User reviews

To be honest the majority of this movie is the two main characters cussing and fighting. While it's cool that the plot is based on a true story, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The acting is okay, but the characters are annoying. The plot itself, wanders around a lot and doesn't seem to have a clear direction. Then the movie just kind of ends.

In the 80's, in New York, Chris Potamitis (Liam Hemsworth) had dreamed on joining the police academy but his best friend Eddie (Michael Angarano) destroyed his dreams being caught by the police with marijuana together with him. Chris is hired by the Empire State Company to work as security guard in an armored truck with the driver Tony (Michael Rispoli). When Tony is murdered in a heist and the Empire States does not pay the insurance to the widow, Chris decides to steal money from the depository to give to her. Chris comments with Eddie, who is a lowlife and bigmouth person, the fails in the security system of the Empire State and Eddie plots a scheme with another smalltime criminal to steal the money from the depositary. The FBI agents do not believe that two morons like Eddie and Chris could have planned the heist but the experienced Detective Ransome (Dwayne Johnson) follows his instincts to solve the case.

"Empire State" is movie apparently based on a true story with one of the most unpleasant and irritating characters of the cinema history, the loser Eddie. Consequently the performance of Michael Angarano is top- notch. On the other size, Chris Potamitis is shown as a naive and quite innocent victim of the heist but it is hard to believe in this character. Therefore, despite the good performances, the screenplay is badly written and waste the good cast. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

"It's been reported that over 9 million dollars were taken in last night's heist."

Empire State surprisingly begins with a lot of promise. The beginning of the film sets the right mood and tone with an incredible 80's vibe bringing out some nostalgic memories. It had the right look and some interesting characters and the story is based on true events of one of the largest heists in American history. I thought I was going to enjoy this criminal thriller, but about half hour into the movie everything began to go downhill. Dwayne Johnson and Emma Roberts who were on the cover of the film are only supporting characters who get very little screen time. You begin to see characters come in and out of the story without any real purpose (Nikki Reed barely has a meaningless cameo in this). The true lead actors in Empire State are Liam Hemsworth and Michael Angarano, and their characters are portrayed in such a light that we are supposed to sympathize with these guys, but that never happens. Director, Dito Montiel (whose previous work include Fighting and The Son of No One both starring Channing Tatum), never manages to engage the audience with the film and it's disappointing because he had some talented actors and a great premise to work with. Overall the ending is probably the weakest and laziest part of the film after having a somewhat interesting buildup. The script was written by Emmy Award winning writer, Adam Mazer (You Don't Know Jack), and this is probably his weakest film. Montiel hasn't had much success in his films, but somehow he always manages to work with a high profile cast; if he doesn't do something different he is going to have a short career as a director.

The film is based on a true story about a heist that took place at Empire State armored truck company. Chris Potamitis (Liam Hemsworth) is a young kid who dreams of becoming a cop in order to help his family out. Unfortunately due to an incident that took place a few years ago with his best friend, Eddie (Michael Angarano), he is rejected by the Police Academy and is denied the test. Chris has to settle for working as a security guard at an armored truck company which doesn't pay much. To make matters worse, his partner is killed at a heist and the company doesn't pay the insurance for his family. Upset by this, Chris decides to steal a small amount of money from the company in order to help them out. He tells his friend Eddie about this and Eddie thinks it's a good idea to steal the millions of dollars that are stacked at this place with little security. Along with some other small time criminals, they plan to take it all, but they have to be careful because NYPD, James Ronsone (Dwayne Johnson) is hot on their trail. They will also have to watch out for the big mafia criminals who wouldn't appreciate a heist taking place in their area without their knowledge. Stealing the money might not be such an easy task as Eddie and Chris believe it to be.

Emma Roberts, Jerry Ferrara, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Michael Rispoli all play very small roles in this film. This is Dwight Johnson's fifth film of 2013 but this is by far his smallest and most forgettable role. Liam Hemsworth doesn't have what it takes to be a lead and so it was very hard to care for these characters and what was going on. The premise was promising, but somehow they couldn't create a decent criminal thriller that would engage the audience. It is a shame because this story could have been told so much better and some of the actors could have been used better. Overall I enjoyed the 80's vibe and the nostalgic feeling the first 30 minutes gave me reminding me of all the films I watched as a kid during that time. The last hour is so messy that it just ruined everything. The characters are completely one dimensional and cardboard copies and the film is completely predictable.

