EMPIRE RECORDS
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1997 Chuck Dowling
Empire Records (1995) ** out of ***** - Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Maxwell Caulfield, Debi Mazar, Rory Cochrane, Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, Robin Tunney, Ethan Randall. Written by: Carol Heikkinen. Directed by: Allan Moyle. Running Time: 88 minutes.
"Empire Records" is a frustrating film. It brings to mind a question I often wonder: What's worse? A bad film or a film which shows potential but yet can't avoid going in really bad directions?
The film starts great. A record store employee, Lucas (Rory Cochrane), while closing one night discovers that their store is about to become a part of the dreaded Music City franchise. He sets out to save the store. And as an indirect result of that premise, for the next 20-30 minutes, "Empire Records" is a lot of fun.
Something goes wrong though with the film, and there's not really a specific moment where it turns to garbage to place the blame. You see, this record store is run by a dimwitted group of generation X-ers (so dimwitted in fact that it boggles the mind how they can even do normal daily activities, let alone run a business). Each one has his or her own major problems, all of which are presented and solved in afterschool special style during the film's 24 hour time frame. For example, there's Renee Zellweger's character. She likes to sleep with any man available. We find out that the only reason she does this is because she really wants to sing in a rock band (?). Then there's Liv Tyler. She's going off to college yet she's dealing with an addiction to speed, an overbearing father, and a desire to throw herself to an aging rock star (Caulfield) who's visiting the record store that day. When the film finally comes to an end, Ethan Randall's goofball character comes off as the most normal one of the bunch. If and when you see the film you'll realize how absurd that is.
Another aggravating feature of the film is it's needless music montage scenes. In order to justify the film's soundtrack, too many times during the film the characters just dance around to music for no real reason. They certainly don't advance the weak story at all.
Anthony LaPaglia comes off best as the store's manager, a nice father figure to the kids who work for him. But the character needed to react more to the bizarreness going on around him than he actually does. At times I'd be thinking "Who is running this store?" as every character would be in the back room goofing off. He needed to be asking that question as well.
"Empire Records" could have been "Clerks" with a budget, but instead it comes off as just another movie about a group of whiny teens. But the first 20-30 minutes are great, and worth watching. [PG-13]
-- Chuck Dowling --
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