This thoroughly unpleasant thriller from the hands of Joel Schumacher (Batman and Robin) offers very little in its lurid tour of snuff films and the seedy pornographic underworld. A wooden Nicolas Cage stars as a private detective hired by a tycoon's widow, who discovers in her dead husband's safe some 8mm footage of a young girl being sexually abused and slaughtered. Cage's job is to determine the veracity of the film and to find out the girl's identity, whether she be alive or dead. What could have been a taut, nerve-jangling thriller is instead a lumbering, overwrought but underwritten tale of vigilante justice. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker also penned the imaginative and compelling Seven but you wouldn't know it from this tired and monotonous script. Schumacher tries for echoes of both The Silence of the Lambs and Paul Schrader's Hardcore (which stars George C. Scott as a father trying to find his daughter in the seedy porn industry) but despite some slick camerawork, the film fails to draw the audience into either the mystery of the missing girl or Cage's supposed internal conflicts. It's not so much the unsavoury subject matter as it is the sloppy and unimaginative filmmaking that makes the movie unbearable. Of the entire cast only Joaquin Phoenix, as a charismatic goth boy who works at an adult book store, comes away with a memorable performance. --Mark Englehart

I love dark movies and this was definately dark. Cage plays a private detective who is hired by a rich women, who finds a movie owned by her dead husband, which shows a girl being brutely killed. she asks Cage to find out if the moive is real or not. Through the course of the movie Cage's character is dragged further into the world of XXX porn industry, and is helped along the way by Max (Phonix(who is amazing in it))
Cage is dragged into the "world" and is forced to make a choices that will seriously effect his life.
This is a worth while movie, if you like Cage and like dark movies this is ONE to watch !!!

I can't believe I've seen this film twice and I had forgotten how pointless and 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, and the characterisation, which is where it really falls 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 and 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 and bones of this uninteresting movie is Cage's search through the seedy porn underworld of Los Angeles where he eventually 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 and not the loveable rogue we might have hoped for. Basically everyone dies except Cage and nobody cares, and 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 and for the last half hour I was having trouble resisting the urge to put an end to the misery early, and 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 and director Schumacher have done much, much better than this and if anything 8mm will be looked back on in years to come as the darkest hours of their careers. Avoid, and I mean don't even watch it if it's free - sleep is more rewarding.

Having read the negative reviews, I am quite surprised.

This is a workmanlike mystery where we see how with determnation and bluff, Cage's character puts all 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.

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 and 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 and fraught and cage does his best facial expressions as he,like us the viewer,is thrown into a world that is dark and depraved.
There are great supporting roles from joaquin phoenix and james gandolfini of sopranos fame and the film is solid enough viewing,although not one that you and your family and the family cat should all sit down and view.

I saw this film on TV late one night - and 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 and always leaves the viewer wondering what the character's thinking. The soundtrack is brilliant and 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), and in parts cliche (i.e. Max being held at ransom, frantic race to fammily home etc.)

If you can handle the issues and look beyond the face value of some of the content - I fully recommend it!....