“8 Mile” brought rap star Eminem to the big screen. I’m not particularly a fan of rap music, I’d struggle to name more than a few songs from Eminem, Dr. Dre or Ice Cube and I don’t really understand how rap battles work. I’m clearly not the target audience for this film but I had heard a lot of great things about it so I went in with mixed expectations. This is a really boring film that I think will only appeal to big fans of Eminem and the culture surrounding rap music.

We follow Jimmy ‘B-Rabbit’ Smith (Eminem) during his struggles living in Detroit. He has family trouble and he’s also having a hard time holding down a job. He wants to be a rapper but does he have the guts and the talent to deliver the lyrics during a rap battle?

Maybe Eminem is a talented rapper but I just don’t get the appeal of a lot of his work. Here, he plays what I guess is meant to be a version of himself. If you’re going to have Eminem play a young rapper from Detroit, why bother giving him a different name? I just don’t find the character interesting because I’m not invested in anything that he’s trying to do. The other characters are not any better. Kim Basinger (“Batman”, “L.A. Confidential”) plays Eminem’s mother here and I just have no strong feelings about her performance.

I’m sure there are many people that will love “8 Mile” but I’m definitely not in the same category as those people. I found this to be so incredibly boring that I almost felt like falling asleep. I don’t like a lot of the culture that goes along with rap music, it just doesn’t appeal to me. As a drama, I just wasn’t captivated because I didn’t really relate to any of the characters’ goals. I will admit that the “Lose Yourself” song that plays as the film as the credits roll is easily the best part of the entire film.