Review: Empire State

Set in the 80s and based on true events, Liam Hemsworth stars as a Greek-American from a working class family, who wants to be a cop. A poor decision at a Black Sabbath concert with his reckless pal Michael Angarano years ago dashes those hopes. But Hemsworth feels bad that his hard-working father (Paul Ben-Victor) is stuck pretty much being a janitor disrespected by the local thugs, and he wants to help his parents out financially. For the time being he gets a job driving armoured cars and monitoring the depository. Things go awry on just his second day when veteran partner and family man Michael Rispoli is gunned down by robbers. After this, Hemsworth starts to become disillusioned. Rispoli’s family isn’t being taken care of by the company, the security cameras are dangerously easy to get around, and often he’s the only one there guarding all this money at the depository. The place is almost begging to be cleaned out. So Hemsworth starts to entertain the idea of robbing the joint. He also makes the mistake of relaying this mere thought to idiot best friend Angarano, who sees nothing but dollar signs, and unlike Hemsworth, is just a greedy bastard. He also has criminal connections, and being an idiot, he has alerted them to the heist plan. Meanwhile, a detective (Dwayne Johnson) has been sniffing around the depository ever since the first heist was pulled off that resulted in Rispoli’s death. Emma Roberts plays a local waitress who Hemsworth sorta has a thing with, or would if the screenwriter bothered to address the issue. Meaningless parts are filled out by Nikki Reed, Shenae Grimes (a former “Degrassi: TNG” alumni), Jerry Ferrara, and Roger Guenveur Smith (as a cop).

 

I hadn’t heard of this fact-based 2013 film from director Dito Montiel (“The Son of No One”) and writer Adam Mazer (2007’s interesting thriller “Breach”) before watching it. Now I know why: It’s not much good. The film’s setup is potentially interesting, with this seemingly inept, woefully negligent armoured truck company depository basically begging to be robbed. They’re almost giving the money away, so it makes you wonder if maybe stealing would be justified. I also appreciated the performances of a scene-stealing Michael Rispoli (all-too briefly appearing, though), and especially Michael Angarano as a truly reckless guy you can’t stop worrying about, because you know he’s going to get himself in deep shit if he’s not careful (which he never is). He’s a complete idiot of the highest order. Yes, it’s predictable, but it’s also pretty credible. Even Liam Hemsworth proves to be a better actor than his permanently blocked nose brother, though he looks less like a ‘greaseball’ than the guy in the film who calls him one.

 

But after a while the film’s predictability and clichés, true story or not, lead it pretty much nowhere. At least nowhere you’ve not been before and better. I also found that Dwayne Johnson’s casting in a colourless supporting role screamed of ‘marquee value’, and the former Rock wasn’t cast to his best advantage. Sure, it’s kinda interesting watching him try to be a character actor, and he’s a talented and charismatic guy, but he’s trying a little too hard. You can see the wheels turning in his performance, unfortunately. Woeful waste of Nikki Reed in a virtual walk-on (She must’ve been a victim of the cutting room floor), though at least we were spared the sight of Emma Roberts trying and failing to act, she too has little screen time. Still, they point to a serious lack of character development on the female side of things. Character actor Paul Ben-Victor is pretty good as Hemsworth’s ne’er do well janitor father, though.

 

It could’ve been something, but it feels way too short and underdone, despite Michael Angarano’s best performance to date. Like “The Son of No One”, it just doesn’t add up to much of anything at the end of the day, despite seemingly being produced by 76% of the human population (judging by the credits).

 

Rating: C