I'm a fan of real stories turned into movie when they revolve about an epic robbery and those robbed aren't worth of pity. This seemed to fit the genre. I didn't know what to expect from this, but the Rock is in it, so I thought, at least will be entertaining as he is the quintessential hero.

The film is not dreadful, but it is kinda mediocre. Bad direction, bad production, mediocre acting, poor dialogues, bad tempo, lack of climax, lack of tension, lack of humour, lack of proper drama, lack of everything that makes this sort of movie interesting.

The movie is supposed to happen in the 1980s, but it looks more like the 70s, regarding, dress style, make up, hair, and overall looks. If you don't get something as basic right, how do you pretend us to believe the rest?

The acting is uneven. The Rock underwhelms here, probably because the role doesn't suit his style, and he is not a proper actor, but more an action hero and I am OK when he does those sort of movies. Liam Hemsworth has potential, but he needs a bit of time off and focus on developing himself as an actor, because his lack of dramatic register was painful to watch here and not even the accent was believable; he is miscast here, and the film doesn't make him any favor or push his career forward, quite the contrary. Three people stand out to me in this film: Arangano as the most annoying Eddie, Ben-Victor as the good Chris' father, and Rispoli as the normal-guy Toni. Other supporting actors are OK in their respective roles as not much is expected from them and they are stereotypical baddies.

It is a pity that despite the story being really interesting a priori, this people wasted millions of dollars to produce a B movie. If I had had to pay for this, I would be furious.

If a movie doesn't entertain you, doesn't make you laugh, doesn't move you, doesn't have a decent settings, or the right actors for the characters, well, why bother?

When I saw the rating on IMDb it kinda put me off watching this film. Usually anything that rates lower than a 6.0 on here is actually pulp, IMDb works great that way. Pulp is OK every once in a while so I still sometimes watch some of those films if I like the cast or the storyline, however I usually draw the line at anything below 5.0 cause it's mostly just a complete waste of time.

Made an exception for this though after seeing the cast and reading the story outline, I thought how bad can it be, so I decided to find out.

I was pleasantly surprised, at no point was this film hard to watch or boring to me, just an OK thriller like many others that is worth watching even if it's not blowing your mind away. I would say it deserves about the same rating as 'man on a ledge' or 'alphadog' or 'savages'.

Anyway maybe there's some hate in some of these reviews because of some cast members or because it could have been better (it could) or because it sometimes gives you an atmosphere like your watching the departed, however then the film isn't nearly as good or it uses historical cues like argo but it's not as good as that either...all that doesn't take away from my opinion that it's still an interesting story to watch with generally decent acting.

7 out of 10 to boost the rating a bit, would give it more like a 6.5 myself.

Suitable for late night television only. Too slow and too boring. Don't pay money to watch this. There's a lot of potential, though. The story is actually quite interesting and the acting is not half bad. However, the potential is never unleashed, unfortunately.

I gave up on this flick when I noticed that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was wearing a brand new, present day digital Casio G-Shock watch. He was wearing it throughout the entire movie, although the story is set in the eighties, more than 30 years ago!

This little flaw illustrates the ambitions of both the actor, the crew, the director and also the overall quality of the movie very well, in my opinion.

(Credit IMDb) A drama centered on two childhood friends who plan to rob an armored car depository, and the NYPD officer who stands in their way.

I've seen a lot worse when it comes to STD movies, but this just wasn't all that interesting in the whole scheme of things. For a true story, you would think more effort would be necessary. My main problem with Empire State is how bland it is. It doesn't have that much action what so ever, and it lacks the emotional punch needed for a film of this magnitude, and the cast just simply isn't up for the challenge. I garnered no emotional stimulus between Chris (Liam Hemsworth) & Michael Angarano (Eddie) because not only did the film not make me care about their fates, but their performances were rather poor. Liam Hemsworth is not lead material, and made for a very boring lead. He also felt miscast, and forced in the lead role. Michael Angarano isn't much better. He grated my nerves with his wise-ass character, and I felt like smacking that smug look off his face. His chemistry with Hemsworth was off as well. Dwayne Johnson is criminally wasted in this movie as a detective. Whenever he appeared on screen, my interest level was raised significantly, but that was much too seldom for my liking. He was far too good to have such a small part in this movie. Emma Roberts is barely in this movie, aside from a few pointless scenes. We get scattered clips in the beginning and the end of the real life events that took place, but it didn't matter much to me.

