Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

As Good As It Gets

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of streetwise Max, Welles relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther away from his wife, family and simple life as a small-town private eye. 8MM is a bit way too disturbing at times than it should be but also a bit way too much on the sex and kinky side of things rather than building a well structured thriller with well written characters and a storyline too. (5/10)

The violence was brutal but nothing too crazy. I enjoyed the story but the plot twists were not too predictable.. Nicholas Cage was good surprisingly I think he gave weight to the character I found it hard to believe he was angry sometimes. James as one of the villains was awesome The direction was nice Writing was pretty good. They way the shots moved from location to location gave a sense of suspense. I enjoyed the characters within the film. Could have been a bit more seedy though I wanted to see the rabbit hole go a bit deeper .Supporting actors were strong. I thought that this film was going to be a bit more graphic. If you want something like this but more insane go for A Serbian Film.. I like the music so yeah 6/10.

Joel Schumacher may have bombed out with the atrociously-received BATMAN AND ROBIN, but his latest thriller is a complex, thrilling movie which gives us a detailed character breakdown of the hero, who himself is partially seduced by the dark side and not altogether good. It's not often we get psychological insights like this in mainstream movies, but Nicolas Cage is able to pull the role off, and still come out on top as a likable figure.The movie starts out well, depicting the classy side of the obscene, before gradually moving into murkier and murkier depths, eventually leading to a conclusion where Cage commits acts just as bad as the people he's after. Cage is fast becoming one of my favourite actors of recent years, and he once again excels himself. A solid cast is built around him, including an intelligent, likable sidekick with Joaquin Phoenix, an up-and-coming star, and also the actress playing his wife, who portrays her mental suffering excellently. In fact, there isn't a bad performance in the whole film, from the grief-stricken good guys to the drugged up bad guys, who simply have no compassion and no regrets about what they do: it doesn't even bother them.The subject matter was enough to put a lot of people off this film, but it really isn't that bad, apart from quite a few sexual situations, this is nothing worse than what you'd see late night on Channel 5. The most disturbing thing of all is the actual snuff film itself, especially the drugged, dozy eyes of the young victim as she gets butchered to death. This is pretty hard to take, especially when we learn how she was just a normal girl, who got seduced by promises of a career in the movie industry. This is pretty close to reality and it could happen, which is why it's all the more disturbing. When we meet the bad guys in the final half of the film, it's not that bad as they're just like you and me, making money.This is perhaps over-emphasised at the end of the film, with the unmasking of the central character Machine, who acts as an executioner in the snuff film. He turns out to be just a normal, overweight man with glasses; there's nothing strange about this man who could be a friend, or neighbour. On the outside he's perfectly normal. On the inside, he's a twisted pervert. Much of the violence is kept off screen, except at the end where Cage goes around bringing much-deserved vengeance to all the scum and sickos involved.8MM turns out to be an intelligent, thoughtful look at one man's obsession and the depths to which the human race will sink. It's got it's fair share of flaws, but these have unfairly meant that it's got something of a bad reputation, probably from cinema goers hoping for the CGI effects or explosions of the latest blockbuster, or for something really profound. It's underrated, and surprisingly good.

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.