What a beautiful movie!

Please don't spend money on this.

Lack of good storyline.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I agree with the majority here. This movie could've been great, but the director just SUCKS. A dark story treated and resolved with the complexity of a Disney movie. What a waste. Nicholas Cage was fine, actually.

Movie Review: "8mm" (1999)This highly-effective mystery-thriller directed Joel Schumacher, seeking retaliation for an over-polluted "Batman & Robin" movie for Warner Bros. shooting in season 1996/1997, puts screenplay-struck, fully-motivated actor Nicolas Cage in the position of playing range from timid beginnings of a shocking 8mm film exhibition in a rich man's mansion at night under a roaring fireplace atmosphere ignited by cinematographer Robert Elswit, when private detective Tom Welles dives into a U.S. American nightmare of the hardcore-porn-industry stretching from an East Coast New York based monopolistic film production, owned by the extremes seeking character Dino Velvet played with joy by Peter Stormare to Los Angeles back-alley adult video-store running character of Max California, given face by fully-adaptable actor Joaquin Phoenix, who becomes Tom Welles guide into an underground world of low-resolution film productions, containing actually torture and killings on camera out for sale; an environment where each participants is about to know no mercy in a constant noose-tightening thriller in favors for the daring matured audience, when the original screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker gives director Joel Schumacher the opportunity to put some exceptional character confrontations on never-seen-before intensity to film; from working-woman's daughter disappearances over concrete storage halls of arrow-shoots to the cross, when a striking twin-peaked showdowns of Tom Welles fighting for spiritual freedom in sexual beast home invasion under nerve-strings-playing skipping record-player sound design by Willie D. Burton polishes by sound editor Joseph DiVitale to a mesmerizing finale furioso in an abandoned canyon L.A. house in which Nicolas Cage confronts his darkest fears, in putting nemesis-character Eddie Poole to justice, when precise directions let late actor James Gandolfini (1961-2013) loose under arresting moments of high-tensions.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

The first thing I'll say is that I felt like taking a shower after watching this movie. Then I resolved to stop watching black-as-night movies like this. Then I admitted that I found the movie to be unique and bracing. There are so many movies out there that revel in violence and mayhem, and treat the impulse for revenge almost as a virtue. This is not such a movie. Tom Wells, played superbly by Nicolas Cage, is given a simple, but lucrative, private eye job - determine the veracity of what appears to be a snuff film, then go home to his wife and little girl (he's chosen because he's taken to be stupid, and not a troublemaker - wrong on both counts).You see, Wells has a conscience, and is a straight-arrow, middle-class guy. But the deeper he digs into the underbelly of the sex industry, the more horrified he becomes by what he uncovers, and the more sympathy he develops for the teen-aged "star" of the film in question. Then, violent reactions are aroused, and he plunges into the grotesque maelstrom of this world he probably barely noticed in his nice, safe life.I ponder the news, and I don't even want to imagine the horrors of sex-slavery and child-molestation, but I know these things have permeated our society, that women, as in this film, are dehumanized as "pussy". And what kind of men are they who are the customers, the "johns", the pimps, the purveyors? Their victims are real people, however naive they are, but here they are mere commodities. We're used to evil being presented, as in horror films, as something unhuman, outside of ourselves, but here it's all too human, all too mundane. Evil might be Joe the mechanic down the street. There's a scene in the film in which Wells is browsing the pornography in a deeply underground shop. He comes across a section labelled "kids", and a chill ran up my spine. I don't think that the film-makers were as interested in the snuff film per se, as in giving us a tour of this squalid other-world. And what a tour it is! The movie is lewd in suggestion only, and no more violent than many other films of its kind, so what accounts for its visceral jolt? Some of the scenes and images, the way they are filmed, have quite a impact, and the shudders I felt were real. I think that I became totally invested in the Wells character, and because he cared about the girl, I cared too. I could truly feel his pain, and not in the usual jokey sense of the phrase. We talk about graphic sex and violence, but in this movie, it's the emotions that are graphic. Wells' dive down the rabbit hole is truly awful. When he cries to his wife, "Save me!" it's not his physical self he's talking about. And here, too, is a movie in which the sex and violence are not there as a turn-on.Glancing at some of the critics' comments, I was really surprised. Some were truly outraged by this movie. They wrote as if they were deeply, personally offended by it. The only other time, that I know of, when this occurred, was with the movie Peeping Tom (similar subject matter), and that destroyed director Michael Powell's career. How dare he! Peeping Tom was eventually declared a masterpiece, and 8MM ought to be up on the ladder somewhere. As ugly and unpleasant as the story is, there is a place in movie heaven for films with integrity such as this.

From the majority of the reviews and opinions of this movie, I was expecting the usual Nick Cage flop."Was it interesting?" I was impressed with the characters. They were fleshed out just enough. The settings gave the right impression of what they were dealing with.2 out of 3."Was it memorable?" The acting good in parts and adequate in others. The investigating was realistic. The cinematography was great in certain scenes and was annoyingly bad in others. The music was the most unique thing to this film. Must have been the inspiration for Sinister.1.5 out of 3."Was it entertaining?" The few bits of action were good. The suspense for the most part was what was needed. The ending was a bit too far fetched to believe.1.5 out of 3.Starting with 1 (because that's what the client wants), 1 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 = 6 This movie was definitely above my expectations. I probably won't want to really see it anytime soon, but don't know what all the hate is for. If it's because it's dealing with sleazy things, that's the whole idea.