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Empire- 12/6/02 - R - 90m
John Leguizamo
Delilah Cotto
Peter Sarsgaard
Director: Franc Reyes
JEF
P-U. As much as I tried to like this movie it stunk. I am a fan
oh John Leguizamo, and enjoy his comedy on HBO. He’s also a good
character actor. But this movie was like a John Leguizamo ego trip. John
carries this entire film. It’s hard for me to name more than 3-4
scenes that John was not in. This was just another "gansta"
style film with nothing more to say than the ghetto drug lifestyle is
dangerous. (John was also a co-producer on this movie as well).
Storyline: John plays "Vic Rosa", a young man
who’s made a reputation as being one of the top drug lords in NYC.
His girlfriend Carmen (Delilah Cotto) is in some college course, and through
a friend of hers in college makes contact with a rich white guy who’s
having a party. I had to say "white guy" because this movie
is full of racial sterotypes. Anyway, Jack is involved in business in
NYC. He has a nice apartment, and a hoity-toity rich girlfriend (Denise
Richards). That’s about all we ever get to know about Jack. Well,
Vic meets Jack at this party, and they seem to hit it off. Two young successful
males, with seemingly similar characteristics just that Vic makes his
money dealing Heroin, and Jack makes his money through "legit"
causes as an investment banker. Well, Jack talks Vic into making some
investments. Vic sees it as his opportunity to go "legit", and
to get out of the Ghetto. At some point, Jack decides to steal Vics money,
and take off. Now Vic has to hunt down and find Jack and see if he can
get his money back.
Now, that’s the basic storyline we got from the two-minute trailer.
But yet the movie takes about 3/4 of the time showing Vic’s Ghetto
life, his connections, the relationship he’s made with his girlfriend,
etc. We’re sort of educated how things are in the Ghetto. We’re
told how much money there’s to be made in drug dealing. That having
a gunfight in broad daylight, with school buses driving by in the background
is so common in NYC that no one seems to even notice.
I kept looking for some sort of moral message in this movie, but had a
hard time finding one. There were references to Vic as being just another
businessman. There were references that compared Vic (or any drug dealer)
to other businessmen such as Bill Gates, and Rockefeller. That money makes
the world go round, and when it comes to money you have every right to
make it however you see fit… including drugs and murder. I think
at the very end of the movie in the last 30 seconds or so there was a
line something like "Well, I did all that I could, and if it makes
my son’s life better than it was all worth if". What?!!! That’s
a horrible message to send.
I’ll try and find something good to say about his movie… Yes,
John did some good work in here. But mixed in this almost 2-hour movie,
there was some bad acting from John as well. The best thing in this movie
I think was the acting by Delilah Cotto, Vic’s girlfriend, Carmen.
I think she did a great job. But she wasn’t in the movie long enough
to make this a performance to sit through 90 minutes of foul language,
gunfights, and a paper-thin storyline that barely made any sense.
Take a pass on this movie.
Jef
PS> The worst movie I saw in 2002 was "Mr. Deeds" with Adam
Sandler.