All Critics (193)
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Top Critics (40)
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Fresh (153)
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Rotten (48)
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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.
At its best, 8 Mile illuminates the culture out of which rap springs, at once an art form, provocation and survival mechanism.
Who could have predicted that a rap movie starring Eminem would, at its best, be one of the year's sweetest joyrides?
The story is all right: The picture's real excellence is its portrait of the society in which it takes place.
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.
8 Mile probably won't win converts to rap, but it should thrill Eminem fans, so thumbs up.
While no masterpiece, it is infinitely superior to the sad movie debuts of Britney Spears and Mariah Carey.
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.
Eminem's edgy, graphic quasi-biopic is not for kids.
I was able to guess what would happen to most of the characters most of the time and come through perfectly.
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.
Universal's Blu-ray release ... dropped the ball on improving the original DVD's scant bonus features.
... Rocky with a rap beat ....
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]
Ends on a high note, but it doesn't negate the tedium of the number of false and mostly flat ones that precede it.
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.
The film is really no more than a two-hour prelude to a climax in which our hero ... rhythmically tells people off.
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.
When the climactic rap battle takes place, it's one of the most mesmerizing scenes from all of 2002.
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.
The movie doesn't feel authentic and I think it's because of all the white folks involved.
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