, but it’s the teasing attempt to reel in the raincoat brigade that really put me off. And of course now, after a couple of decades of the online defending of its “virtues,” the film has gained a cult following. Naturally.
Me? I think the whole thing was handled better in Paul Schrader’s Hard Core (1979) which featured George C. Scott chewing up the Everyman scenery. As played by Cage, Welles is just too buttoned down.
“The things I do – I do them because I like them. Because I want to,” says the villain in 8MM.
And maybe its writer?
UNDER OATH
- “Joel Schumacher’s Eight Millimeter delves into the perverse underworld of the pornography business, shocking audiences with the realization that sex and violence can be so dull.
— Janet Maslin (The New York Times) - “… almost a masterpiece. When Nicolas Cage sets out to discover the origins of a ‘snuff’ movie, he is forced on a trip down into the deepest pits of human perversion, learning things about himself and man in general that nobody would like to know about. And we are forced to go with him. Cage’s performance is flawless. Like his Snake Eyes, 8MM is also about the act of seeing and film-making. Peter Stormare is over-the-top as the ‘Jim Jarmush of porn’, but nothing compared to Machine (the guy with the leather mask). Be prepared for some really nasty twists, gross sexual details, and abandon all hope for nice and decent Hollywood entertainment. I loved it.”
— Klaus Bardenhagen (IMDB) - “Just a bad, awkward piece of film that was wasted on what could’ve been a solid P.I. premise. There’s a line between hard-boiled and sadistic. And this movie left that line laying bleeding and twitching in the street after half an hour, along with my brain.”
— Dave White - “All the quality of a cheapo drive-in grade B quickie, with none of the budget restrictions.”
— Duke Seabrook
FILMS
- 8MM | Buy this video | Buy this DVD | Buy the Blue-Ray | Watch it now!
(aka “Eight Millimeter”)
(1999, Columbia)
123 minites
Written by Andrew Kevin Walker
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Starring Nicolas Cage as TOM WELLES
Also starring Joaquin Phoenix, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Christopher Bauer, Anthony Heald, Myra Carter, Jacklyn Lick
SCREENPLAYS
- Seven and 8MM (1999) | Buy this book
Includes both screenplays by Walker, plus 30 B&W photos (of course).
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- This Turkey for Hire
The Worst and Most Disappointing P.I. Films
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