Final Thoughts: A rather mundane account of a true story. I'm not gonna tell you to avoid it, but don't expect riveting entertainment. It's not a very good movie, and it went straight to DVD for a reason.

4/10.

The movie was GREAT. I wasn't entirely sure about Liam Hemsworth playing a Greek character, but boy did he do a good job. Likewise with the guy who played Eddie, Michael Angarano,who I thought at first would have been better if Jerry Ferrara, Jimmy, had played him instead. Casting turned out well though and was pretty well thought out. Acting was, for the most part, spot on. The Rock is still the same 'rock' in terms of acting though. Everything about the movie was great, the gun scenes and the way the heist was pulled off. At times it's very predictable like the Col***** dr** de** scene. I thought it was also pretty smart to start the film at the end,and then work their way from the start. I've got no idea why IMDb has this rated as a 4.5* film, deserves at least a 7.5 or 8.

Overall, a great film, easily re-watchable several times.

The movie begins with catching scenes and interesting plot, but then everything goes from bad to worse. Randomly put scenes, boring characters, too *realistic* representation of the 1980-ies and detectives that don't see the clues even if you poke their eyes with the obvious.

There are no action scenes, no comedy scenes, just some boring backgrounds with randomly placed actors talking to each other with much development of the story.

If you have time to lose and want to see the gangster's side of the epoch, watch, else better skip it.

A really great cast, though most (if not all) of the female talent at hand gets a bit shortcut. It's nice to see "Thor's" brother playing a Greek immigrant, but even better seeing real immigrants playing/acting out those parts (Chris Diamantopoulos to name one). The latter gets also a bit shortcut, for the greater good/story. Dwayne Johnson has a smaller, but still significant part in all this. I could continue listing the actors involved here (Jerry Ferrara and more), but that would be unfair to the really intriguing story the movie tells.

It's also a really good central performance. With a Greek family picture that makes sense. There is some violence and there is some "real" footage (by that I mean footage of the real person/main character) at the end of the movie. I would've thought this playing in Cinemas, at least in America.

This has got to be one of the worst heist movies I have ever seen. Usually I just try to go with the flow since it's just a movie. But the really dumb aspects of this movie just really becomes overbearing after a while. It does start out okay, with some decent acting. It even has a good cast, although only one of them seemed to be actually trying. After viewing it though, it just seemed like a movie where the actors just came together in order to make a few quick bucks. The writer of this movie did a horrendous job, I am not sure if they intentionally decided to make a bad movie for the audiences to roast upon. But I got zero enjoyment out of this and got really boring and slow really really quickly. None of the characters are likable or even interesting. Watching this movie just made me angry, it's not even a okay way to pass the time even if you have nothing to do. Just pass on this one, there are better heist movies out there. Heck there are way better straight to DVD movies out there.

2.5/10

Even though action types like the Rock and Liam Hemsworth of the Hunger Games are the main stars, don't expect an action movie with thrills and fast paced action. Instead it is a fairly sympathetic dramatization of a real life heist - the largest cash amount in history in 1982.

The two main perpetrators are blue collar friends struggling to make ends meet. The casting of Liam Hemsworth as Chris the security guard is strange. He is a watchable actor but doesn't look Mediterranean as the character is in real life. Michael Angarano is suitably out of control as his impulsive bumbling partner in crime. Emma Roberts plays a waitress friend.

Usually I like true story movies because the plots are stranger than fiction and more convincing. Unfortunately this story isn't terribly interesting. It's all rather straightforward and the characters are rather common loser types. Despite the A list stars it doesn't have that compelling enough of a story or endearing characters for a big screen movie. It was released straight to DVD and you can kind of see why after watching it. Still it's okay for one watch.

Set in the Greek Quarter of New York City back in the early 1980s, "Empire State" is about Chris (Liam Hemsworth), a lowly-paid security guard of an armored truck company. He made the unfortunate decision to abet in a robbery on his employer planned by his lowlife friend, Eddie (Michael Angarano).

