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Empire
on DVD (2002)
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Brief synopsis of Empire
EMPIRE, the debut film from director-writer Frank Reyes is a Latin GOODFELLAS, chronicling the rise and fall of Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo), a Puerto Rican drug-dealer working the violent streets of the South Bronx. With an eye for money and a head for business, Victor dreams of one day achieving the wealth and success of a legitimate businessman. When Victor discovers that his girlfriend Carmen (Delilah Cruz) is pregnant, he jumps at the chance to give up the dangerous drug trade and joins forces with two new friends, Jack (Peter Skarsgaard)--a flashy Wall Street Investment banker, and his girlfriend Trish (Denise Richards). Jack offers Victor a new way of life and promises him access to "sure thing" investments. Eager to go legit, Victor quickly embraces Jack's standards of living. He gives up the streets of the Bronx for Jack's slick Soho loft and moves into the fast-talking, money-driven world of Wall Street. However, Carmen misses the warmth and familiarity of her roots in the South Bronx and Victor is torn between his own ambition and his desire to please her. Ultimately, he realises too late that Jack and Trish are not all who they seem to be, and his best-laid plans begin to falter as he is forced to accept the magnitude of their betrayal.
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Critics Reviews
Radio Times
Urban dramas don't get any more derivative than this hackneyed debut from writer/director Franc Reyes. Starring John Leguizamo, who also acts as co-producer, it tells the story of a South Bronx drugs dealer who teams up with a Wall Street hotshot (a slimy Peter Sarsgaard) to try to escape the ghetto. While Leguizamo runs rings around his co-stars in the central role, the mediocrity of the plot does him no favours. It's full of holes and entirely predictable, with an unimaginative reliance on stereotypes instead of fully-fleshed characters. Ultimately, for all its slick cinematography, there's just no heart in Reyes's film, making it hard to empathise as violent and tragic events unfold.
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