Customer Reviews
Go to bed 2 hours earlier, your dreams will be more entertaining - By: one-eyed Jack, 19 Nov 2007 
I can't believe I've seen this film twice & I had forgotten how pointless & benign it was. If it's classified as a thriller, forget it - there are no thrills. A mystery? Well, I suppose so but not one that I was that bothered about solving. Then there's the drama element, & the characterisation, which is where it reallly fallls flat on its face. After a promising start, with Cage giving a possibly deliberately wooden performance as a straight-down-the-line, highly respected private investigator, he's given the task of finding out if a girl apparently slashed to death on a snuff film (not a video) is in fact still alive; his employer is a very wealthy woman whose late husband left the film in his safe before he died. The widow hopes it's a fake, that the girl is acting. Cage's character is married with a recently-born baby & throughout the film he is constantly phoning his wife up with messages of love or apologies for absence - but frankly this 'love interest' could have been left out completely as it has no real meaning in the context of the story. The meat & bones of this uninteresting movie is Cage's search through the seedy porn underworld of Los Angeles where he eventuallly meets the snuff film makers. Even James Gandolfini as one of the bad guys comes over as nothing but a heartless, soul-less low-life & not the loveable rogue we might have hoped for. Basicallly everyone dies except Cage & nobody cares, & his descent from the decent chap he is at the beginning to the assassin-on-a-mission-of-vengeance that he becomes by the end is utterly absurd & for the last half hour I was having trouble resisting the urge to put an end to the misery early, & get more kip. I stuck it out - but it wasn't worth it. Not sure if I can say 'complete crap' on here but I will. Cage & director Schumacher have done much, much better than this & if anything 8mm will be looked back on in years to come as the darkest hours of their careers. Avoid, & I mean don't even watch it if it's free - sleep is more rewarding.
Does not deserved the slating it is getting here - By: Paul T Horgan, 13 Sep 2007 
Having read the negative reviews, I am quite surprised.
This is a workmanlike mystery where we see how with determnation & bluff, Cage's character puts alll the pieces together.
So there was a Hollywood ending- it was made in Hollywood. So Cage was affected by the case - he has seen it from everyone's point of view.
If you have no interest or even revulsion in the US porn industry then you will be put off by this film, there is no doubt. However we must confront darkness to fully appreciate the light.
Cage's character is not a man of extremes - if anything he has little personality. This facilitates us in getting involved in the story. We see most of it from his perspective. He guides us through the maze without imposing himself on us.
Think of it as a form of procedural film for the 90s/00s.
a good film - By: sean paul mccann, 28 Mar 2007 8mm is a film that deals with the taboo of snuff movies,is such a thing feigned or is it a real industry,most of us will never know,this film deals with a detective played by cage assigned to find out if a snuff movie found in a deceased mans vault by his wife is real or not,so the events that follow lead cage into an underground world & indeeed movement that is seldom pretty viewing.
The film doesnt offer much in terms of moral,and while the ending is predictable enough,the journey there is twisted & fraught & cage does his best facial expressions as he,like us the viewer,is thrown into a world that is dark & depraved.
There are great supporting roles from joaquin phoenix & james gandolfini of sopranos fame & the film is solid enough viewing,although not one that you & your family & the family cat should alll sit down & view.
Will leave a lasting impression on you! - By: M. A. Barber, 18 Feb 2007 
I saw this film on TV late one night - & although it's definitely not for the sensitive, if you can handle it, In my opinion it's a brilliant film. I find Cage's acting suits the role & always leaves the viewer wondering what the character's thinking. The soundtrack is brilliant & the camerawork excellent, although the storyline is a little more than predictable (although it's clear that it's making an effort not to be), & in parts cliche (i.e. Max being held at ransom, frantic race to fammily home etc.)
If you can handle the issues & look beyond the face value of some of the content - I fully recommend it!....
Snuff is an irreparable monstrosity - By: Jacques COULARDEAU, 20 Jul 2006 
That's the kind of film that runs on its own speed & we know from the very start that the villains will be punished. So we can concentrate on the details that give the action some depth. The subject is snuff-films. Take a rich patron who can pay a lot. Take a girl - or a boy as for that - from & off the street that will leave no real record behind. Then take a couple of actors-directors-producers who just need the money & are perverted enough to want to kill, to want to watch a savage unjustified killing in front of a camera. The camera as the abstract voyeur & the voyeurs as the super-cameras. Then you have a product that has a niche in the video market & in pornography. Another detail is the rich patron, or rather his widow. Will she accept & be able to face the truth when it comes & for which she has heavily paid ? What about the go-between, the one who found out the route from the patron to the producer, & who knew enough to be able to find such a producer ? That's the only mystery of the film. The killer has to come from a good Christian background, with a good religious mother & an extreme attachment to her who knows of course but would pretend she did not even have the slightest idea of alll that her son was doing in his free time : a little bit easy though. Then the investigator : what method will he use, what details will he be able to find, what associates will he enlist along the way ? He is swift but not quite swift enough to know from the very start that with these people you shoot first & ask for ID later. But that creates some suspense of course. The investigator's wife is another business : she would like to know alll the details of his cases, though it is of course impossible, & she resists an order when her security is abviously concerned pretending her husband is frightening her. Right, Baby, right, & please run, or get a divorce straight away. But the ending brings no real surprise. Probably love may be more important for a self-liberating woman of today than we may have thought.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne
