8MM (DVD)

Plot Summary – Tom Welles(Nicolas Cage) is a surveillance specialist who has a basic family live and makes modest living from his home business. Well respected within his business circles but is still waiting for that big case to blow his professional career into orbit. When he approached by a lawyer Longdale(Anthony Heald) representing a millionaire widow Mrs. Christian(Myra Carter), he is soon accepting a job leaving his wife and new born daughter behind to search for missing girl that he had watched get murdered on a single role of 8mm film owned by the millionaire widow’s husband from this his life and career soon start to take him deeper ...  Read the complete review

8mm exhibits bad taste and may be shocking to most people, but to me it felt like a movie with serious intent, especially seen as though it tracks the descent of Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage), as the ordinary guy, into the nasty, immoral world of underground pornography. The character, understandably, is tormented, mentally, as he simply cannot accept why all the evil surrounding him exists. Notoriously panned by critics upon its release, this was by no means a milestone in the career of Cage, even though I believe it to contain ones of his most powerful performances. He plays a man dedicated, slightly obsessed, and deeply sickened by the events that unfold ...  Read the complete review

Nicholas Cage is private investigator Tom Welles who is called to the house of a rich widow to investigate a reel of 8mm film she has found in her recently deceased husband’s safe. She wants to know whether the reel of film showing a big guy in a leather mask killing a terrified young woman is a snuff movie or a well made S&M fake. Cage becomes convinced that it is anything other than a snuff movie and begins to investigate further, becoming obssessed with uncovering the truth and bringing the girl's murderers to justice. His investigations take him across the US and eventually to a sleazy book shop worker called Max California(Joaquin Phoenix) who turns out to ...  Read the complete review

8mm one of the best films I have watched in ages. It is a dark, disturbing film starring Nicholas Cage and Joaquin Phoenix. Prepare for the worst - you will be moved by the film. Overview Joel Schumacher’s film, 8mm is a strange tale of life for one man - Tom Welles. Played by Nicholas cage, Welles is a private eye who gets paid to find things out for people. Deeply in love with his wife (Catherine Keener) and daughter Cinderella, who he is always pictured holding happily his home life is great. At times, it is obvious that his work has interfered with his home life previously, but there is always the sense of love there. ...  Read the complete review

For me, this film works best as a comedy. Although it is put forward as a dark and disturbing investigation into unpleasant world of snuff flicks, it is in fact a ludicrous hollywoodisation of a questionable and sleazy subject. That's not to say I don't enjoy this film, quite the opposite in fact. However, I really don't think it works for me in quite the ways that the film makers intended. The plot follows surveillance expert Nicholas Cage as he is hired to investigate a mysterious roll of 8mm film discovered by the widow of a wealthy industrialist. The film appears to be a snuff film, in which a young girl is brutally murdered. as Nic tries to ...  Read the complete review