American Me/Empire [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • American Me:
  • Lives in Hazard - award winning docuemntary
  • Empire:
  • The Making of Empire
  • Feature commentary with director Franc. Reyes and director of photography Kramer Morgenthau
  • Deleted scenes
  • The Los Angeles premiere
  • And much more!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Edward James Olmos - Santana Montoya
       Peter Sarsgaard - Jack
       Denise Richards
       Danny De La Paz - Puppet
       Delilah Cotto - Carmen
       Cary - Hiroyuki Tagawa - El Japo
       Daniel Villarreal - Little Puppet
       Sal Lopez - Pedro
       Daniel Haro - Huero
       Domingo Ambriz - Pie Face
       Vic Trevino - Cheetah
       Tom Bower - Dornan (uncredited)
       Panchito Gomez - Young Santana
       Richard Coca - Young Mundo
       Abraham Verduzco - Paulito (Age 7)

• Director:

  Edward James Olmos, Franc. Reyes

• Producer:

  Lou Adler, Sean Daniel, Floyd Mutrux, Edward James Olmos, Irwin W. Young, Robert M. Young, Michael Mailer, Daniel Bigel

• Screenwriter:

  Floyd Mutrux, Desmond Nakano, Franc. Reyes

• Cinematographer:

  Reynaldo Villalobos, Kramer Morgenthau

• Composer (Music Score):

  Claude Gaudette, Dennis Lambert, Rubén Blades

• Editor:

  Richard Candib, Arthur Coburn, Peter C. Frank

• Production Designer:

  Joe Aubel, Richard Yanez, Ted Glass

• Art Director:

  Frank White III

• Co-producer:

  Brian Frankish

• Executive Producer:

  John Leguizamo, Steven Beer, Robert B. Campbell, Jill Footlick, Evan Lamberg

• Set Designer:

  Martin Price

• Costume Designer:

  Sylvia Vega-Vasquez

• Stunts:

  Jim Halty, Chuck Picerni, Jr.

REVIEWS:

• Overreaching from its title onward, Empire has a lot more ambition than ability to deliver on it. The film borrows liberally, though not skillfully, from Martin Scorsese's template for crime drama, and it owes a specific debt to Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way, with John Leguizamo substituting for Al Pacino as the Latino gangster trying to get out. To be fair, Empire does flirt with big ideas, and has real desire to give the mob movie a 21st century urban makeover. Its distinct chapters give it that epic quality, as the plot starts with the intense cauldron of gangland politics, then pulls off a radical shift in tone to the gangster's movements within yuppie society. Empire conjures both ends of Leguizamo's criminal spectrum with credibility, from legit street characters to a smartly seductive white savior (Peter Sarsgaard) dangling the carrot Leguizamo can't resist. The film even has the odd good sense to cast Isabella Rossellini as a matronly drug lord with acid in her veins -- one of several inspired supporting performances. It's Leguizamo, himself usually a supporting actor, who weakens under the weight of the movie, much as he did trying to carry Spike Lee's sprawling Summer of Sam. But he can't be blamed for the movie's hasty third-act collapse, which shrinks director Franc Reyes' deliberate build-up into a scant, single-scene payoff. The climactic clash between the financial world and the underworld -- a focal point of the film's ad campaign -- gets swept under the rug, and a stillborn epic whimpers to a finish at a miniscule 85 minutes. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
• This searing drama, the directorial debut of star Edward James Olmos, is an ambitious fusion of crime epic a la The Godfather and social expose. It's a tough balance to pull off, but American Me works because it maintains this agenda by balancing brutal realism with dramatic subtlety. As it charts the way the criminal justice system allows misguided kids to become hardened criminals, the film achieves an impressive sense of tragic grandeur without ever pulling its punches or giving in to cheap melodrama. That said, American Me isn't an easy film to warm up to for more than one reason. The first is its refusal to flinch from the ugly reality of its subject matter; though it is never dealt out in a glorified manner, American Me presents the savage violence of the drug trade with a gruesome, vivid sense of detail that will shock many people. The other reason is that it doesn't give the viewer an identification figure to latch on to; the central characters aren't presented in a way that inspires sympathy, and none of them ever experience an audience-friendly moment of redemption. These factors may limit the appeal of American Me, but it remains well worth the effort for the brave viewer because it is an extremely well-made film. Olmos reveals himself to be quite a stylist behind the camera, making deft use of cross-cutting to amplify the film's level of drama during key sequences and crafting a number of nerve-jangling set pieces along the way (an assassination during a prison film screening is a standout). He also gives a powerful yet controlled performance as Santana, and his work is skillfully supported by an array of distinguished supporting performances, most notably Evelina Fernandez as his ill-fated love interest and Danny De La Paz as a colleague whose faithfulness to his criminal organization comes with a heavy cost. To sum up, American Me is not for every viewer but anyone interested in a powerful, realistic crime drama will find it a rewarding experience. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi