The Information on Nicolas Cage in `8mm'

What Is It?

Joel Schumacher's first outing since the turkey that was Batman and Robin: a dark thriller about snuff movies, written by Andrew Kevin Walker (who also wrote Seven), and which raised accusations of moral bankruptcy when it opened in the States last month.

Who's In It?

Nicolas Cage (right) plays a strait-laced investigator, Tom Welles, hired by a rich widow to establish whether a reel of film in her late husband's safe is in fact a snuff movie. His investigations lead him to LA's underworld where shop assistant Joaquin Phoenix plays Virgil to his Dante amid the hellish sleaze of the porn scene.

What They Say About It

"Under the control of a more thoughtful director, 8mm might have caught not just the moral rot, but the squalid enchantment of the world it investigates. As things stand, this just isn't up to snuff," Anthony Quinn, The Independent.

"The problem is that the film rarely has enough of a perspective on the voyeuristic world it depicts to convince us it is not a voyeur too," Quentin Curtis, The Daily Telegraph.

"At once disconcerting and thoroughly entertaining... It's the most unassuming role Cage has ever played, and he is utterly magnetic in it," James Christopher, The Times.

"Not even Cage can salvage a role that requires him to start out as Al Pacino and end up as Charles Bronson," Nigel Floyd, Time Out.

Where You Can See It

8mm is on general release. Running time 122 minutes, certificate 18.