Empire

Rating:
Summary: Delilah Cotto a.k.a. Scene Stealer
Review: Wow, Delilah Cotto sure can act. Her character Carmen is the best character in this movie. She's the reason we root for the main character Victor, who is played perfectly by John Leguizamo. Leguizamo and Cotto had great on scene chemistry and that was a key element to the movie. Jack, who is played by Peter Saarsgard, pitches an investment opportunity to Victor and he goes with it. But Victor's life comes crashing down as his crew turns on him and his relationship with Carmen is skating on thin ice. Carmen's friend and Jack's girlfriend Trish, who is played by Denise Richards, turns out to not be such a good friend. You'll see how evil those two are as the movie goes on. The two characters that did great in supporting roles were Jimmy (Vincent Laresca) and Chedda (Treach). They're very under-rated as actors and this movie should have gotten Academy Award Consideration. Punk ass Oscars! Movies like The Hours and Chicago are stupid boring movies that are a reflection of people with bad taste in movies and further validates the point that the haters are jealous of Empire, the greatest movie of all-time. You ain't a real movie watcher if you don't see Empire. It's the greatest ever. No questions asked!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Crime Drama!!!
Review: "Empire" is a film that revolves around the drug world in the Bronx and how a dealer (John Leguizamo) tries to make a better life for himself, his girlfriend, and his unborn child by moving to the more legit business of investing.

Victor (Leguizamo) is a the leader of Empire, a powerful drug business in the Bronx. The area is split up into four sections with Victor's Empire being the largest. Victor has a great life -plenty of money and much respect from the people in his neighborhood. One day, through his girlfriend, he meets a rich business man, Jack, from downtown who convinces Victor to start investing with him. Soon more and more money starts rolling in and Victor starts the "good life," which consists of living in huge apartment in SoHo, having "better" friends and contacts, and having even more money than he ever dreamed of back in the Bronx. Soon things start going wrong and it's up to Victor to fix everything.

John Leguizamo, Treach, Fat Joe, and Delilah Cotto give excellent performances in this film. This film is obviously like many of the other mobster/mafia films in which there is a gangster who's trying to go legit, but this one has a latin flavor to it that makes it interesting and different. Many have compared this film to "Goodfellas," and the films are, indeed, very similar, but a good movie is a good movie.

I would highly suggest this film to people who love crime dramas and people are interested in a fast-paced intriguing film. You won't be disappointed!

Rating:
Summary: An A for Effort, C+ Result
Review: **1/2 In "The Godfather," Michael Corleone tries to convince his ex-fiance, Kay, that the Mafia does nothing that politicians, corporate businessmen and national leaders don't do - only the latter do it in secret and call their actions "legitimate."

This concept serves as the premise for "Empire," a film that puts forth the Corleonian notion that the ethos that operates in corporate boardrooms is no different from the one that holds sway in big time drug empires like the one young Victor Rosa operates. John Leguizamo gives a solid performance as Victor, a good looking, exceptionally powerful drug kingpin from the South Bronx who, after he meets a shrewd white Wall Street yuppie named Jack, tries to channel his moneymaking skills into a more "legitimate" direction. But Victor soon discovers that not only is it difficult for a person to leave his past behind him, but that even he isn't prepared for the venality and corruption he finds in the high stakes world of corporate greed.

With Victor providing reflective voiceover narration to accompany the action, the film feels a bit like a mini-"Goodfellas" in style and tone. The story is not without interest, but, unfortunately, the farther it gets away from its South Bronx setting, the less believable and more melodramatic it becomes. The early sections of the film, in which we see Victor operating his "enterprise," are by far the best. Writer/director Frank Reyes obviously knows whereof he films and he brings a chilling realism and sense of immediacy to this darkly lit world of drug deals, shootouts and senseless killings. Particularly interesting is the way Reyes explains the geography of the drug-dealing world, with each section of the city apportioned off to the exact square inch among rival "businesses." But as the story spins off in another direction, it loses some of its credibility and begins to feel less and less authentic and more and more contrived. The film is obviously intended as a cautionary tale, but we can't help but notice how much it has to sweat and strain to make its point.

In addition to Leguizamo, there are fine performances by Peter Sarsgaard, Denise Richards, Delilah Cotto and Isabella Rossellini. It's a pity that the film itself, for all its undeniable virtues, doesn't make as much of an impact as a whole as these performers do in pieces.

Rating:
Summary: Did you see it coming? I certainly did...
Review: ....terrifically underrated latin actor Johnny Legs shows his acting chops in this Drug Dealer drama. Rappers Fat Joe and Treach add to the street flavor. Classic beauties Isabella Rossellini and Sonia Braga add to the exotica. The plot however really thins out when you realize Legs' character has given this hot shot investor over 3 million in cash in a suitcase...now, what would you do with alla that dough? That's right. The boy and his girl (the ueber babe/semi-actress Denise Sheen...uh...Richards) skips off to South Beach. Not too far from the Versace Mansion. From there it gets messier. What else is wrong with the film? 'Empire', the title. It leads one to believe the protagonist is gonna be so high up the ladder that he's a mover and shaker.....not a street thug. In fact, the only regal person worth of the title was the Rossellini character. Other than that, it's an alright show.

