Empire

Empire (2002)

Not knowing much about the drug world, or about the Latino drug world in Brooklyn in particular, I was fascinating on the basic level of curiosity. And some amazement, I suppose.

This isn't a badly made movie. The leading actor, John Leguizamo, is subtle enough as Victor Rosa and has an inner core of decency to keep you identified enough to watch. The plot needs that because there's a lot of the well worn drug violence to wear you out. There is also, however, a second plot element that you don't quite expect—Rosa finds an opportunity to invest his drug earnings into high yield stock deals through a very non- Latino Wall Street man.

So there is a big twist or two to come, and this really makes the movie more of a fictional bit of creativity. Written and directed by Franc Reyes, "Empire" is about all kinds of rivalries. It's also wants to be about love and is thin there. You wish he had taken the slightly different tack the script offered him and tilted away from the shooting and strutting (lots of cocks hanging out here) and more into the minds and hearts of these people, who start to become real for us.

No such luck. Somehow they managed to get Isabella Rossellini in for a small but good part—if you're a fan you'll enjoy that. And Leguizamo adds some tenderness (real or not) to larger scene. And location shooting, frankly, is really nice, showing not the usual sides of New York (or LA) and not the romanticized ethnic neighborhoods (like the Italian or Jewish sections of old), but the regular, rough-edged reality of Brooklyn now. Or at least in 2002. Things keep changing down there really fast.

I don't recommend or not this movie—it's purely about whether you like this kind of world and want to get immersed in it. Nothing really special happens, but it's got a steady interest that might keep you going.

Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) is a drug dealer in the South Bronx. He's made a lot of money with his crew Jimmy, Chedda, and Jay. He calls his area and his product Empire. He gets into a feud with a neighboring rival. His girlfriend Carmen goes to college with Trish (Denise Richards) who introduces them to her Wall Street banker boyfriend Jack (Peter Sarsgaard). Jack offers Victor an investment opportunity which requires him to get a loan from his drug source La Colombiana (Isabella Rossellini).

Leguizamo is trying to be hard and he's trying too hard. The narration tries to be hard-boiled. There is a lot of trying but a lot less succeeding. Writer/director Franc. Reyes is trying to mimic better gangster movies. There are ways to make this work but Reyes doesn't have it at this point.

A South Bronx drug dealer (Leguizamo) with an uncommon sense of honor and professionalism longs for a better life and thinks he has found his way into mainstream respectability when he meets slick and duplicitous Wall Street investment banker Jack Wimmer (Sarsgaard in an uncharacteristically one-dimensional performance). Things go well at first and he believes he has left his old life behind for good but then disaster strikes.

Written and directed by Franc Reyes this was a star vehicle for non-star John Leguizamo who also co-produced. Its pretensions are toward being a modern version of a 1930's Warner Brothers gangster picture with the Shakespearian rise and fall of a strong-willed character. Instead it falls flat with a preposterous premise and stereotypical shoot-em up elements.

This is a thoroughly amateurish production right down to the casting of the extras and one wonders why solid actors like Sarsgaard, Rosellini, Serrano and Braga would have let themselves get talked into doing something like this.

Reyes may have thought he was being clever by giving roles to people that aren't really actors but the result is a mess filled with awful performances that only picks up energy at the end (by which time most of the amateur actors' characters have been killed off).

Empire stars John Leguizamo in a fairly decent role this time, as Victor Rosa. He is a drug dealer who is living life at a good pace. But as sucessful as his buisness is, he finds that he should get out while he still can and settle down. He sees his chance as he meets a wall street stock broker named Jack. He has a propasition for Victor that involves millions of dollars in which Victor needs to borrow from his drug dealing allies. It soon turns out that Victor is screwed out of the deal and Jack has made off with the money! Victor soon discovers he has no choice but to seek out Jack and have his revenge. What starts out with all the characteristics of a flop movie soon turns into something interesting. Leguizamo portrays Victor well, with smarts, feelings and charisma. It's not the greatest gangster flick out there (say Goodfellas blows it out of the whole movie making buisness) but this is surely worth a look. Empire provides insites into the crime world and keeps interest for a lot of the time (except the flat beginning). There are sometimes surprises that you wouldn't expect, good gun fights, and the ending is really something else. Overall not bad, do not judge the cover by all the bad things everyone says about it. Give it a shot! you may be surprised. 7.0/10

A little gem of a gangster film. Not totally original, it could be seen as a homage to many of its predecessors, yet it delivers and keeps you interested right until the very end.

John Leguizamo plays local drug dealer Victor Rosa who sees the opportunity yo "branch out" into other areas and let his drug money work for him in the stock market when he meets, through his girlfriend, a up and coming wall street executive. Problem is that he finds it harder and harder to move away from his dangerous life on the streets, and still ends up having to deal with his crew of trigger happy homeboys, rival drug dealers and drug kingpins - which turns out to be a hell of a lot harder than before.

Leguizamo is brilliant in the lead role and has good support from the likes of Peter Sarsgaard, as his new wall street chum, and Vincent Laresca as his best friend from childhood. Its also good to see old stagers Isabella Rossellini and Sonia Braga again.

Denise Richards (not really having to act here, which suits her fine) and unknown Delilah Cotto are good eye candy, and do well as the sexy female leads.

An A for effort to all involved.