Customer Reviews

El Imperio (Empire - Dubbed in Spanish)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I love empire. i think that John leguizamos(Hangin with the homeboyz,Moulin Rouge,The Pest) and first time director Franc Reyes did an execellent job putting together this film about everyday struggles for us young Puerto Rican Americans growing up in the urban streets of new york city. Movie Critics like Siskel and Ebert and many other movie experts don't rate this movie above average because of all the violence and foul language scenes that this movie contains but this is definately a classic and i hope that some time in the near future we can see another movie similar to this one.

The plot: Successful South Bronx drug dealer Vic (John Leguizamo), hooked up solid w/ a co-ed neighbor Carmen (Delilah Cotto), is looking to move up to the next level in business. At a party, Vic meets Jack, the whitebread stockbroker boyfriend (Peter Skarsgard) of Carmen's college buddy (Denise Richards). Vic envies Jack's class, connections, and bling bling. Vic and Jack do business, Jack cheats Vic, then fades. Vic vows revenge. Leguizamo has charisma to burn as Vic. Cotto wears Carmen like a favorite dress. Skarsgard is pefectly white as, well, whitey. Pretty formulaic.

So, why did I give it five stars? The deleted scenes.

If you follow the entertainment news even casually, you've read a million stories about great movies that turned into vile theatrical releases because the fickle test audience and/or egomanical studio head/director/star demanded cuts that transformed cinema gold into more film for the recycling bin. That's what's happened with Empire, but fortunately, the deleted scenes are included. With them, this by-the-numbers gangsta flick turns into a rich, nuanced classic, brimming with emotional truth and authentic, relatable Puerto Rican characters and culture. With the deleted scenes, you understand why Vic gives up everything to get ahead, why Carmen supports him, why Carmen's mother hates Vic, and why Jack is the whitest, sneakiest guy on the planet.

Clearly, Empire was edited for an audience of teenaged gangsta wannabes who don't want to question their assumptions about race, gender, and culture. It should have been released as a film for adults, a classic tragedy that ranks with White Heat, Little Caesar, Blood In Blood Out and American Me.

At least now we have the deleted scenes to help us understand what Empire was supposed to be. Here's hoping Franc. Reyes will have the opportunity to release a director's cut somewhere down the road. He and his actors deserve it, and so do we.

I had high expectation for `Empire'. That is probably where I went wrong. As far as a drug fueled gangster story, this does have its high points, but overall it misses a lot of marks and comes up short too many times for me. It wants to be something more than it is capable of becoming. I take that back. It wants to be something more than it actually is, which is sad because it was capable of becoming all that it wanted to be.

Make sense?

The film tells the story of hustler Victor Rosa who makes a decent living being fairly indecent. In an attempt to solidify his safety (and procure a nice future), Victor tries his hand at more complex games only to eventually be taken for everything.

Not good.

With a cast that includes some pretty heavy hitters (Sarsgaard, Rossellini), some beautiful faces (Braga, Richards) and some charismatic talent (Leguizamo), this really should have been a slam dunk. Sadly, it fails on two opposite ends of the spectrum. As far as becoming an intelligent drama, the script lacks any real depth or polish. It feels rushed and unfocused. As far as being truly engaging and exciting, it suffers again from lack of real focus. The film doesn't really have any true intensity, and thus it loses its bite and in the end loses the audience.

The actors (outside of Leguizamo) aren't given much to build off of, which is a shame considering the talent involved. Rossellini's role is rather thankless (UGH, she is so amazing, why couldn't they have really USED her?!?!?!) and Richards and Braga are given barely anything to do other than look pretty. Richards nails her seductive nature, but she fades into shallow forgetfulness as the script disregards her. Sarsgaard actually handles his character impeccably (he is good at the shady guy) but I would have loved to know more about his character.

Yes, Leguizamo carries this movie, and actually does a stand-up job with what he is given. I just wish that he had been given a better movie to work within.

In the end, there are some themes that resonate well, they just aren't fleshed out enough. I actually found the ending effectively chilling, I just wish that it also didn't come as such a relief for me (as in, thank god this is finally over). I'm giving this a C. It has something going for it, it just doesn't understand fully how to make that something WORK for it.

I hate that this should have been so much better.

Watching the movie Empire again for the first time in say five years I don't think it was half bad. John Leguamizo carries his first big dramatic starring role. The movie's director Franc Reyes does well with his first from the scenery to the Bronx locales. My only compliant about the film was the cliched ending. Other than that if you like gangsta hood movies then check this out.

"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!

