8MM (1999)

Private dick Nicholas Cage is hired by a wealthy widow to discover the origin of a seemingly one-of-a-kind snuff film she found in her recently deceased husband’s private safe. Following the lead of the physical film stock itself and some missing persons resources, Cage soon finds himself in the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. While there he teams up with porn store cashier Joaquin Phoenix. Together, Dick Cage and Porno Boy visit multiple top secret underground porno flea markets and watch pornographic VHS tapes together. Eventually, Cage ends up in a house by the cemetery that is decorated inside with not one, but two Danzig posters.

For an older film, 8MM has aged alright. I originally saw it opening weekend and remember smirking at Cage’s over exaggerated cringes when he first watches the snuff film and the goofy sanitized portrayal of porn.  But, I guess, my handsome brain has chilled out over the decades cuz this time around I found the film to be a solid 6 / 10.

Medium pace, promising mystery plot device that fizzles out, impressive cast, disappointing final act that isn’t even close to being as fucked up as it should have been, drug out ending that goes on for too long, surprisingly very little nudity, incorrect subtitles on the blu-ray, questionable musical choices, a small amount of blood, zero gore, no cheerleaders, a Jane’s Addiction shirt, good acting that sometimes teeters on overacting.

There are many ways that 8MM could have been a better film, but for what it is, it’s an okay time-waster. I double-featured it with PRETTY WOMAN (true story, just in case there's a Las Vegas betting line on what my next review will be), but it’d probably make a better double-feature with A SERBIAN FILM or even season 1 of True Detective.

SPACECAMP (1986)

A group of teenagers attend NASA's Space Camp program.  Things are going pretty well and it looks like that one dude might get to sling some ding-a-ling at Lea Thompson, but then whiny kid (Joaquin Phoenix) mentions that he wants to go into space.  Normally that would be a safe thing to say, especially at goddamn Space Camp, but since he says it within earshot of the extremely literal and sweetly sinister robot Jinx it means he's going into space whether he likes it or not!  Because they are friends foreveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrr.  Next thing you know Jinx has manipulated a test on the Space Shuttle into the real thing and the kids blast off into orbit...with only a few hours worth of oxygen.  Note to self: never befriend a well-meaning, but extremely stupid robot.

Released just a few months after the heartbreaking Space Shuttle Challenger disaster SPACECAMP was pretty much destined to fail at the box office and it did with only $9 million at the box office...I have no idea what the budget was though.  But is it a good movie?  Ehh, it's alright.  The story is silly and from what I could tell during the Space Camp scenes all of the kids were a bunch of fuck-ups but then suddenly when they get into space they suddenly become way smarter.  I guess that's what being faced with death will do for ya.  Anyway, their efforts not to die are mildly interesting and the special effects are probably above average for the time, but I still found myself apathetic towards their dilemma.  Which is kind of surprising since I usually like trapped in space adventure movies.  Unfortunately though, with just an average director and an average script SPACECAMP itself turned out boringly average.