When they actually pull off what turned out to be the biggest heist in the US history at that time, all the local gangsters, as well as tough NYPD cop Detective Ransome (Dwayne Johnson), breathe down their necks.

For me, all the key roles were miscast. Liam Hemsworth looked too confident and self-conscious to be realistic as a down-and-out impoverished security guard. I was thinking that the scrawny Michael Angarano would have been better off as Chris instead of his supporting role of Eddie. This was especially after we see a clip of the real Chris at the end of the film. Dwayne Johnson looked too "modern" and did not look like he belonged in that time period when the events happened. Emma Roberts had a role as Chris' girlfriend, which was largely inconsequential.

The true-to-life story actually had potential to be a good film, however, the execution of this one left a lot to be desired. The story- telling was slow and boring. There was no dramatic tension where there should have been. There was no feeling of excitement even during the actual heist itself. This looked and felt more like a made-for-TV movie from the 1980s than a current big screen feature.

A drama centred on two childhood friends who plan to rob an armoured car depository, and the NYPD officer who stands in their way.

well it is not i really don't get who wrote the inscription on this film, i think they have not seen it. plus Dwayne Johnson on the front of poster is misleading he is not the main actor nor he is in the film more than half hour all together and Emma Roberts is hardly in the movie ??? lets get to the point movie had a script has been done hundred times before saying that is no mean the film was bad because it was well written and executed. acting was very good except Dwayne Johnson he just did not fitted the character and made me feel uneasy it almost felt like he did not want to be there. character development was the best one i seen in years you felt like you was there and felt for this guys. directing, camera work and editing was excellent in this. i can not understand why the rating is so low in this movie, i have been watching movies since 70s and i like this movie and recommended it to any one.

In this movie there's a really annoying guy who is kind of like Edward Norton's little brother or something. The only reason you won't abort the movie is because you want to see him die and you keep watching to see "Is he going to die? I hope he dies so I can turn this movie off" Also you hope for the Rock to show up but he doesn't. He has 5ish minutes of screen time and the rest of the time my fists are clenched as I try to literally summon the power of Goku and go super saiyan doing a kamehameha that could destroy the world itself because it would be worth it to end this movie. Liam Hemsworth fans, you can still watch this because the whole movie is just looking at him doing nothing. So either watch this or buy a poster and look at it for hour and a half, same thing. Still this movie was better than Iron Man 3. One star.

I came across to Empire State totally by accident. I thought it was going to be another pizza movie for my 90 minutes in front of my monitor. Thankfully I was wrong.

The movie has a really good script and the director gave his best to create scenes and pace that keep your adrenaline and interest in high levels.

I didn't expect such a good cast and such a beautiful acting from the lead and supporting roles. I also liked the development of the characters and the locations in many-many points. It is a strong, serious, well-structured film.

I am excited about this movie and I am sure that every watcher will fell the same. Expecting more movies like this from the producers.

Thanks. Pablito Greco

Of all movies that the Rock has be in, he's been pretty great. This movie is a different story.

This.... Well, the beginning was a a time warped bore fest. The overall movie was so horribly boring that we had to shut it off about 3/4 through it. Well, we shut it off after we got up to go find something more entertaining to do. We expected better, but the story line drug too much, with no catchy parts to it. Period. I'm not easily bored with a movie, but this was a first.

We thought this would be adventurous, dangerous, catchy. It was none.

Don't waste your money on this movie.

All the iconotypes are there. The annoying idiot best friend Eddie (Michael Angarano). The good looking lead Chris Potamitis (Liam Hemsworth) works at an armored truck company. Partying with his idiot friend at a concert led to a drug arrest and getting him rejected by the police academy. And then there's James Ransone (Dwayne Johnson), the veteran NYPD Detective that is hot on their trail. This is dramatization of the largest cash heist in American history.

The setting is 1980s. It has the looks. Liam is ill fitting as a Greek New Yorker. He still looks like a surfing Aussi. He's miscast. But I do understand that a studio would want a hot star as the lead. Michael Angarano overplays the annoying best friend as if he's seen too many movies. Why would anybody tell this joker anything?

The tension do built. But the outcome was never in doubt. No good was ever going to come from this, especially if you have a loser friend like that. They were doomed before they started. It's too bad because it has the looks.