Notable characters
- Tom Welles (P.I., nominal hero): is an edgy average man; usually speaks in a somnambulant monotone when not overly and self-righteously indignant; smokes behind his wife’s back; went to a good school on an academic scholarship but (wanh wanh wanh) decided to career in surveillance; is a Dante who plumbs the dark bowels of the porn industry.
- Dino Velvet (bondage porn director): has weirdo verbal affectations; wields a crossbow; would like to be the Jim Jarmusch of S&M porn; is over the top; has a friend called Machine who never lifts his mask.
- Max California (sidekick-y schlemiel—excuse me, in-the-know porn shop worker): privately reads Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood on the job; takes Welles on a turf-tour of porn hell.
- Talking killer: explains his deeds, good for ‘im.
Horrible dialogue
- “You name the vice, I’ll name the price.”
- “Give me your permission to hurt them.”
- “Drop the crossbow.”
- “You dance with the devil, the devil changes you.”
“What the f*ck?”
Why is part of the soundtrack arabic?
“What the f*ck is this f*cking movie trying to f*cking say?”
- When confronted so disturbingly with EVIL, anyone of sound mind and heart could be driven to kill.
- All of Hollywood, nay, L.A., is economically powered by hopeful young job-seekers who fall into the meat-grinder of porn or prostitution (or both).
- This is a torture-or-be-tortured world.
- Bad people do bad things.
- The porn underworld is deeply disgusting and, like, so reprehensible.
- EVIL is a condition conquered by itself, not its opposite.
- Shame on you for wanting to be entertained. Here, feast on some overheated, moralizing fecal matter.
“What the f*ck is f*cking Jack trying to f*cking say?”
- 8mm is hopeless and top-heavy. The movie is imitation hardcore, director Joel Schumacher’s hock-slick, anti-smut overdose — as grimly depraved as its purported target. Although it affects a higher agenda in trying to expose the ruthless and corrupting nature of capitalism (L.A.-specific), Schumacher’s exercise in desensitization is exploitative in the way it lynches porn. He has crafted his own snuff film.
- I hate this movie.
Rating: F
