Empire: Critic Reviews

34%

MovieWeb: 0 reviews

21%

RottenTomatoes: 110 reviews

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Bruce Fretts Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

75

Between bursts of automatic gunfire, the story offers a trenchant critique of capitalism.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Elvis Mitchell New York Times (Top Critic)

40

Leaves no cliche unturned; it's Old Jack City.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Claudia Puig USA Today (Top Critic)

50

Stereotypical, banally written bloodbath.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Ann Hornaday Washington Post (Top Critic)

A retread of material already thoroughly plumbed by Martin Scorsese.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

This movie ... doesn't deserve the energy it takes to describe how bad it is.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Wesley Morris Boston Globe (Top Critic)

50

[Reyes] pushes his shopping cart through the ghetto-drug-flick warehouse, where all the merchandise has been picked over like a Filene's sale rack on the day after Thanksgiving.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Laura Sinagra Village Voice (Top Critic)

Reyes's script turns a dissection of ambition into Sleeping With the Enemy-style nonsense.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Eric Harrison Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

34

The characters ... are paper-thin, and their personalities undergo radical changes when it suits the script.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Matt Weitz Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

34

A plot this standard might work if driven by interesting acting, but the performances in Empire are flat and contrived.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

63

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.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Robert K. Elder Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

50

Looks and feels like a low-budget hybrid of Scarface or Carlito's Way.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

63

Ultimately just one more urban gangland genre flick.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top Critic)

Full Review » 5 years ago
Susan Stark Detroit News (Top Critic)

50

A standard crime drama enlivened by its sense of time, place and character.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

Full Review » 9 years ago
Joe Leydon Variety (Top Critic)

50

A yawningly familiar melodrama about an enterprising hustler who's undone by his own ambitions.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Lou Lumenick New York Post (Top Critic)

50

A predictable and stereotypical little B-movie.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

40

The whole enterprise feels predigested, as there isn't much here we haven't seen done before and done better.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Geoff Pevere Toronto Star (Top Critic)

60

Yes, we're walking those mean streets again. Good thing we're taking a few unanticipated turns.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Rick Groen Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

38

It's a grab bag of genres that don't add up to a whole lot of sense.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Stephanie Zacharek Salon.com (Top Critic)

The movie's action unfolds laboriously before us, dragged along, bumpety-bumpety, by the plodding voiceover that Leguizamo has the misfortune of delivering.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Michael Rechtshaffen Hollywood Reporter (Top Critic)

Tries to pass off a scattered, cliched approximation of the real deal.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

80

Leguizamo ... gives one of the best performances of the year in a lead role in an American movie.
Full Review » 9 years ago
Felix Vasquez Jr. Cinema Crazed

Full Review » 3 years ago
Michael Dequina TheMovieReport.com

63

Even if you haven't seen any of the tell-all television spots, every beat of this crime drama will look and sound familiar.
Full Review » 3 years ago