Movie Reviews

8 Mile is a well-made movie, and I enjoyed it. The problem with it, though, is that none of the characters are very likable, and I found it a little difficult to really care much about what happened to any of them.
I mean, it seemed to me that all these characters ever do is spend their time driving around town (in their mothers' cars), drinking, smoking, avoiding the police, and then every once in a while gathering together at a rap "battle" where the combatants hurl nasty, mean-spirited insults back and forth at each other in an effort to try to gain each others' "respect". Apparently, this is a rather true-to-life story, so it seems a little improper of me to attribute the movie's greatest fault to what is actually a very truthful depiction. But still, the most interesting things are not necessarily the most truthful.

I suppose that makes it sound like I didn't like the movie at all... which isn't true. Like I said, it definitely was a well-made film. Parts of it were very entertaining, especially the "battle scenes" (in spite of -- or maybe because of -- their sheer mean-spiritedness... I don't know).
As far as Eminim goes, I've heard people complaining a bit about how he's not really acting, but "just playing himself." This didn't bother me at all. In terms of which actor would've been best suited to fill the role of a character based on Eminem's life, I think Eminim himself did a damn fine job of it :-)