Empire Records: Remix Edition Review

Empire Records is an independent music store under threat of takeover by a big, soulless corporate chain. As the employees try to get the money together needed to keep the store open, they learn about each other, and their personal problems come to the fore.

by Colin Kennedy |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1995

Running Time:

0 minutes

Certificate:

12

Original Title:

Empire Records: Remix Edition

This "Remix" edition of Allan Moyle's music store ensemble comedy restores several missing scenes, but cannot quite rescue what remains an uneven piece of fluff.

A companion piece to Moyle's superior Pump Up The Volume, Empire Records strums the same basic chords ('the man' is the enemy; music kicks ass) but fails to pick out a fresh tune. Chiefly this is because whereas Volume had a likeable, voluble hero (Christian Slater's Hard Harry), Records has too many characters and too little to say. That's not the actors' fault; the cast make a decent fist of it - even those who have gone nowhere since - but ultimately there are just too many of them to care about it.

The new scenes aren't bad, but fail to correct the lack of focus and fluffiness of the original film.
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