To be honest, I didn't really think much of this movie until I saw a little bit of the movie 'Hook'd Up' that stars Malik Yoba because the girl 'Veronica' he dates caught my attention and then I went on-line later on in the day to find out that her name was Delilah Cotto and found out she was in this movie with a very key role and I decided that I was going to buy this movie. I watched it 3 days after I bought it and man, it is a very well-done motion picture. This is John Leguizamo's best movie by far. His character 'Victor Rosa' is a combination of 'Tony Montana' from 'Scarface' and 'George Jung' from 'Blow' because he's ruthless yet compassionate. Peter Sarsgaard did a great job as the rotten wall street banker, Denise Richards was actually a relevant character for once, Vincent Laresca, who played 2pac's rival 'Radames' in 'Juice', was a great fit for the role 'Jimmy' because he pretty much brings back the attitude in this movie that he had in 'Juice', Fat Joe, despite his short role, played his part real well as a rival of Victor's, and how can I forget about Treach, who is one of the best rappers ever. If the drab Oscars over-hauled their image, then this movie would get lots of Academy Awards and Treach would win the best supporting actor award for his role 'Chedda'. He's volatile and street smart and Treach was the right pick for the character because's he intense and his acting is much better than half the Hollywood pretty boys who get political star treatment such as Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCapprio. And I save the best character for last, which is 'Carmen' who is played by Delilah Cotto obviously. She is nothing like 'Elvira' from 'Scarface' or 'Mirtha' from Blow because their drug addicts who impair their brains where as Carmen wants to make a great living for herself and is pregnant with Victor's baby and she's smart enough to realize that drinking alcohol, smoking, or doing drugs will affect the pregnancy. She is also very beautiful, sweet, and compassionate. Delilah Cotto was the perfect fit for this part. This movie fires on all cylinders and the conflicts that abound for Victor are what make the movie. I don't care what the haters and critics say about this movie. They can't brain wash us fans of this great piece of work into watching corporate trash like 'A View From The Top' and 'The Hours'. Obviously the people who hate on this movie don't have a good eye for talent because this movie has a great collection of it. Any fans of Leguizamo, Cotto, Treach, Richards, or Fat Joe will love this movie. Trust me you'll love it. It's an undisputed champ like Ali.

First time director Franc Reyes, simply did a masterful job in writing and directing this film. Growing up in the South Bronx himself, what he saw and been through in his life was the basis for this movie, thats what made it so real and good. John Leguizamo as Victor Rosa was the perfect choice, and the all around acting in this film was one of the best I've seen. Treach as "Chedda" and Fat Joe as rival drug lord "Tito" gave great perfomances, who better to play the roles of someone tying to survive in the streets than these two. Beautiful Delilah Cotto as Carmen was a breath of fresh air and played well as Victor's girlfriend, Vincent Larresca as "Jimmy" gave a riveting performance as Victor's best friend and the always eye catching Denise Richards playes a good part as well. The pacing of the movie was on point with great sequences and music, Franc Reyes heavily releyed on latin style music thorougout this movie. This film has it all, love, friendship, betrayal and the consequences of it all, this movie places in my top 5 all time. Just as a little triva.. The guy who plays "Hector" (Carlos Leon) who Jimmy has war with, is none other than the father of Madonna's daughter, thought that was kind of interesting. Get this movie, watch it and feel how compelling it is.

It is a great movie! Inspirational may be a word used for it. It brings out the life of this druglord from South Bronx who falls into the trap that consumes all... the need for more money. I recommend everyone to see it.

John Leguizamo (George A. Romero's Land Of The Dead, The Honeymooners) plays a hotshot street thug from the South of Bronx who winds up making a business deal with wallstreet hotshot, played by Peter Sarsgaard (the upcoming The Skeleton Key, Shattered Glass). Soon, Leguizamo's life turns upside down as he finds out that his business partner is trying to scam him. This is a very intriguing story but it leaves nothing to fill in the gaps except for a good performance by John Leguizamo which keeps this from going down in the dumps. Also starring Denise Richards (The World Is Not Enought, Valentine) as another ditzy woman with sexual ways, Rappers Fat Joe and Treach (Jason's Lyric), Nestor Serrano (The Negotiator) and a weird role for Isabella Rosselini (Death Becomes Her, Immortal Beloved) as a druglord...very weird and the hair.

South Bronx has been divided up by four prominent drug dealers who respect each others' borders. However, every now and then it happens that they cross each others borders, which always leads to brutal violence. Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) is one of these four drug dealers, and he ends up getting shot due to one of these disputes. Victor survives, but realizes that he must quit before he ends up like his older brother who was killed over the drug business. Therefore, he begins to do business with a Wall Street investment banker who he gets to know through his girlfriend's friend. This leads to Victor beginning to lose sight of where he is going and before he knows it he is lost in a heap of trouble. Empire begins with an interesting premise, which is delicately crafted. However, the overuse of voiceover causes the intellectual angle to loose its power, and as the story develops it becomes more predictable and entangled in itself. This then produces an over ambitious film that lacks a set path and results in an average cinematic experience.