Julie Benz

Title: 8MM 2

Release Date: 11/22/2005

Label/Distributor: Sony

Rating: R (Restricted)

Prebook DVD: 10/20/2005

Retail Price: $24.96

Genre: Drama

Cast: Jonathon Schaech

DVD Video Options: Color, Widescreen, Dolby

DVD Audio Options: English, Dubbed; French, Subtitled

UPC Code: 043396125575

8MM 2

By Irv Slifkin 10/17/2005

Color, R/NR (language, violence, drug use, sexual situations, nudity), 103 min., DVD only $24.96

Street: Nov. 22, Prebook: Oct. 25

First Run: DVD premiere

Cast: Johnathan Schaech (Hush), Laura Heuring (Mulholland Dr.), Julie Benz (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Bruce Davison (X-Men), Zita Gorog (Underworld)

Director: J.S. Cardone

SONY

Story Line: During a vacation in Hungary, American diplomat David (Schaech) and politician’s daughter Tish (Heuring) have a heated tryst with a beautiful escort (Gorog). When they learn someone took photos of the encounter, the couple attempts to find the woman amidst a world of sex clubs and porno industry shoots.

Bottom Line: An erotic thriller that’s better in the erotic department than with its thriller elements, 8MM 2 has little connection to its seedy 1999 Nicolas Cage-starring namesake other than its lead characters investigating the XXX underworld. Fans of this sort of DVD premiere will no doubt get a kick out of the steamy in-the-buff sexual liaisons spotlighting Schaech, Heuring and Hungarian model Gorog, as well as glimpses of the chic but seamy Eastern European adult industry. The film sputters, however, when it attempts to get into politics and suspense, leading to a surprise ending that, while fairly unpredictable, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense