Techtite DVD Reviews

The Film: To be candid, I was not the least bit interested in reviewing --or seeing-- this movie. However, when an admittedly hard to ignore publicity campaign went on and on about how a number of seasoned, hard-to-please critics all loved 8 Mile, people are bound to take notice. I don't know; maybe the difference here is that they expected another musician-turned-actor farce like Crossroads, and were pleasantly surprised. Conversely, maybe I expected the "five star" film everyone's yapping about, and saw...well, this. Either way; I wasn't impressed.

In fairness, that's not giving Eminem enough credit; where Britney Spears' Crossroads failed, this movie succeeds. Eminem hasn't chosen a mere bubble-gum story that makes him look like Joe Perfect. This is a far grittier story of a young man nicknamed "Rabbit" (Eminem, obviously) who lives in a trailer park with his mom Stephanie (Kim Basinger) and little sister Lily. Rabbit is trying to get out of this one-track life by winning a local rap competition. Trouble is, at the start of the film, he tries to rap in front of a live audience, and fails. Will he get up the guts to try again? You have two guesses.

While this is indeed a gritty story, much like Eminem, it cannot escape the need for shock-value clichés. There's nudity (sort of), sex (kind of), and other stuff to make kids who think Eminem is cool think this movie is cool, too. Kids too young to have snuck into, say, 9 1/2 Weeks, can see --golly!-- half of Kim Basinger's butt. There's also Brittany Murphy as Alex, who is a character written from the bottom up as a back-stabbing slut just begging to be slammed by one of Eminem's songs. Add to the mix Rabbit's dead-end, movie-cliché, blue collar job, which he wants to be able to quit when he makes it big as a barroom dancer who has water splashed on him every night while prancing in a leotard. Oops, sorry; that was Flashdance. This is the tale of a blue collar worker who wants to gain fame by rapping. Whatever.

It's hard for someone to not spoil a film, whose story is as simple as this. In fact, I've noticed many seasoned critics haven't even bothered to try, without even offering a single spoiler warning. I mean, the only two possibilities here is that he wins the rap competition, or he loses, right...? Eminem clearly lacks the humility to offer us a Bad News Bears type finale, so that reduces the possible endings down to one. However, its the inane simplicity of how he wins which irked me enough to offer this moderate spoiler; Rabbit soon realizes he does a better "rap," when he raps about the angst of his own life. Is this a novel concept? It's almost like someone barging into a country restaurant, only to yell at the top of their lungs, "Hey! You know what kind of dancing goes good with country music? Square dancing!" Gosh, thanks for the heads up, pal. However, Square Dancing and Country Music are not a new mix. Nor is a rap singer who whines about his life. The idea that Rabbit would become a better rapper, just because he discovered the obvious, is silly.

Here's where I would've done something totally different; if "Rabbit" is a sort of semi-autobiographical caricature of Eminem's real life, why not have him take the same route Eminem did to rapper fame; via the publicity stunt of politically incorrect slurs in his songs? I'm not being sarcastic here; I'm being totally honest when saying that a tale of shock value sales gimmicks would be interesting, if seen in the perspective of a young boy who'd do anything to get out of that trailer park. This would be both at once a confession from Eminem that such slurs were the mere free publicity shock value sales tactic that they were --which, in all honesty, worked like a charm-- and in a way, a chance to make him confess that maybe --just maybe-- he's a little unhappy about it. Or maybe not; this film certainly makes it look like Eminem thinks all he needed to do is rap about his personal angst, and he was suddenly a media sensation. Not quite, bro'.

Which begs the question as to the "how" and "why" behind this film's high grades by other critics. I reserve the right to think they're merely going through a mid-life crisis which insists that whatever kids think is cool they think is cool too, though it may be even simpler than that. Perhaps they're merely impressed at the renowned director this film was able to bag; Curtis Hanson, from L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys fame. As one online message board patron mused: at least no one can say Hanson is in a rut! Then again, what about the movie I was promised, that Eminem fans have called "the best of the year"...? I entered the theater thinking I was about to have a totally new perspective about Eminem. I left it feeling no different than when I went in.

The DVD: I try; I really try to not think of Eminem as a rapper made popular by young kids who think dirty words are cool. However, his fans don't make it any easier. Consider the "uncensored edition" of this DVD, and its most ballyhooed extra: Eminem's music video "Superman." While most fans would be pleased to see more of their favorite rapper rapping, some fans are steamed that --or so they tell everyone-- the music video is "censored." Yeah, that's right; with all their talk that they like Eminem because of his songs, along comes a gripe that his included video doesn't have enough sex and nudity. What; did these people think that they were going to get some free soft porn with every DVD purchase...?

Like it or not, this is just about the only extra. In fact, censored editions of the DVD don't include a single extra at all. I've never seen such a sales tactic: selling the exact same movie as-is, "with" or "without" the "uncensored" bonus material. Talk about a publicity gimmick for the bonus material...which, as I said, some fans claim is edited anyway. I'd say it's a foregone inclusion that people would want either the Widescreen or Full Screen editions with "Uncensored Extras," though order links for the DVD sans-extras are offered at the top and bottom of this review.

So, what do you get in addition to Eminem's "Superman"...? Well, you get a truly cocky video clip, where Eminem competes with Detroit rappers who wanted to be in the film. I know this is supposed to "show" he's is a better rapper than any Average Joe pulled off the Detroit streets, though this competition comes off as looking just plain arrogant. It's not like Barbra Streisand feels the need to barge onto the stages of American Idol, competing with the other singing hopefuls to prove her own worth. Maybe fanboys will see this as him "helping" the average rappers learn a few tips though to me it just seemed like a delusion of grandeur.

Add to this two featurettes: "The Music of 8 Mile" and "Behind the scenes," which enhance a DVD that at least fans will love. However, is this the film that can make agnostic music critics interested in Eminem? Not really. In fact, this DVD doesn't even prove that his fans aren't more enamored with his raunchiness than his songs themselves. After all, most of them are more interested that the "Superman" video doesn't have enough filth. With fans like that, who needs a rap song?

	Final Rating : Near Miss. Eminem plays the role of a rapper believably enough, though this film is recommended only for his most stouthearted fans.
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Techtite's DVD Reviews!

8 Mile

A Techtite Review