OH MAN! What a piece of shit!!!

This is the first movie in my Nostalgia Overload list where I came out on the other side of the re-watch absolutely hating a movie I once loved. I haven't seen Empire Records in about 15 years but I honestly used to love it. How embarrassing.

This movie is a very corporate look at what they consider "indie" films, with an ironic twist..you know..considering the entire plot of the movie is an independently run record store trying to avoid being bought out by a national corporation.

I hate everyone in this movie; all of the annoying, over-the-top, insincere caricatures of "gen Xers," MARK: THE MOST AGGRAVATINGLY IRRITATING OF THEM ALL, Robin Tunney as…

I really could not figure out how they could afford to have the whole staff there at the same time, except if the nightly total is $9,000, I mean, that's pretty good, right. Other unbelievable things include actually every other part of this film. Nothing in this film is believable. It is as if John Hughes tried to make a Hal Hartley film. It is as if Reality Bites were made by NBC instead of MTV. It is as if that reporter who believed all the fake grunge slang made a movie based on it. And if you go in expecting a train wreck, it's quite enjoyable.

You can see the good movie lurking underneath this one. It's usually frustrating…

Just finished watching my brand new VHS copy of one of my favorite movies. You have to have the VHS version, unless you were fortunate enough to snatch up one of the OOP original version DVDs -- before the director or the producer decided to recut the film and ruin it.

This movie makes me happy. What can I say? I quote it all the time, mostly to myself. Renee Z and Liv T were never sexier - esp when Renee sings "Sugar High" -- and my decade+ long crush on Robin Tunney started here. Anthony Lapaglia seemed like the coolest guy ever. And I fell in love with Dire Straits' "Romeo & Juliet".

The music brings me back to my…

"This music is the glue of the world, Mark. It's what holds it all together. Without this, life would be meaningless."

Whoa, that was a blast from the past.

Been many years since I last watched this prime slice of 90s hipster nonsense. And I still have THE biggest crush on Liv Tyler (watching it again reminds me of something that occurred to me in the interim, when an American girl who looked very much like Liv called me 'super handsome' - you don't forget moments like that in your life I can tell you) wearing the sexiest outfit on film ever. And I still hate Lucas and, to a certain extent, Mark.

Watching it back, the stereotypes haven't aged…

Review In A Nutshell:

Empire Records attempts to emulate a particular vibe, it arches to capture that same chill vibe that Kevin Smith wonderfully drew in his 90s films, notably Clerks and Mallrats, or Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. Unfortunately, Allan Moyle presents these characters with very little depth, in that they possess little direction for their individual development or that they convey little insight of the current affairs and culture, thus leaving their banter and character revelations to be superficial and far too breezy. However, despite this issue, the film does carry a charm that is undeniably infectious, as I find myself searching within the idealistic desire I carry for working in an independent record store, to tag along…