Empire
Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 6, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
9
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyBruce 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
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin 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
80
L.A. WeeklyErnest 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
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A gangster movie with the capacity to surprise. People do unexpected things and for reasons we wouldn't anticipate. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven 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
60
VarietyJoe Leydon
Choreographer-turned-filmmaker Franc. Reyes covers familiar ground without stumbling or dazzling. Read full review
60
Film ThreatChris Gore
Empire is an entertaining, colorful, action-filled crime story with an intimate heart. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley 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
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Stereotypical, banally written bloodbath. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Like its protagonist, the movie tries to rise above convention, flails about a bit, and slides back into self-parody. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Panders to its audience by glorifying drug dealing and violence in all-too-depressingly familiar ways. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneRobert 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
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This tale has been told and retold; the races and rackets change, but the song remains the same. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.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
38
New York Daily NewsJack 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
38
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
38
Baltimore SunChris 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.
33
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's deeply ordinary, depressingly shabby stuff.
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A retread of material already thoroughly plumbed by Martin Scorsese. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Empire devolves into a bloody revenge thriller with an ending as primitive as its opening is convoluted. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Life in the Bronx is hard, all right. Getting through a movie shouldn't be harder. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Witless, unoriginal mishmash of gangsta-drama clichés. Read full review
20
Village VoiceLaura 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
16
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam 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
10
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Doesn't deserve the energy it takes to describe how bad it is. Read full review
10
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Serves a reheated notion on a creaky TV tray. Read full review
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