8 Mile MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -4

Eminem plays Jimmy (Rabbit) Smith, a trailer-park punk who works in a machine shop to save enough money to make a demo record. We first find Jimmy backstage at hip hop club, The Shelter, throwing up at the prospect of a 'battle,' where two rappers challenge each other until one is approved by audience applause to move to the next round. Jimmy's just broken up with Janeanne (Taryn Manning) and is living out of a trash bag stashed behind a dumpster. Jimmy has no choice but to crash with his mom, who is the very definition of trailer trash. Sexy but battered and worn, the jobless Stephanie (Kim Basinger) lives in the 8 Mile mobile home court with her young daughter, Lily (Chloe Greenfield), and is hanging on to a relationship with her condescending boyfriend, Greg (Michael Shannon), in the belief that the large insurance settlement he's due to receive will change her life. Rabbit lives a grim, dead-end life, in Detroit ("8 Mile" is the slum that separates the city from the suburbs). Mekhi Phifer plays Rabbits mentor, a hood named FutureFuture hosts a series of "battles," verbal sparring matches in which rappers go head-to-head to win the approval of the audience, which are gritty, and profanity-laden. When hes not slaving at the factory, saving his dysfunctional mother or waxing philosophic on the futile plight of the working class, Rabbit has to face his black challengers and their fans, who boo and jeer him off the stage. Sadly for the viewing audience he refuses to stay down for the count, the film plunges into an endless hip-hop tirade of arrogance, rage and attitude about a white boy trying to hack his way into a closed world. With an over-abundance of profanity, sex and violence you should stay away at least 8 miles.

Preview Reviewer: Dave Haverty
Distributor: (Universal Pictures, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA. 91608)