Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Empire
EMAILPRINTUniversal Studios Inc. / Arenas Entertainment

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Franc Reyes
Directed by: Franc Reyes
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 6, 2002
DVD: March 18, 2003
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong violence, pervasive language, drug content and some sexuality
Starring John Leguizamo, Denise Richards, Peter Sarsgaard, Rubén Blades, Sonia Braga, Isabella Rossellini, Granville Adams, and Rafael Báez
The story of gangster Victor Rosa's (Leguizamo) quest for the American Dream as he tries to escape his criminal past and free himself from the trapppings of easy money on the violent streets of the South Bronx. This is the first release Arenas Entertainment, the new Latino film label in partnership with Universal Pictures. (Arenas Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Illegal Tender The Ministers
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Bruce Fretts
Leguizamo owns Empire, the first film to capture the live-wire crackle of his one-man stage shows -- He's front and center in nearly every scene, and he holds the screen with a simmering self-assurance.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
In regard to Franc. Reyes' engrossing and utterly uncompromising Empire let it be said right at the top that the protean John Leguizamo, last seen as Toulouse-Lautrec in "Moulin Rouge," gives one of the best performances of the year in a lead role in an American movie.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
Reyes' fast-paced tale soars on the pedigree of its cast, all of whom are clearly having a ball -- Both poignant and wickedly amusing, Empire sets high standards for a subgenre that's rarely had any.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A gangster movie with the capacity to surprise. People do unexpected things and for reasons we wouldn't anticipate.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Empire, with its double-barreled shoot-outs, its predictable carnage and conflict, and a rush-job of a resolution, is ultimately just one more urban gangland genre flick.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Comes so close to working that you can see there from here. It has the right approach and the right opening premise, but it lacks the zest and it goes for a plot twist instead of trusting the material.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Chris Gore
Empire is an entertaining, colorful, action-filled crime story with an intimate heart.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Choreographer-turned-filmmaker Franc. Reyes covers familiar ground without stumbling or dazzling.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Rossellini doesn't do much more than show up and be a hundred kinds of ravishing. Yet there's a movie in her ageless face and that untamed bouffant.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Panders to its audience by glorifying drug dealing and violence in all-too-depressingly familiar ways.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
While Reyes seeks his own ambitious style, he can't quite step out from under De Palma's shadow and thematic choices. Everything from the voiceover narration to the final frame in Empire looks and feels like a low-budget hybrid of "Scarface" or "Carlito's Way."
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Like its protagonist, the movie tries to rise above convention, flails about a bit, and slides back into self-parody.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Watching John Leguizamo labor to keep this leaky vessel afloat, I was reminded of all those Hell's Kitchen melodramas James Cagney rescued in the early 30s.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This tale has been told and retold; the races and rackets change, but the song remains the same.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
This is clearly the Worst Performance by an Actress in a Death Scene since Sofia Coppola took a bullet for her dad in "The Godfather: Part III."
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
I know Empire is supposed to be a movie, but for a while, I thought I was listening to one of those talking books.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Empire is just too intent on living up to its imperial name -- colonizing other defenceless movies, plundering their rich natural resources, and leaving us all to feel rather cruelly violated. A postscript: Somebody here -- I'm not saying who -- dies. And still keeps on talking.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's deeply ordinary, depressingly shabby stuff.
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A retread of material already thoroughly plumbed by Martin Scorsese.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Empire devolves into a bloody revenge thriller with an ending as primitive as its opening is convoluted.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Life in the Bronx is hard, all right. Getting through a movie shouldn't be harder.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Witless, unoriginal mishmash of gangsta-drama clichés.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Laura Sinagra
Too bad the central bedfellowship never gels, and Franc. Reyes's script turns a dissection of ambition into "Sleeping With the Enemy"-style nonsense.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Universal Pictures has a lot of gall to pick up a movie as thoroughly awful as Empire and -- with a straight face and a $20 million or so ad campaign -- thrust it on the holiday movie market as if it were a significant piece of filmmaking.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Doesn't deserve the energy it takes to describe how bad it is.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Amy R. gave it a 10:
This movie was excellent. i am one to fall asleep watching a movie, but this movie had me awake the whole time. i going out and buy this movie to add to my collection.good luck to you john and hope to see more of you. keep up the good work. ps if you need latina face for upcoming moves or play just e-mail.
Ceci L. gave it a 9:
Me gustó mucho esta película aunque siempre representan a los latinos como drogaditos. John Leguizamo es guapisimo y [Spoiler Omitted]... ¡Viva puerto rico!
Adam P. gave it an 8:
I'm not to much of a critic, but I feel this move is a good show of actors and I likey the music too. Too much drogas I agree very much! But is good too see latinos get to be the actors.
Tato B. gave it an 8:
Vaya Boricua! This one's a roller coaster! Mucho action and Fat Joe on the couch...movie heaven, baby! Yo Fat Joe, get up off that couch.
Ernie H. gave it an 8:
I agree with the ladeez. Drug thug shootem up is tired, lowdown and negative. But it's a nice kick to see some heavy Latino action up on the screen, and Johnny L. is some kinda actor, Jim. Next time, I just hope someone does a Latino scientist, brain surgeon, Nobel-prize winner. I'm tired of the lowlifes and it's an insult. Is this what LATINO film makers are up to? Damn.
Tamika R. gave it an 8:
I recommend this movie. It reminds me of the Sopranos, only cooler. I loved it when Fat Joe kept blasting away, never getting up off his couch. Now THAT is a couch potato!
Josefina R. gave it a 7:
I didn't go for all the killing drugdealing and whatnot, but I liked the actors. John Legisamo and his girlfriend seemed really sincere, and the yuppie guy was a real snake.
