Day 59 -- 8MM

Released: February 26th, 1999

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener

Writer/Director: Andrew Kevin Walker/Joel Schmaker

Description: A private investigator is hired to discover if a "snuff film" is authentic or not.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

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After watching their most recent collaboration, I thought it would be interesting to go back to the first one. Joel Schmaker and Nick Cage wasted a lot of a studio's money by creating "Trespass", so I wanted to see what they had done together that would give them the leverage. Unfortunately, I'm still looking for that answer.

"8MM" was a movie that tackled a strange subject that would lead one to believe it was more graphic than its finished product. Cage plays private detective, Tom Welles, who is sucked into the investigation of a possible "snuff-film". For those uneducated, a "snuff-film" -- in short -- is one where a real murder is caught on tape or film. During his investigation, Welles delves deep into the world of underground pornography, which "snuff-films" are a part of, and runs in to a producer who creates violent films starring a masked man named "The Machine" (not Pat Burrell). 

Welles eventually figures out that the film is real and brings the villains to justice. The story is alright in spots, but it still followed the pattern of Cage films after "Leaving Las Vegas". I know I'm probably beating a dead horse by now, but it seemed to be a distinct moment in his career where he felt it was important to overact than actually embody the character. Even his reactions to the "film", are a bit over the top when just the idea of the situation should have been enough to prompt the audiences emotions.

The performances were all pretty average, and James Gandolfini really showed his range by playing a sleaze porn recruiter (/sarcasm). The one thing I can say is that it appeared they were all trying to do a good job, and no one was really mailing it in, but the characters really didn't give them much depth to explore. It's one of those cases where the story wasn't strong enough for the talent involved.

The writing on its own was fine. No big plot holes, but the story did get a little crazy near the end. I chalk that up to the writer believing that the movie was moving too slow, and needed to end with a bang. A little more action earlier would have help the films pacing to the climax, but the slow story telling in the first 40 minutes made it feel like two different film when the action was introduced.

The tone and the direction was much better than "Trespass" and helped get me into the movie. It's amazing how something like cinematography, which goes unnoticed by most, makes the difference when a movie is mediocre on all other fronts. I don't know if this means Schmaker has gotten worse as a director, or he picked the wrong cinematographer when he made "Trespass" in 2011.

"8MM" is an enjoyable film, but doesn't stand out enough to be a must watch. It was good to be able to compare this to a movie like "Snake Eyes", which was also dependent on mystery,  and see how the tone of each movie ultimately played a part in the quality of the film.

 Rating: 6/10 -- Solid movie with quality actors, but an average script. A controlled performance by Cage helps the film. Sure, he goes off the rails at times, but it's Cage. The subject matter deserved a better, deeper story.