A successful South Bronx drug dealer turns his back on his roots and gives money to a Wall Street broker to invest for him.A successful South Bronx drug dealer turns his back on his roots and gives money to a Wall Street broker to invest for him.A successful South Bronx drug dealer turns his back on his roots and gives money to a Wall Street broker to invest for him.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Anthony 'Treach' Criss
- Chedda
- (as Treach)
Fat Joe
- Tito Severe
- (as Fat Joe 'Joseph Cartagena')
Nicole Gomez Fisher
- Waitress
- (as Nicole Fisher)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTo train for his part, John Leguizamo hung out with a gang of drug dealers and gangsters for a few days. They told him how to spot surveillance vans and deal drugs.
- GoofsWhen Trish falls onto the bed after Victor Rose meets up with her and Jack Whimmer in Miami, there are four bags surrounding her. In the next shot of the bed a few seconds later, there are only three bags, in different positions.
- Quotes
Victor Rosa: [Walking past a couple who are kissing] Hey. there's no tongue allowed here!
- ConnectionsFeatured in HBO First Look: The Making of 'Empire' (2002)
- SoundtracksWelcome to My Empire
Written by Franc. Reyes and Tony Aliperti
Performed by La India
Courtesy of Sony Discos, Inc.
Featured review
Rise and Fall
A South Bronx drug dealer (Leguizamo) with an uncommon sense of honor and professionalism longs for a better life and thinks he has found his way into mainstream respectability when he meets slick and duplicitous Wall Street investment banker Jack Wimmer (Sarsgaard in an uncharacteristically one-dimensional performance). Things go well at first and he believes he has left his old life behind for good but then disaster strikes.
Written and directed by Franc Reyes this was a star vehicle for non-star John Leguizamo who also co-produced. Its pretensions are toward being a modern version of a 1930's Warner Brothers gangster picture with the Shakespearian rise and fall of a strong-willed character. Instead it falls flat with a preposterous premise and stereotypical shoot-em up elements.
This is a thoroughly amateurish production right down to the casting of the extras and one wonders why solid actors like Sarsgaard, Rosellini, Serrano and Braga would have let themselves get talked into doing something like this.
Reyes may have thought he was being clever by giving roles to people that aren't really actors but the result is a mess filled with awful performances that only picks up energy at the end (by which time most of the amateur actors' characters have been killed off).
Written and directed by Franc Reyes this was a star vehicle for non-star John Leguizamo who also co-produced. Its pretensions are toward being a modern version of a 1930's Warner Brothers gangster picture with the Shakespearian rise and fall of a strong-willed character. Instead it falls flat with a preposterous premise and stereotypical shoot-em up elements.
This is a thoroughly amateurish production right down to the casting of the extras and one wonders why solid actors like Sarsgaard, Rosellini, Serrano and Braga would have let themselves get talked into doing something like this.
Reyes may have thought he was being clever by giving roles to people that aren't really actors but the result is a mess filled with awful performances that only picks up energy at the end (by which time most of the amateur actors' characters have been killed off).
- JasonDanielBaker
- Aug 10, 2012
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $4,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $17,600,423
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,281,415
- Dec 8, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $18,591,272
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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