8 Mile (2002)

All Critics (194) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (153) | Rotten (48) | DVD (30)

The movie has some of the braggadocio of its white-trash hero, building to its competitive climax as if it were a gladiatorial sporting event, and it carried me all the way.

November 15, 2011 Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

At its best, 8 Mile illuminates the culture out of which rap springs, at once an art form, provocation and survival mechanism.

November 1, 2007 Full Review

David Ansen

Newsweek

Top Critic

A hesitant presence whose vulnerability pulls you in, Eminem emerges as a mainstream movie star and effectively lays to rest the spooks of Slim Shady: impressionable parents will love this eminently responsible film.

January 26, 2006 Full Review

Time Out

Top Critic

Who could have predicted that a rap movie starring Eminem would, at its best, be one of the year's sweetest joyrides?

January 16, 2003 Full Review

Peter Rainer

New York Magazine

Top Critic

The story is all right: The picture's real excellence is its portrait of the society in which it takes place.

December 2, 2002

Stanley Kauffmann

The New Republic

Top Critic

I have to go back to James Dean in Elia Kazan's East of Eden and Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause in 1955 to find a comparably jolting piece of male aggressiveness coupled with bottled-up vulnerability.

November 22, 2002 Full Review

Andrew Sarris

New York Observer

Top Critic

While no masterpiece, it is infinitely superior to the sad movie debuts of Britney Spears and Mariah Carey.

November 15, 2011 Full Review

Philip French

Observer [UK]

Another fine effort from a director currently on a critical roll. Hanson is great at teasing the audience with little samples of his star's lyrical dexterity as he builds towards the finale.

November 15, 2011 Full Review

Film4

Eminem's edgy, graphic quasi-biopic is not for kids.

August 26, 2010 Full Review | Comments (4)

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

I was able to guess what would happen to most of the characters most of the time and come through perfectly.

April 29, 2009 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

As unlikely as an insightful and riveting film about a poor white Detroit kid succeeding beyond his surroundings through Rap music might be, "8 Mile" is that gloriously gritty movie.

April 19, 2009 Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

Universal's Blu-ray release ... dropped the ball on improving the original DVD's scant bonus features.

April 13, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

... Rocky with a rap beat ....

April 13, 2009 Full Review | Comments (3)

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

You can't stop him or crop him/He's in widescreen and large/He ain't playing when he's baggin' Curtis Hanson for Sarge... [Blu-ray]

March 30, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews

Ends on a high note, but it doesn't negate the tedium of the number of false and mostly flat ones that precede it.

January 29, 2009 Full Review

Michael Dequina

TheMovieReport.com

Eminem is quietly effective without ever displaying much emotion. It's a commendable film debut and he never falls into the vanity trap that many artists find when transferring their talents from the music stage to the screen.

October 18, 2008 Full Review

Urban Cinefile Critics

Urban Cinefile

The film is really no more than a two-hour prelude to a climax in which our hero ... rhythmically tells people off.

July 23, 2007 Full Review | Comments (4)

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

It is more just a pleasure to watch Eminem perform. He is fiercely talented and has a natural charisma; the camera loves him. But, like most of the story, we knew that before we saw the film.

July 14, 2007 Full Review

Joe Lozito

Big Picture Big Sound

When the climactic rap battle takes place, it's one of the most mesmerizing scenes from all of 2002.

May 26, 2006 Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

• 1. Jimmy Smith Jr. AKA Rabbit: Do you ever wonder at what point you just say fuck it man? Like you gotta stop livin' up here and start livin' down here?
  2. Sol George: [looking at his watch] It's seven thirty in in the mornin', dawg.
  – Submitted by Alyssa B (6 months ago)
• 1. Alex: Are you askin' me out for a date, Jimmy Smith Jr.
  2. Jimmy Smith Jr. AKA Rabbit: Well, a matter of fact, as I am?
  3. Alex: Why don't you take me somewhere now?
  – Submitted by Alyssa B (6 months ago)
• 1. Jimmy Smith Jr. AKA Rabbit: [freestyling] And Wink did fuck my girl, I'm still standing here screaming, 'Fuck the Free World!' Don't ever try to judge me dude, you don't know what the fuck I've been through! But I know something about you! You went to Cranbrook, that's a private school! What's a matter, dog, you embarrassed? This guy's a gangsta; his real name is Clarence. And Clarence lives at home with both parents. And Clarence's parents have a real good marriage. He don't wanna battle me, he's shook! Cause there's no such thing as "halfway crooks" He's scared to death, he's scared to look in his fucking yearbook; fuck Cranbrook! [music stops] Fuck the beat, I'll go a capella! Fuck a Papa Doc, fuck a clock, fuck a trailer, fuck everybody! Fuck y'all if you doubt me! I'm a piece of fucking white trash, I say it proudly! And fuck this battle, I don't wanna win, i'm outtie. Here, tell these people something they don't know about me. [tosses mic to Papa Doc]
  – Submitted by Eugene B (8 months ago)
• 1. Jimmy Smith Jr. AKA Rabbit: [freestyling] Now everybody from the 313, put your motherfucking hands up and follow me! Everybody from the 313, put your motherfucking hands up! Look, look! Now while he stands tough, notice that this man did not have his hands up! This 'Free World's' got you gasped up! Now, who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?! One, two, three and to the four! One-pac, two-pac, three-pac, four! Four-pac, three-pac, two-pac, one! You're pac, he's pac, no pacs, none! This guy ain't no motherfucking MC! I know everything he's gotta say against me! I am white! I am a fucking bum! I do live in a trailer with my mom! My boy, Future, is an 'Uncle Tom'! I do have a dumb friend named Cheddar Bob Who shot himself in the leg with his own gun! I did get jumped by all six of you chumps!
  – Submitted by Eugene B (8 months ago)
• 1. Jimmy Smith Jr. AKA Rabbit: [singing] He's nervous, quick someone give his ass anouther steoid.. Glablabalba, I didn't understand a word you said! Glblabla! Is that a tank top or a new bra!
  – Submitted by Connor N (8 months ago)
• 1. Wink: Why you always giving me shit man? Is it because I'm making moves? Or is it because your ass is stuck hosting battles for two years. You're a fucking LOSER.
  – Submitted by Before F (12 months ago)

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