Empire (2002)

"A gangster movie with the capacity to surprise.  Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"An entertaining, colorful, action-filled crime story with an intimate heart.  Chris Gore, Film Threat
"Victor is a great character, played with macho zeal by Leguizamo.  Annlee Ellingson, Boxoffice Magazine

Editor's Note 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 Sarsgaard)--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 realizes 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.

	Denise Richards
	Isabella Rossellini
	John Leguizamo
	Sonia Braga
	Vincent Laresca
	Peter Sarsgaard
	Kramer Morgenthau - Cinematographer
	Franc Reyes - Director
	Peter C. Frank - Editor
	Ruben Blades - Original Music
	Daniel Bigel - Producer
	Michael Mailer - Producer
	Franc Reyes - Writer

Entertainment Weekly
"...Compelling....Leguizamo owns EMPIRE, the first film to capture the live-wire crackle of his one-man stage shows....He holds the screen with a simmering self-assurance..." 12/13/2002 p.60

Los Angeles Times
"...Engrossing and utterly uncompromising....[Leguizamo] gives one of the best performances of the year..." 12/06/2002 p.C6

Total Film
"...Centered by an on-form Leguizamo..." 12/01/2003 p.118

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
Empire 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. I recently saw Goodfellas again, and this film is similar; they're both about the rise and fall of a gangster, narrated by himself, and complicated by a wife who walks out when she catches him with another woman. And Empire has a story hook that could have transformed this story into another classic. - Roger Ebert