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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Dolby Digital trailer - Egypt

8 Seconds

Roadshow Entertainment/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 100 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Luke Perry. Ah. How I remember his roguish good looks as he ‘Hey, Bren’ed his way through each week of Beverly Hills 90210. He had style. He had cool. He was well dressed (for the early '90s anyway) and in 8 Seconds he’s thrown it all in in favour of playing world champion bullrider Lane Frost.

He’s a competent actor and I’ve always said that and secretly harbour a desire to look like him. I even shave a strip outta my eyebrow every fortnight. Here he plays his trademarked good guy with baddie lurking beneath, ready to spring out and scare you at any given instance (in this case, fame). He plays Frost well enough from youthful skinny kid full of exuberance through to world champion serial adulterer and back again before the end. He’s ably supported by Stephen Baldwin in an earlier role in which he plays Stephen Baldwin playing a rodeo guy. Together they have a certain chemistry that portrays a convincing friendship between one clean dude and his mildly evil conscience and competitor.

Our story follows the journey of Lane Frost from little kid winning his first prize for riding a bucking calf, to grown man riding angry bulls for money. Along the way he falls in love, fights with his father, rodeos all over the country, fights with the old man again, gets hitched, sleeps around, buys a trailer, fights with his dad and then rides some more bulls.

"Come on now Lane, you’re starting to sound like a damn country song!"

I didn’t expect much when I went into the cinema in 1994 to watch this, but that year I was fortunate enough to have won a gold pass and would see whatever was on because it was free. While I’m no fan of country music, rodeos or plaid shirts, I still found myself enjoying the film. That time. This time I thought it a little long, even if it only runs for 100 minutes. I shouldn’t complain really. Half the films we review these days run for 76 minutes and call themselves feature length. Anyway, it really isn’t a bad film and fans of honest biographies will find much to appeal to them here, regardless of any predilections toward pick-up trucks, trailer trash or line-dancing.

  Video
Contract

This is a fairly clean picture considering. There are some blotchy compression scars here and there (try 16:00-42) and only very rarely a faint grain during the night scenes. Flesh tones lean a little toward orangey indoors for the first half of the film, although the good earthy colour palette looks fine all the way through. Shadows are minimal, but when used the detail isn’t the greatest. Blacks are true, however.

Also, for film with so many hat brims and rodeo rails, aliasing might be a problem, but not here. I didn’t really see any aliasing at all which is great.

  Audio
Contract

The Oklahoman accents are flying thick and fast throughout our film here, but they are all clear and understood readily enough. The sound effects didn’t stand out enough to warrant any sort of comment, so that’s a good thing and as to the music, well...

This is pretty cheesy and definitely very country. Bill Conti’s score does the trick alright, but isn’t always the most appropriate music for a scene. There are also a bunch of country tracks and live performance pieces ustilised during bar scenes that, if you don’t enjoy country music, might get a bit heavy. They did for me.

Finally, the levels of this film are slightly out of whack, with the dialogue being softer and the music trumpeting loudly every other moment. Oh well.

  Extras
Contract

Two trailers! One’s the fabulous Dolby Egypt trailer (groans all round) and there’s the original theatrical trailer clocking in at 1:43. This is delivered in 1.85:1 without enhancement and is faded, dirty, washed out and saturated in browns. Euwww!

  Overall  
Contract

Luke Perry’s brief flirtation with the big screen looks fairly good for the littler screen. He’s a fine enough actor, if perhaps a little one-dimensional, and does a pretty good job of it here. The story is a fairly interesting one and worth a look, but the overall appeal is going to be more for people familiar or interested in country stories. Or the rodeo circuit. Directed by the guy who directed Rocky and The Karate Kid, there is naturally going to be a good old heart tugging triumphant finalé, and here this is delivered well without too much treacle.


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      And I quote...
    "This prequel to 8 Mile sees Eminem played by Luke Perry – as a cowboy."
    - Jules Faber
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Teac DVD-990
    • TV:
          Sony 51cm
    • Speakers:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Centre Speaker:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Surrounds:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Subwoofer:
          Akai
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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