7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
No matter who we are, no matter where we live, we're all bound by borders. Many of us are content to live within these borders--others are simply forced to exist within them. But some of us need to break out, burst through, even if what is on the other side is both frightening and unknown. From this comes the tale of one young man's dilemma as he navigates his way through his colliding worlds. Set against Detroit's hip-hop scene in 1995, Jimmy Smith Jr., a young white rapper, struggles to find his voice. The people of Detroit know 8 Mile Road as the city's perimeter. It is also a psychological dividing line between urban and suburban, between black and white, between where Jimmy is and where he wants to be. Here, survival is key, and for many, the emotional life preserver is hip hop. In the absence of nurturing parents, Jimmy and his friends--cool and charasmatic Future, optimistic dreamer Sol, aspiring activist DJ Iz and slow but steady Cheddar Bob--have created their own family. Jimmy and his "crew" (Three One Third), live on hopes of getting their "big break" while struggling to eke out a living at their dead end day jobs. At night, they feed their dreams in the hip hop clubs where the city's best rappers battle each other with abusive rhymes that are wielded like weapons. Here, words are meant to wound and victory belongs to the quick-witted.
Starring: Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Evan JonesMusic | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
On April 7, 1970, Hollywood gathered in all its glittering resplendence for the Academy Awards for films made in 1969. It was the year John Wayne took home his “career” Oscar, and the year that tongues wagged when the Best Picture statuette went to the once and future X-rated Midnight Cowboy. But let’s take just a moment to peruse the Best Original Song category. The nominees that year were “Come Saturday Morning” from The Sterile Cuckoo, which had become the last significant chart hit for 1960’s male vocal group The Sandpipers; “Jean,” from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which had charted in the version by its celebrated composer-lyricist, Rod McKuen; the title song from True Grit, which became a minor hit for co-star Glen Campbell but which was an “easy listening” staple on radio of the time in many instrumental cover versions; “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?,” from The Happy Ending, which really hadn’t made much of a commercial impact at the time, but which has gone on to be recognized as one of the supreme achievements of composer Michel Legrand and the ineffable lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman; and the Top 10 hit which took home the Oscar that year, Bacharach and David’s jaunty “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Never again was the Best Song category to be filled with five popular or at least critically acclaimed songs of this stature, and it marked the passing of an era. For literally decades, the Oscar nominees for Best Song included one standard after another, whether or not any individual song brought home the trophy. Sometime spend a few minutes perusing the nominees from the 1930’s through that halcyon year of 1970 and I promise you will be astounded at the number of classic songs which got Oscar’s notice.
Eminem, Oscar winner.
8 Mile sports an intentionally grainy and gritty image, and this Blu-ray's VC-1 encode, in 1080p and 2.36:1, mimics that look perfectly. A lot of this film is filled with a kind of odd green fluorescent light ambience, and that ghostly pallor gives things a suitably nightmarish sheen a lot of the time. Grain is certainly more than evident, especially in these green-lit and otherwise dark segments, but it's all very natural looking and never devolves into noise levels. This is inarguably a major upgrade from the SD-DVD release, with excellent sharpness and fine detail, and really appealing contrast and exceptional black levels. There are occasionally very minor shimmer issues, typically on hair, but they're few and far between and very transitory. Overall, this is a great looking Blu-ray with a sharp and very well defined image.
8 Mile is presented with a nice lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that really only exploits the potential of surround lossless sound in its excellent musical sequences. Thumping bass lines and drum loops fill the low end with a generous amount of "oomph," and fidelity across all frequencies is exceptional. The rest of this film is really rather quiet, with low key dialogue segments filling the bulk of the running time. That means not a whale of a lot of surround activity, but still a fine and very nicely realized track, with clarity and precision. Some of the club scenes finally erupt with a nicely robust amount of surround usage, even without the nonstop underscore. This is a well mixed and nicely detailed track, though it really doesn't contain any knock your socks off immersion.
Three OK extras are included on this Blu-ray:
Even if you couldn't care less about rap culture and hip hop, you'll most likely find 8 Mile to be an involving and compelling film experience. Eminem delivers a blistering performance, and the supporting cast is uniformly excellent. The biggest surprise here may in fact be director Curtis Hanson, who really gives a palpable feel of what lower class Detroit is like. Highly recommended.
2002
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2002
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Director's Cut
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