Rating:
Summary: PUHLEEEASE!!
Review:
This film was just terrible, all the way around. First of all, who did the lighting for this movie ? I realize the look they were going for, that sort of in your face, MTV video shoot look. But even that they failed to acomplish. Besides blatently ripping off from every mafia film from The Godfather to Scarface to Goodfellas, the story was just weak. No likable characters, no character development, and the climax fell way short
For example, Vic, the lead character moves out of the slums of the Bronx to a lavish loft in Soho. He returns for a party at his girlfriends mothers house after about a week of his "new start" in the city. All of the sudden he runs into his old crew, and acts like he can't even relate to his friends. Friends he had known all his life..can't relate though, a totally changed man, AFTER A WEEK!!...poor character development and story pacing.
There was no real depth to any of the characters. Jack, who they should have just called whiteguy, was too vague in describing his business. I understand this was a gangster film, but the writers could have at least done a little research in some facet of business so the Jack character was at least believable. Everytime the two would meet the dialogue was just too vague.
And then comes the final scene, the climax, the big meeting between Jack and Vic. Well, it's over in a matter of minutes... Maybe drug dealing isn't so glamorous after all!! Really makes you think..PUUHLEEEEASE!!
If you like gunfights, rappers trying to act, and films that looks like they were edited by a monkey with a switchblade and scotchtape, this one's for you!
John Leguizamo has his moments, but the overall film overshadows his mediocre acting...

Rating:
Summary: Poor Man's "Carlito's Way"
Review: Actually, this movie could be a spin-off of the "Carlito's Way" character, Benny Blanco from the Bronx, also played by John Leguizamo. The story is pretty much the cliched druge dealer trying to go straight routine but yet everytime he tries to get out....they pull him back in! Leguizamo is also just not believable as a major tough guy drug kingpin. A gay hairdresser from Queens? Yes. A macho drug dealer? No. Also what good is having Denise Richards in a movie if she's not going to be naked? That's like putting Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie where he doesn't kill anyone. It's pointless.

Rating:
Summary: Think of a Latin version of New Jack City or Menace 2 Societ
Review: After seeing theatre promos last fall I couldn't wait to see "Empire." The beginning is pretty good. The movie is like a Latin version of "New Jack City" or "Menace 2 Society." John Leguizamo's character is a drug dealer who decides he wants to go legit. He is supposed to be so smart and so smooth but he gets taken like a real sucker by this White Wall Street investment banker. On top of that, there are a lot of little stories within the movie. The drug wars between the different drug lords, him and his girlfriend, etc. There are many aspects of this film that are way to predictable. I would recommend that you see this film if you like movies about drug dealers and gangsters. Don't expect any surprises though, the plot is thin and on top of that the promos are so misleading. You think the whole movie is going to be about him getting his money back from the guy who scammed him, but actually that is only a small part of the movie that is resolved in one scene pretty much. There was a lot of blood and violence too. Guys will probably love this movie and chicks might dig it too.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Special
Review: Again, I'll have to agree with the critics on this one. EMPIRE has the right idea and it starts off well, but it never follows through.

The movie is slow-moving in some places, but rushed in most others. The characters are pretty well developed, but they aren't allowed to live up to their full potential. This movie could have been so much more. A SCARFACE for the new millenium. But the producers either ran out of money or someone decided to change from a crime drama to crime thriller mid-stream.

In general, it has a moderate amount of blood and violence, that's more or less well-placed and not excessive. Some of the deleted scenes should have been left in. It would have made for a more interesting movie.

OVERALL, it's not a bad movie, but it's nothing special either. If channel surfing on a rainy Sunday afternoon and I see it on cable, I wouldn't turn away. But I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again either.

Rating:
Summary: watch the first 45 minutes or so
Review: and then turn the dern thing off! there are the obvious paralells to carlito's way, but without the skill in the monologue. the dialogue in the movie is terrible. the characters are not even remotely interesting, and i think it was actually kind of funny that la columbiana's assassin/brother kept showing up to kill people. he just needed to start whistling of something and then the movie would have been worth a laugh at least. it seems like someone had a good idea for the beginning of a movie, then sold the script off to someone else to finish it.

i gave it three stars because the beginning of the movie was pretty good, everyone likes a coming of age story. the ending was alright, but the majority of the movie that it had to reflect back on was pretty horrible.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst
Review: Empire has to be one of the worst movies i have seen in a long time. If you watch the first like 30mins, you say to yourself, wow this movie might be cool but then you find out that the plot just falls apart and in the end, the movie just [isn't good]. All this movie had to do was make the plot thicker to make it good but it chose not to be any good. Just so you know, Fat Joe is in the movie for about the first 10mins. And the two main villains like the trailer portrays (Denise Richards and her BF) are pretty pathetic. And even when they get to the conflict height between John Legiuzamo and them two, it ends absolutely pathetically.

I have seen better conflict/drama in tv shows. You are just better off watching old sopranos or kingpin.