8 Mile

8 Mile (2002)

  • 76% of critics liked it
    (193 reviews)

  • 54% of users liked it
    (30,674,325 ratings)

Controversial rap star Eminem makes his acting debut in this hard-edged urban drama, inspired in part by incidents from the musician's own life. Jimmy Smith (Eminem), known to his friends as Rabbit, is a young man trying to make his way out of the burned-out shell of inner-city Detroit. Rabbit's… More

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R, 1 hr. 51 min.
Directed By
Curtis Hanson
Written By
Scott Silver, Jesse Wigutow
Genres
Drama
In Theaters
Nov 8, 2002 Wide
On DVD
Mar 18, 2003
Universal Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    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.

  • David Ansen, Newsweek

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

  • Peter Rainer, New York Magazine

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

  • Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

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

  • Andrew Sarris, New York Observer

    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.

Read all 21 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Manu G


    Lose Yourself In the Music Great Film! Enjoyed it alot! Go watch it if you haven't yet! Won an Oscar for best song too! A rap version of "Saturday Night Fever." B-Rabbit, a wannabe rapper from the wrong side of Detroit's 8 Mile, has problems: he dumps his… More

  • Eric A


    My dad who hates rap even loved 8 Mile! Very well put together and the rap battles scenes are epic.

  • Martin S


    Am I the only one who like this movie?

  • Brad W


    8 Mile was an amazing film and a pure work of genius. Fans of rap music (like me) are going to be blown away with the music and acting, I was completely surprised that Eminem is great actor and this movie is great, a soon to be classic, and I loved it.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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