Empire State

Chris Hemsworth is Chris Potamitis, the eldest child of a Greek immigrant family living in America who thirsts for greater purpose in a world of crime, thuggery and greed.

Always at his side is his stereotypically loud-mouthed, crass mate Eddie, who does not understand why Chris would want to aspire to bigger things. Eddie's attitude reflects that of his struggling family who are constantly bogged down in poverty and surrounded by negativity.

As Chris struggles to do good in the world, he finds himself knocked down a peg when his partner is killed during a robbery after he takes a security guard job, and Chris is once again thrust into a world of crime as he tries to make something out of the situation he's in, eventually leading to greater and more dangerous repercussions than he could imagine.

There's lots of potential in Empire State, and all the elements of a good thriller are here. The trailer certainly set the stage for a grand drama. Unfortunately, this film is less than the sum of its parts. All of the necessary ingredients are in the recipe, but they are delivered without any real bang. Set pieces fizzle, and the tired American stereotypes tested my patience. There are twists that will peak your interest and there is some good character development on Hemsworth's behalf, but it all feels rather unambitious. The narrative never takes the time to slow down crucial moments and transitions from scene to scene of fast-talking Latin-Americans. Visually, the 80s have been better depicted in many other films. Some care and passion in the production process would have created a better product.

Worth the price of admission? Hard to say. It's easy to enjoy if you're not too critical, but there are much better offerings both in the genre and from 2013.

Suitable for late night television only. Too slow and too boring. Don't pay money to watch this. There's a lot of potential, though. The story is actually quite interesting and the acting is not half bad. However, the potential is never unleashed, unfortunately.

I gave up on this flick when I noticed that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was wearing a brand new, present day digital Casio G-Shock watch. He was wearing it throughout the entire movie, although the story is set in the eighties, more than 30 years ago!

This little flaw illustrates the ambitions of both the actor, the crew, the director and also the overall quality of the movie very well, in my opinion.

When I saw the rating on IMDb it kinda put me off watching this film. Usually anything that rates lower than a 6.0 on here is actually pulp, IMDb works great that way. Pulp is OK every once in a while so I still sometimes watch some of those films if I like the cast or the storyline, however I usually draw the line at anything below 5.0 cause it's mostly just a complete waste of time.

Made an exception for this though after seeing the cast and reading the story outline, I thought how bad can it be, so I decided to find out.

I was pleasantly surprised, at no point was this film hard to watch or boring to me, just an OK thriller like many others that is worth watching even if it's not blowing your mind away. I would say it deserves about the same rating as 'man on a ledge' or 'alphadog' or 'savages'.

Anyway maybe there's some hate in some of these reviews because of some cast members or because it could have been better (it could) or because it sometimes gives you an atmosphere like your watching the departed, however then the film isn't nearly as good or it uses historical cues like argo but it's not as good as that either...all that doesn't take away from my opinion that it's still an interesting story to watch with generally decent acting.

7 out of 10 to boost the rating a bit, would give it more like a 6.5 myself.

I'm a fan of real stories turned into movie when they revolve about an epic robbery and those robbed aren't worth of pity. This seemed to fit the genre. I didn't know what to expect from this, but the Rock is in it, so I thought, at least will be entertaining as he is the quintessential hero.

The film is not dreadful, but it is kinda mediocre. Bad direction, bad production, mediocre acting, poor dialogues, bad tempo, lack of climax, lack of tension, lack of humour, lack of proper drama, lack of everything that makes this sort of movie interesting.

The movie is supposed to happen in the 1980s, but it looks more like the 70s, regarding, dress style, make up, hair, and overall looks. If you don't get something as basic right, how do you pretend us to believe the rest?

The acting is uneven. The Rock underwhelms here, probably because the role doesn't suit his style, and he is not a proper actor, but more an action hero and I am OK when he does those sort of movies. Liam Hemsworth has potential, but he needs a bit of time off and focus on developing himself as an actor, because his lack of dramatic register was painful to watch here and not even the accent was believable; he is miscast here, and the film doesn't make him any favor or push his career forward, quite the contrary. Three people stand out to me in this film: Arangano as the most annoying Eddie, Ben-Victor as the good Chris' father, and Rispoli as the normal-guy Toni. Other supporting actors are OK in their respective roles as not much is expected from them and they are stereotypical baddies.

It is a pity that despite the story being really interesting a priori, this people wasted millions of dollars to produce a B movie. If I had had to pay for this, I would be furious.

If a movie doesn't entertain you, doesn't make you laugh, doesn't move you, doesn't have a decent settings, or the right actors for the characters, well, why bother?

To be honest the majority of this movie is the two main characters cussing and fighting. While it's cool that the plot is based on a true story, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The acting is okay, but the characters are annoying. The plot itself, wanders around a lot and doesn't seem to have a clear direction. Then the movie just kind of ends.