decent movie from semi-decent script

Rating: Null/10 (7 April 2000)

A good example of a movie where the main character isn't a person but a thing, in particular in this movie, a record store. Allan Moyle stuck with what he seems to know best, teenagers and suicide (as in Pump Up the Volume). While this movie provides general entertainment, it is almost a perfect example of another teen movie that was written without purpose. There isn't much that makes this movie different than most teen movies of the 90's. The characters aren't believable as teenagers, at the most, late teenagers, early 20's.
Then we have the unbelievabilty of the character Joe who doesn't do anything except help, yet again the boy who stole $9,000 dollars from his store. Forgive me, but most managers aren't going to take that in stride like its an everyday occurrence. The only believable teen character in the movie would be Warren, except him showing back up in the store with a gun.
If there is to be any real praise for this film it would be for Allan Moyle; however, he did much better work with Pump Up the Volume, especially with delivering a message. Empire sold itself on its soundtrack, not on story or acting. Definitely watch it, but literally don't expect anything, it runs in the same vein as Swingers and Clerks in telling a story with no story. And while Swingers and Clerks pulled this off far better, they had a more believable basis than what the creators designed for Empire Records.