Movie Review: Empire (2002)

A routine crime drama, Empire tramples on exceedingly familiar gangster land territory and offers little in the way of originality.

In New York City, Vic Rosa (John Leguizamo) is a young and charismatic drug lord, leading a gang with control over a patch of the South Bronx. Vic and his lieutenants get involved in turf skirmishes with rival gangs from adjacent districts, although all the local dealers are supplied by the same drug import queen, known only as La Colombiana (Isabella Rossellini). Vic is dedicated to his girlfriend Carmen (Delilah Cotto) but also desperate to move up in the world.

He spots an opportunity to build a more legitimate fortune when he meets slick Manhattan investment banker Jack Wimmer (Peter Sarsgaard), who is living the rich life with glamorous girlfriend Trish (Denise Richards). Jack offers to cut Vic in on mysterious investments with promises of quick returns, and soon the money is rolling in. Vic and Carmen move into a swanky Manhattan apartment, but with the stakes getting higher, Vic discovers that leaving his old life behind isn't as easy as he thought.

Empire was an initially modest sub-studio effort aimed at Hispanic audiences. But gradually the profile of the cast expanded and the film, directed by Franc Reyes, saw a wider release. No one really needed to bother. While the movie carries some style and is competently assembled, this is a rehash of all the well-known gangster film themes, familiar since the early 1930s.

Every character is a cliché, every line of dialogue predictable, and the narration by Vic is oh-so- bland. Empire is not violent enough to cause a stir, nor groundbreaking in its portrayal of how gangsters, criminals and their molls think, act and react. It's a mercifully compact 90 minutes of lined up and knocked down platitudes.

Reyes does achieve some good aesthetic contrasts between the ramshackle street gang existence of the South Bronx and the glistening allure of Manhattan's high life, so at least Vic's quest to buy himself an upgrade is coherent. But the ease with which the supposedly whip-smart Vic gets seduced by Jack's ill-defined investment schemes introduces a severe central character contradiction.

John Leguizamo gives it his all in the central role, but often seems to be trying too hard. Peter Sarsgaard glides through the film with a glazed look of disinterest. The rest of the cast earnestly labour against the tight confines of characters who live and die within strict definitions.

Empire in not inherently deficient; just entirely derivative and utterly unnecessary.

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The Movies Of Denise Richards

All movies starring Denise Richards and reviewed on the Ace Black Blog are linked below:

Starship Troopers (1997)

Wild Things (1998)

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Valentine (2001)

Empire (2002)

Love Actually (2003)

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.
The Index of Movie Stars is here.

Movie Review: Starship Troopers (1997)

A satirical humans-versus-bugs science fiction action epic, Starship Troopers is ridiculous fun.

In the distant future, the entire world is governed by The Federation. Citizenship and voting rights are bestowed on those who serve the government, preferably in the military. The rest of the population are merely civilians. Earth is under threat from massive bugs who reside in the distant world Klendathu and its surrounding planets. With the war heating up, high school lovers Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) and Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) graduate and join the military. She is smart and joins the starship pilot training program, where she is paired with fellow trainee Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon). Johnny is athletic and joins the Mobile Infantry, where he reconnects with classmate Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer). Dizzy has a crush on Johnny, but his heart is set on Carmen. Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) is another friend of Johnny's, and he joins Military Intelligence.

The humans woefully underestimate their enemy, the war against the bugs takes a bad turn, an entire Earth city is destroyed, and Johnny's Mobile Infantry unit loses a lot of soldiers. A new aggressive battle plan is formulated, and Johnny is re-assigned to the Roughnecks, a battle-hardened division under the command of the tough-as-nails Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironside). The humans drive towards the heart of Klendathu to try and understand the intelligence behind the bugs and annihilate their threat.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven with an A-budget of over $100 million but occasionally donning a saucy B-movie ethos, Starship Troopers fluctuates between wildly enjoyable and cringe-worthy creakiness. Vaguely based on the Robert A. Heinlein book of the same name that Verhoeven claimed to have never read, the film carries a mean satirical streak that celebrates unifying neo-Fascism with a friendly face as a natural destiny for an Earth embarking on interstellar battles. Verhoeven litters the movie with public service announcements that evolve Orwellian domination into the corporate culture of good-for-you information, all ending with the itchy friendliness of a "would you like to know more?" question.

