Empire State is a movie, apparently
based on a true story. Here is what the plot synopsis is on IMDB: After failing
to get into the police academy, Chris Potamitis (Liam Hemsworth), settles for a security guard job with the EMPIRE STATE Armored
Truck Company. Chris makes the mistake of mentioning the company's lax security
to his best friend, Eddie (Michael Angarano), and is soon unwittingly drawn into an elaborate scheme to rob
the abundant amounts of cash being stored there - resulting in the largest cash
heist in U.S. History. As the stakes continue to rise, Chris and Eddie must
outwit James Ransone (Dwayne Johnson), the veteran NYPD Detective that is hot on their trail, as well
as the local crime bosses that want to know who pulled a job on their turf, or
suffer the consequences. Written by Lionsgate
Sounds a lot more
thrilling than it actually was. While we both found it annoying and
painstakingly dull, Levi has a few things he would like to start off with.
Levi: Okay, so
I’ll start with some things I liked. The production looked good, this is set in
the 1980s and the products and sets looked pretty good. The acting was decent,
Liam Hemsworth was . . . okay, sometimes his New Yorker accent was a little
questionable but he wasn’t offensive, The Rock was amusing smug playing the
nice guy cop and probably was the most consistent throughout. Angarano was . .
. gosh I am scrapping for compliments, he played the part he was given. He was
written as this loudmouth wise guy that eventually is consumed by greed, and
Angarano got that across.
Alright that is really
all the good things I can say about this movie. The directing and the script
are TERRIBLE, turrible with a u. Just . . . who thought this is how people
talk??? I wish I could fully describe in text what I mean. Okay literally the
first scene establishing our main characters:
You have Eddie storming
out of a store and his boss following behind. Eddie is yelling.
Eddie: I quit! You hear
me? I quit!
Boss: No man you’re
fired!
Eddie: No you’re wrong I
quit!
Boss: No you’re fired!
Eddie: No I quit!
Boss: No you’re fired!
Eddie: No I quit.
Chris pulls up in a car
and he and Eddie get in a fist fight with some of the boss’s workers, and while
the fight is going on:
Eddie: I’m outta here
man I quit.
Boss: No you get out of
here, you’re fired!
Eddie jumps in Chris’
car to drive away:
Eddie: I quit.
Boss: Nah you’re fired!
GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
It was ridiculous!! That’s literally how that scene played out except swearing
in every sentence. There was no change in emotion or volume while the men were
talking, they just kept saying the same thing over and over again. And they
were talking at the same time over each other so it was even more grading on
the ears.
And I thought wow that
was rough, maybe that’s just how Eddie talks, but no, EVERYONE IN THE MOVIE
TALKS LIKE THIS!! Repeating dialogue with the same emotion over and over again
while other people are talking. Every other scene is like this, Chris gets in a
fight with a mob boss and plays out just like the scene I described, PEOPLE
DON’T TALK LIKE THIS!!! I’m sure that there are people who do it, but not every
character in the movie!!! This is poor writing and terrible directing to allow
scenes to play out like this. ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!!!!
I didn’t care for this
movie . . .
James: Well isn’t that
the point? You forgot to mention the third billed actor, and that was Emma
Roberts. That’s probably because she only had three lines in the whole movie.
Her character was completely irrelevant to the story. There was a moment where
I thought there might be a thing between her and Chris but nothing happened.
Just like everything else in this movie, nothing really happened.
I disagree with one
thing, I would not call Liam Hemsworth’s performance ok, it was very very bad.
Levi: I said he was dot
dot dot okay, not offensive, he’s just doing his normal Hunger Games performance,
could have been a lot worse.
James: It was like if an
amateur actor was told hey try to do a New York accent and couldn’t decide if
he was from Boston, New York, or Asgard. I will go further to say Liam
Hemsworth is not a good actor. His brother is a good actor, but there is a
reason Liam hasn’t gotten any roles outside of the Hunger Game franchise.
There’s nothing interesting about him. His biggest attribute is that he is
Chris Hemsworth’s brother. He tries too hard. It's like the director said Liam
look sad, so he put on a pouty face. Take Liam out and put Chris in and this
movie is 50% better at least-
Levi: No actor could
save this movie because of the God awful script, no way.
James: Hell, put in Luke
Hemsworth and this is better. No it could never be good with the script, but
don’t let the script cover Liam’s lackluster acting. Movies only go as far as
its star and he failed. We love Nic Cage because even when the script or story
is shit, he gives it his all and it makes the movie entertaining. Liam did
nothing to make this any better, he only made it worse.
Levi: I disagree, an
average actor can fill a role, but the movie itself can become great on it’s
script and direction, I would rather have those two than an A list actor.
James: So if Leo phoned
in his role for the Revenant, and did a half ass British accent or called
everyone bro, you’re saying the script and great directing would save it? Yeah
a movie needs great writing and directing, but with a bad performance by the
lead it can never be great.
Levi: I’m saying a movie
can go farther than it’s star if it has the other elements. And honestly
Leonardo didn’t say much in the Revenant, it was a very physical role,
but I stand by it, the Revenant had amazing direction and a story that
made people feel, and that’s what you have to do.
James: But if Leo was
bad, people wouldn’t have been able to appreciate the rest as much. Or take
Scarface, if Pacino did the whole movie without the vigor and passion he put
into that role, that movie loses a lot of what it was. Writing and directing
don’t mean as much if the actors can’t deliver. But part of the blame for this movie
also goes to the bad directing. It was all around bad. And Eddie was supposed
to be the likable annoying friend role, but there was nothing likeable about
him the whole movie. He was annoying. Very very annoying. Anyway we have to end
this movie differently. Obviously it’s a true story so we can’t change the
outcome but we can change how the pieced the final scenes together.
If it were up to me I
wouldn’t have ended the movie immediately after the “climax”. The climax was
pretty weak in itself. They could have dramatized it a bit more and had a
showdown between the Rock, Chris, and Eddie. With Eddie saying “I’m not going
to jail bro.” -
Levi: Five times in a
row, while Chris is yelling his lines over and over again.
James: - And the Rock
saying “No one has to go to jail Eddie. (wipes chin smoothly with his own
hand). It would end with Eddie throwing his gun down, crying and saying:
“ I don’t wanna go to
jail,” over and over and over. Is this a great ending? No. But there is no way
to take a pile of shit and smear it in a way to make it into something beautiful.
Levi: Agreed, there’s
not much that could be done, maybe . . . you know what, I cannot think of
anything to improve the ending.
James: So this movie is
so bad in a way that it just can’t be saved?
Levi: Possibly, with
proper direction, this would make a better bio pic than a crime thriller. I was
a little confused if this was a true story, because this was the biggest heist
in US history! And I had never heard of this movie. That says something.
James: Yeah they really didn’t do enough with the biggest heist in
history. They build it from the beginning how much was stolen but I could see
everything coming. Right when he got the desk job I thought, oh now he’s just
gonna let Eddie break in. Maybe there wasn’t enough to work with the real story
to make it interesting. I don’t know. This is a bad movie, and sadly not in a
funny way, which makes this the worst kind of movie. But it’s on NETFLIX!
