MOVIE: Empire
Starring John Leguizamo, Denise Richards, Delilah Cotto, Peter Sarsgaard
Written and Directed by Franc Reyes
Miramax
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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In Empire John Leguziamo is following the old Richard Burton maxim, "If you must appear in trash, at least be the best thing in it." Leguizamo's Victor is a drug dealer with a big territory in the Bronx. He ruthlessly fights back anyone who gets on his turf. Sudddenly he's introduced to a person who can make all his riches legit, by investing in stock. But the deal goes sour and Victor is ripped off. He's forced to find the con artist and fight to get his money back.

If you think I'm a spoiler, I'm not; I just gave you a synopsis of the trailer. Unfortunately the rest of the movie doesn't have much else to add. There weren't any surprises.

Empire could have been better. It has an interesting twist because of its first person point of view to tell the story, but the plot isn't strong enough to make it into a great movie. Mostly I don't think a junior level Wall Street guy could pull off a scam of this level, or even have the balls to attempt one when he knows Victor is no stranger to violence. This movie is trying to be Scarface in its own way but I never got that close to anyone in it. A shame because I really like Leguizamo and he tries hard here but in the end Empire doesn't deliver anything that's really believable.

The Skinny:
Was I glad I saw the movie? Close but No, not really.

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes