Not a great movie but was quite impressed with the thriller side of the story with an unexpected ending. Aside of that, there's a lot of sex scenes, good ones actually, and even a porn scene with a close up of lesbian sex. It is interesting to see the underworld of these former soviet states and their greed for sex and money. Easy to understand what happens when you have countries such Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania, etc,.. with so many beautiful women but no jobs around. I didn't know that there was an unrated version of the movie so I think I will watch this one now. It was quite good acted as well even though the actors / actresses are not any big stars.

I couldn't believe I founds long spells of this, actually boring, but I did, and in Movieland, it takes a lot to bore me. As being so removed from the original, though this isn't a carry on, I think this really took some nerve and cheek using this title. No sick violence in this folks, but some quite nice nudity, my congrads going out to the female lead. While engaged in a menois de trois, with a prostitute, Shaech (such an impressive-Peter Gallagher lookalike-actor) and wife are later blackmailed. This could really hurt the girl's family, as big Daddy (Davison) is a big political media figure, so it's a sensitive issue, so the two must play along. So the two try to find who's behind this, where the wife poses as a wannabe porn actress, at her heavy reluctance. This film is nothing like 8mm. It's totally different, it's the title here that would sadly attract movie fans of the first. Let me warn you and have you save some bucks, by telling you isn't, if reading this review. Some of you will get slightly peeved by it. It's only one redeeming quality, is it's killer twist, at the end, which I reckon' so many of you, will be thankful for. Sex thrillers like this that are boring, are bloody annoying.

I recently bought 8MM 1&2 together as a bundle. I felt like the first movie was an okay thriller, with some stellar performances by the accompanying cast. After watching the second movie, I was dazed as to the connection between parts 1 and 2: there is none. In the first movie, the protagonist goes looking for the fate of a young girl who ended up starring in a snuff film. His investigation finally leads to Dino Velvet, a deranged porn producer. The full title of the second part implies ("The Velvet Side of Hell")that we will be diving into Dino's debauched world a bit further, but that is not the case. In fact, there is not a single connection between this film and the first. As an explanation, I believe the production company wanted to make a few extra bucks and decided to give the film a more recognizable title.When I checked the extras, the director seemed like an artistic person, but he was too gratuitous about his actors, to say the least. He kept going on about how they 'understood the script'. If that was the case, the two protagonists reflected it poorly. In scenes where they get a dramatic close-up, they lack depth and conviction. And instead of building character persona, their characters just seem to make random statements, having no real perspective or opinion of their own. For instance, when Tish is shown the photo's in the diner, she reacts with "we look seriously hot in these". Scenes later, she sees the photo's as a matter of life and death, stopping at nothing to keep them from the media. The concluding scene tries to combine elements of Fincher's The Game with elements of Singer's The Usual Suspects, but comes off as a cheap imitation (how can Risa or the cop be alive?).Nonetheless, it is an intriguing film to watch. The morbid underworld of the Hungarian porn industry is depicted goth-like with an ominous feel to it. As a shooting location, the Alhambra baths are amazing. This location is highlighted by the introduction of the scantily clad character Risa, portrayed by Zita Gorog. Watch this movie when you have already had desert, you are still full of the main course but you could go for a late night snack.

**SPOILER ALERT** The film "8MM 2" has nothing at all to do with the original "8MM" movie about the snuff movie industry in America. This new and followup version of the 1999 thriller is about the blackmail of an American couple in Budapest Hungary.Young and ambitious David Huxley, Johnathon Schaech, has not only become a successful defense attorney but the counsel to the chief of the US Embassy in Budapest Ambassador Harrington, Bruce Davidson. David is also engaged to Ambassador Harrington's daughter Tish, Lori Heuring. Spending a weekend at the exclusive Alhambra Spa outside of Budapest David and Tish end up getting involved in an erotic "Manaja Twa" with a guest at the spa the sexy model Risa, Zita Gorog, who it later turns out is a high class hooker.It isn't long that David gets in his mail an envelope, without a return address, of photos of him his fiancée Tish and Risa doing their thing in bed and in living color. Faced with having his career in politics ruined, if Tish's father finds out, David together with Tish decide to pay off the blackmailer with what he demands: $200,000.00 in US currency. The arraigned pay-off, at a deserted amusement park, backfires with the blackmailer ending up dead, David shot him, and the cash back where it belongs; David Huxley's bank account.Just when it looks like both David & Tish are out of the woods the Budapest Police Department, through Det. Kovack played by Barna Illyes, finds evidence that David was involved with the person who blackmailed him! The blackmailer's body was discovered by the police with a business card that he had on him that David gave him! There's also this mysterious caller, the dead blackmailer's partner, who still keeps calling David demanding that he now pay $1,000,000.00 if he doesn't want the sexy photos of him as well as Tish & Risa be made public!Back to square one David and Tish feel that the only way they can keep from being blackmailed is to find the elusive Risa whom they feel can lead them, and the police, to the blackmailer. This gives them, and us in the audience, the opportunity to see the seedy side of Budapest in the endless sex clubs and bordellos's that David and Tish search out to find the disappeared hooker. The movie starts to get a bit ridicules with Tish in order to track down Risa volunteers, with her fiancée's David going along with it, to infiltrate a notorious sex club as a nude dancer. This hair-brained idea on both Tish and David's part leads to David ending up getting kidnapped with the blackmailer upping his ante to 5 million dollars.:One million for the photos and four million for David's life!***SPOILERS*** It's only the surprise ending of the movie that's about the only thing worth watching in it. It's then that we see what all this blackmailing murder and kidnapping was really all about. Money is the root of all evil as the Bible says and it was money, five million dollars worth of it, that drove people, in the film, to do the most outrageous things imaginable. Outrageous enough to drive those who aren't crazy to completely lose their minds! Like the final moments of the film so clearly demonstrated!