8MM

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is a surveillance expert on the rise. He's living the American dream with a wife, Amy (Catherine Keener), infant daughter, and a house in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After the completion of an assignment for a U.S. Senator, Welles is summoned to the house of a recently deceased captain of industry. His widow, in settling his estate, has discovered an 8MM film in her late husband's private safe. The silent short depicts the apparent murder of a young woman by a large, masked figure, what is known as a "snuff" film. Greatly disturbed by the film's contents, the widow hires Welles to find the identity of the woman and determine if she is still alive. Welles finds the girl's identity and follows her trail from the time she ran away from home to Hollywood. Once there, Welles meets adult bookstore clerk Max California (Joaquin Phoenix) to act as Virgil to Welles' Dante. As the two begin their descent into the world of underground pornography, the detective grows more and more distant from his family, as if he cannot shake the taint of the world in which he now walks. Tom and Max eventually meet pornographers Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare) and Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini). By this time the detective finds he can no longer walk out of the inferno. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Pan and Scan
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Features:
  • cc
  • Language: English 5.1 (Dolby Digital) & 2-Channel (Dolby Surround)
  • Subtitles: English
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Making-of featurette
  • Talent & filmographies
  • Director's audio commentary
  • Scene selections
  • Full screen and widescreen formats
  • Production notes
  • Digitally mastered video & audio
  • Anamorphic transfer

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Nicolas Cage - Tom Welles
       Joaquin Phoenix - Max California
       James Gandolfini - Eddie Poole
       Peter Stormare - Dino Velvet
       Anthony Heald - Longdale
       Christopher Bauer - Machine
       Catherine Keener - Amy Welles
       Myra Carter - Mrs. Christian
       Amy Morton - Janet Mathews
       Jenny Powell
       Anne Gee Byrd
       Jack Betts
       Luis Oropeza
       Rachel Singer
       Don Creech
       Norman Reedus

• Director:

  Joel Schumacher

• Producer:

  Joel Schumacher, Gavin Polone, Judy Hofflund

• Screenwriter:

  Andrew Kevin Walker

• Cinematographer:

  Robert Elswit

• Composer (Music Score):

  Mychael Danna

• Editor:

  Mark Stevens

• Production Designer:

  Gary Wissner

• Art Director:

  Gershon Ginsburg

• Co-producer:

  Jeff Levine

• Executive Producer:

  Joseph M. Caracciolo, Jr.

• Costume Designer:

  Mona May

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Thomas Nelson

• First Assistant Director:

  Alan Edmisten

• Casting:

  Mali Finn

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Eddie Yansick

REVIEW:

• To some critics, 8MM represented director Joel Schumacher hitting rock bottom after ruining the Batman franchise, with Nicolas Cage joylessly coming along for the ride. But unsavory subject matter alone is not enough to condemn this uncompromising look into the fetishistic underworld of hardcore pornography, which the viewer enters through a hardened family man and private investigator (Cage) investigating an apparent snuff film found in the private belongings of a dead billionaire. Film noir at its best, or maybe worst, 8MM gained notoriety for its perhaps unsurprising level of brutality, particularly in the frankness of the pornographic images that stretch its R rating. But Schumacher and Cage deserve some credit for the unflinching way they immerse themselves in the subject matter without apparent regard for the stain to their reputations. Furthermore, the film avoids some of the more nauseating cliches that often attend any film in which the hero's darling wife (an underused Catherine Keener) and infant daughter are among the first introduced. Its relentlessly unhappy outlook will turn off some viewers, and there are none of the stylistic advances that characterize the best in film noir. But the sheer audacity of this perverse yet fascinating topic may awaken the curiosity of those who can hold their meals down. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi