8MM 2 - Hölle aus Samt

This is not at all a bad movie, if you drop the following expectations:

• 8mm sequel?? It has nothing to do with 8mm, the movie with Nicolas Cage.

• Story? The plot is not hugely elaborate, it's a blackmailing story which takes a slight twist at the end.

• Actors? Acting should have been with more heart and more convincing.

Other than that, it's a highly enjoyable movie. It's full of masterfully photographed erotic, film-noir atmosphere, very nice on-location footage from Hungary and an excellent soundtrack.

Although the story has its deficits, it serves well for generating a big deal of suspense. Much of the suspense originates from the psychological interplay between the different "opponents" in the movie. It's not about dull action scenes or car hunts.

Altogether, still worth a 7. Good time watching.

This is a beautifully filmed suspense drama showcasing some of the splendid scenery of Budapest. However, it's also a barely credible tale of a rich and over-educated couple who live in Hungary and are in the midst of planning their high society wedding. When the couple is blackmailed as a result of engaging in the three-way tryst, the full degree of their ineptitude becomes the focus of the story.

And that's where the film's credibility becomes strained-no one is that criminally stupid! Not even if you have a wealthy dad who's also the American ambassador, and who has "bailed you out of trouble" your whole life, as is the case with the female lead. It's challenging to think that a diplomatic lawyer and his oh-so-gracious bride to be lack the basic street smarts needed to extricate themselves from the unknown blackmailer's scheme. What they actually do is jump through all the hoops demanded of them. At every juncture of the film, the pair "strategizes" on how to turn the tables on the unknown blackmailer; and with each ill-conceived strategy, they only succeed in getting deeper and deeper into despair.

Toward the last part of this annoyingly naive cat-and-mouse plot, the husband is taken hostage when he finally agrees to pay the blackmailer. By that point, most viewers will probably have guessed what the answer to the mystery is.

The acting by Jonathan Schaech, Bruce Davison, Julie Benz, and others is adequately convincing. And though Lori Heuring's acting is also on point, her character of the witless and superficial girlfriend lacked literary believability. Screenplay writer Robert Sullivan and author Dylan Tarason concocted a worthwhile plot, but unfortunately populated it with simple-minded and un-relatable protagonists.

First off, the first thing that came to my mind after I finished this film last night was "Why the title of 8MM 2?", because I saw the first one obviously, and what did this have to do with the first movie's plot? The only thing that was similar was the fact that the couple had to go into the porno industry and that wasn't even needed in the plot, because after you see the ending that I will not spoil, it just didn't make any sense.

A diplomat and his fiancée are in Hungary and notice a woman who is swimming naked in the pool area, she's very attractive, so when they see her at a club, they decide to have a little fun and have a steamy threesome. But things get extremely intense when the diplomat is mailed pictures of them all having the affair, fearing that it might go public and jeopardize his career, they pay off the guy who sent the pictures, the diplomat freaks out and "kills" the guy, leading into a murder case. He and his fiacee decide to find the girl they had the affair with, but things just get deeper and darker as they go further into what they got themselves into.

What could have been an alright thriller, turned into an unexplained and not well thought out movie, which was sad. Like I said, the title really has nothing to do with the first one, so don't fall for it. It's just a sexual thriller that makes no sense, but it's good for those nights alone, because quite frankly this is one of those films where it's so close to porn that it might as well be labeled as soft core.

4/10

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

David (Johnathon Schaech) and Tish (Lori Heuring) are a couple in Budapest, on business commitments and staying at a luxury hotel. One night, they meet an attractive woman at a nightclub and invite her back to their place, where they end up in a threesome. All is well, until David receives some negatives in the mail and he and Tish end up being blackmailed. But when some people involved in the deception are found murdered, things get messy and they are forced to enter the seedy underground world of pornography and hardcore bondage to track down the woman who may hold the key to everything.

Whereas the original film dealt with the concept of snuff films, this straight to DVD sequel deals with the more wholesome (!!!) theme of threesomes and sleazy sex. It plays like a porn film, a cheap piece of titillation with plenty of hot T/A action going on. If this sounds like your idea of a good film, you'll probably like it, but you'd probably be more at home in a porn shop than a video store.

This tries to copy the original film's dark and voyeuristic feel, but while it does a pretty good job of this, it still can't hold up to that of the original's. It has an apathetic story, with a dodgy narrative flow. And compared to Cage, Schaech comes across as interminably wooden.

Better than I thought it'd be, I suppose, and better than your average one of these DVD direct sequels that seem to be coming out a lot these days, but really, haven't we seen enough? **

Why was this film made? What were the creators of this thinking?!?! The first 8MM film at least had a plot that made sense and was potentially interesting. The first film was about the snuff film industry. This sequel is about... hold on... the porno industry!! Yes, as if the snuff film industry, an industry in which people are supposedly killed on film for entertainment, were at all in the same league with the adult film industry, an industry in which people film other people engaging in unstimulated sex acts and situations for eroticism. The idea alone should warn you about how poorly conceived the idea for this film alone is. It isn't helped by a lack of plot, character, acting, direction, script, logic, theme, or even sound design. This is a remarkably boring film that never once held my attention. Literally nothing works. Why would a mystery thriller film about the porno industry involving assassination and betrayal work anyway? I don't have much of an interest in adult films, but I certainly have watched them before. Why would somebody make a film about the evils of it and that they would make it in a sequel to a film about snuff movies? I don't even know if there is an industry involved in snuff film making, but I hope it doesn't. The idea of a snuff film alone is horrific and only people who are truly sick and bad would be a part of it. I don't think that the adult film industry revolves around murder and torture. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people make pornographic films for good intentions rather than to hurt and kill people. It is never okay to hurt another human being. The adult film industry isn't about hurting people. It's about creating films that are, to me, a diversion and a waste of time. What is this film trying to say? It doesn't work.