The scenes that attempt to develop the characters, and therefore require acting, are cheesy and sometimes step into dreadful territory. The one thing Verhoeven did not spend money on was acting talent. The young actors were selected to look good in a multi-ethnic society that only breeds beautiful and athletic offspring, but their lack of ability in front of a camera is almost painful, matched only by often inane dialogue courtesy of screenwriter Edward Neumeier.

The film's ending appears rushed, the gory war seemingly coming to a sudden pause with an unexplained capture. Either the budget was exhausted or sequels were being planned, but in any case the conclusion is unsatisfying, other than the enduring image of Neil Patrick Harris in on overcoat straight out of the Nazi SS closet. No serious sequels were forthcoming, other than straight-to-DVD level low budget knock-offs.

But it's the second half of Starship Troopers that really shines. Most of the clunky romances are set aside as Verhoeven focusses on the war, and the film excels as a humans against bugs action extravaganza with expert special effects deployment. Verhoeven loves his gore, and within the high-adrenaline combat action he lets loose with numerous scenes of broken bodies, the huge arachnids impaling and decapitating en-mass, and even engaging in old fashioned brain sucking. None of it is for the faint of heart, but the slick visuals and elevated levels of excitement are quite thrilling.

Starship Troopers falters when the humans have to talk to each other, but soars on the killing fields of insane interplanetary wars.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Wild Things (1998)

A neo-noir with an abundance of style and seduction, Wild Things saturates the screen with back-stabbing characters up to absolutely no good, although the fun goes somewhat off the rails in the final third.

In the posh Miami community of Blue Bay, hunky high school counsellor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is fending off the advances of cheerleader Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards). Sam used to be the lover of Kelly's mother Sandra (Theresa Russell), one of Blue Bay's richest women. Meanwhile, Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell) is a white trash teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, holding a deep grudge against Sergeant Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) of the local police force. Suzie holds Ray responsible for the shooting death of a friend. Whenever he can, Sam tries to help Suzie, who is held in contempt by Kelly.

Blue Bay is rocked when Kelly accuses Sam of rape. Sandra hires high-priced attorney Tom Baxter (Robert Wagner) to seek justice for her daughter, while a shocked Sam can only afford cut-rate lawyer Ken Bowden (Bill Murray) to represent him. The case makes headlines, and takes a sensational turn when Suzie comes forward to claim that she too was raped by Sam. With his prospects looking grim, Sam's fate is in the uncertain hands of the less than trustworthy Ken.

The synopsis covers barely half the film. Once Ken starts to interrogate Suzie, the revelations cause outright pandemonium, and the courtroom twist is only the first of many to come. Wild Things has plenty of secrets waiting to bust out, as the characters carry many hidden motivations and brutal scores to settle. This is a small film with a big agenda, drawing on the rich noir legacy to bring forward a convoluted story of seduction, big money, betrayal, revenge and class warfare in the Miami heat.

Wild Things is filmed in vivid colours, accompanied by a siren call of a George S. Clinton music score, dripping with the dangerous sensuality of the Florida swamps. And for the most part, director John McNaughton steers the film with silky smoothness, introducing the many characters and focusing on the pervasive lust in a community with too much money and too much time dedicated to rapacious pursuits.

Wild Things' appeal is in updating most of the noir elements into a hyper-driven modern context. The schemers are younger, the money bigger, the scandal more sensational, and the sex more intense, particularly a legendary threesome that provides an exclamation mark next to the film's crowning revelation. But the film also forges ahead with a plot that while comprehensible, just pushes for too many convolutions. Once the twists start coming, they never stop, and with a new reveal every few minutes as the film enters its final half an hour, the surprises lose their edge.

