Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) is a drug dealer in the South Bronx. He's made a lot of money with his crew Jimmy, Chedda, and Jay. He calls his area and his product Empire. He gets into a feud with a neighboring rival. His girlfriend Carmen goes to college with Trish (Denise Richards) who introduces them to her Wall Street banker boyfriend Jack (Peter Sarsgaard). Jack offers Victor an investment opportunity which requires him to get a loan from his drug source La Colombiana (Isabella Rossellini).Leguizamo is trying to be hard and he's trying too hard. The narration tries to be hard-boiled. There is a lot of trying but a lot less succeeding. Writer/director Franc. Reyes is trying to mimic better gangster movies. There are ways to make this work but Reyes doesn't have it at this point.

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).

The reviews for this movie were not great, but I saw this movie and liked it. That is the problem with some professional movie critics. For them a movie is not a rewarding experience unless it is a truly original idea that is artsy and different. For me, and many of my friends, I want to eat popcorn and be entertained. I tend to ask myself key questions; was the plot interesting?, did I fall asleep during the movie?, what did I think of the acting and the actors?. how did the movie look(locations, how was it shot/filmed)?. If the answer to these questions is atleast marginally favorable, chances are I liked the movie. It's only when I begin to compare the movie to its' brethren or other movies of the same ilk that my opinion deviates from average to above average. No film that I reluctantly admit I marginally enjoyed would receive a below average rating. This is not the greatest film of all time, and its' filled with cliches and predictable plot twists, however it I did enjoy it; and the beautiful Ms. Delilah Cotto.

In South Bronx, Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) is a successful drug-dealer. The area is split among four gangs and he has the best share. Their unique supplier is the powerful La Colombiana (Isabella Rossellini). Victor has a girlfriend, Carmen (Delilah Cotto), who is in the university and is the best friend of Trish (Denise Richards). Denise is the girl-friend of Jack (Peter Sarsgaard), a young and successful banker. When Carmen gets pregnant of Victor, he decides to change his life and invest his money with Jack. Carmen and Victor moves to Soho, where Jack has an empty loft. However, Victor remains trapped to his origins, and has serious problems in his new life style and world. This film recalls David Mamet's `The Spanish Prisoner'. This movie gives a lesson, which is that we shall never forget our friends and our roots. I like gang movies, and this story really hooked my attention until the last scene. Although being an independent small budget movie, the cast is excellent, the direction is good and the screenplay is also great. The Brazilian Sonia Braga has a minor participation as Carmen's mother. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): `Império – Dois Mundos Colidem' (`Empire – Two Worlds Collide')