The producers of 8 Mile expect it to do for hip hop what The Blackboard Jungle did for rock'n'roll and Saturday Night Fever did for disco. As Eminem is already far and away the biggest-selling recording star in America, you kind of wonder where there is left for him to cross over to. Nevertheless, word is the movie's a highly successful Rocky-type dream-fulfilment tale of poor-kid-becomes-rap-star. The soundtrack, however, isn't some nightmare hybrid of "Eye Of The Tiger" and "Stayin' Alive".
Part of Columbia's new and improved Superbit series, this immaculate version of Robert Rodriguez's chopsocky western arrives with no extras, no bonus features and a hefty price tag. Instead, with all available disc space used to provide the clearest pixel-free transfer to date, you get an average hyper-violent pop-Leone revenge movie with great depth of field and a sharp crystalline surface.