The cast is outstanding in depth and execution. The roles are almost all played straight, with Richards and Russell providing gallons of fervor, Campbell contributing dark broodiness, while Dillon and Bacon (who also served as executive producer) play the men who don't quite know how little control they have. Murray is a riot as a crooked lawyer in unkempt suits, with the twinkle in his eye suggesting that the ruffled persona may just be a camouflage for a sharper than expected mind. Where the wild things roam, nothing is as it seems.

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Movie Review: The World Is Not Enough (1999)

The strongest Bond chapter with Pierce Brosnan in the role, The World Is Not Enough benefits from locales that are gritty rather than glamorous, two suitably dangerous villains, and a plot that, within Bond's context, remains grounded and actually makes some sense.

Directed by veteran Michael Apted, The World Is Not Enough features brisk but controlled pacing, rational editing and a complex, multi-faceted conspiracy.  Sir Robert King, an oil tycoon and a friend of M (Judi Dench), is assassinated right inside the MI6 headquarters in London.  Bond heads out to the oil fields of Central Asia to protect King's daughter Elektra (Sophie Marceau), who has inherited his empire and may be the next victim.  Elektra had already survived a kidnapping masterminded by Soviet terrorist Menard (Robert Carlyle), but that does not stop her from becoming Bond's latest bed companion, although it's not clear in this case if he is the seducer or the seduced.

Bond soon uncovers a Menard plot to steal a nuclear bomb with the intention of triggering an explosion that disrupts global oil supplies. As M gets personally involved, Elektra is revealed to be not all that she seems, and Bond needs to save his boss, eliminate two evil masterminds, and stop the destruction of a major oil pipeline node.

The venturing of M into the danger zone, and her kidnapping as the drama unfolds, provides Judi Dench with her biggest role yet in a Bond movie.  While this is welcome from the film's perspective, it is highly unlikely that the head of MI6 would ever get anywhere near as personally involved.

Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist who helps Bond, is unfortunate at so many levels.  Richards as an actress is never more than eye candy, and stuffing her into tight shorts and mid-riff baring tank tops at every opportunity does nothing to dispel the theory that casting her in a ultra-brainy role was a joke that missed its target.

The World Is Not Enough survives these less than perfect moments thanks to the unusual real-world intensity of the unfolding drama and the effective, seductive menace that Marceau brings to her role as Elektra King.  Bond has rarely had to tangle with women as strategically powerful, evil, and conniving as Elektra, and she is a welcome upgrade compared to the interchangeable men that typically pull the strings of the nefarious plots.

The World Is Not Enough is Bond at his best, one of the rare instances where the series pulls together its best elements, dumps most of the diversions, and delivers hard-nosed entertainment.

All Ace Black Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Valentine (2001)

A slasher flick that stumbles around looking for a new idea - any new idea - to contribute to the genre. Finding absolutely none, it dies a painfully boring death on the field of bankrupt inspiration.

Rather that describe yet another collection of deserve-to-die drama queens getting unimaginatively slaughtered because years earlier they were mean to their 6th grade class dork, it is more interesting to examine some related career trajectories. Proving without a doubt that being a Bond girl is no guarantee of success, Denise Richards nosedives from co-starring with Bond in The World Is Not Enough (1999) to Valentine two short years later.

This does not discourage director Jamie Blanks from finding all possible reasons to point his cameras at Richards, her highlight a scene in which she leaves a lecherous would-be boyfriend tied-up and naked, only for the script to completely forget about the poor guy.

Heading in the other direction in terms of relative career success, Valentine strangely proved itself to be a training ground for two future Grey's Anatomy actresses. Katherine Heigl is the first victim to be slaughtered in the movie, and in the spookiest achievement of the film, she is a medical student! Heigl's brief scenes, which open Valentine, appear to be almost wholly unrelated to the rest of the movie. 

Another future Grey's Anatomy star is Jessica Capshaw, and here she gets to complain about never getting the attention of hunky guys. The rest of the cast members simply strengthen their grip on obscurity, a fate the film fully earns.

All Ace Black Movie Blog Reviews are here.