Where in Saturday Night Fever Travolta relied on his dancing, Eminem must rely on his rapping. Only problem is he has stage fright. But he does have his friends and a big challenge to make it on his own. I don't want to get into a lot of detail here to prevent spoilers. Even if you don't like Eminem or this type of music see it for the charachters that are behind it. I give this film ***1/2 stars out of four.

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Studios run test screenings on any completed film, and if numbers come back low, they go back and make changes as to where the audience got lost. Another test screening is had and they go from there. Once a high number is achieved, they go with it.

The tracking number will have absolutely nothing to do with grosses by the way. Some of the highest grossing movies had horrible tracking numbers, and some low grossing had super high ones. It really all depends on marketing strategy these days.

8 Mile, which I plan to see today, should do very well.

Excellent show. I really loved it. I plan on seeing this one another time or two. It truly moved me, and it was very funny as well. This kid is a true talent.

On the one hand, 8 Mile is very skillfully crafted. I'm talking everything: screenplay, direction, cinematography, sound, and acting. It's involving, it tells an interesting story, the characters are well-drawn. All the elements of a good movie are there and everything works. On that level I liked this a lot. Oh yeah, Kim Basinger is great as trailer-trash.

On the other hand, 8 Mile is very coldly calculated to make a film star out of Marshall Mathers, I mean Eminem. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that. Happens all the time. But the Rabbit character seemed so tied in with the "real" Eminem/Marshall Mathers that this was like watching a slanted biography. A biography with a strong agenda they didn't even bother trying to hide: Make a sympathetic hero out of Eminem. Mission accomplished I guess.

Disclaimer: Going in, I despised rap music, and I also knew virtually nothing about Eminem except general awareness of the criticism he gets for his lyrics and also that performance with Elton John. After watching this, I would say my opinion of rap moved up from despising it, to merely disliking it. See, the film worked some kind of magic on me, as its makers intended. It will be interesting to see if Eminem's subsequent films can maintain this high standard. He needs to choose his future roles carefully...

I think that to say that this film was specific to make eminem a star is understating a very true fact. However, with an academy awardwinning director at the helm, it had a much greater chance to succeed as entertainment and less likely to be viewed as a vehicle for mr. mathers.

Please be careful to "Do Film Right".