BY MIKEY MIGO
I took in a random movie on Friday afternoon. Thanks to Fuse that movie just so happened to be the 1995 awesomeness that was Empire Records. If you grew up in the 90’s, or hell if you’ve seen it, then you should be very familiar with this movie. It’s the teenage/youthful “coming of age” movie that the mid 90’s needed. This was that fun period in music between grunge and nu-metal. The 80’s had Breakfast Club, Ferris, and the like. In the mid 90’s we had Empire Records and Dazed and Confused. Dazed is the one that seems to always get the love. I mean, rightfully so. It’s a good movie. But there is something about Empire Records that’s just great. The writing, the acting, the characterizations, and just the whole “scene” is well done and easy to consume. The casting is pretty awesome now in retrospect. Anthony LaPaglia turns in his coolest role as the record store owner, Rory Cochrane is awesome as Lucas, Ethan Embry is hilarious as Mark, Debi Mazar shows up looking weird, Renee Zellweger is at her all time hottest, and Liv Tyler…. Wow. She’s REALLY hot in this movie. I was always surprised the dude that played AJ wasn’t in move movies. I remember him being pretty popular around the time the movie came out. Another aspect about the movie was the music. Like I said, it was that time between grunge and nu-metal so a lot of the music sounded like “electric folk”. On the soundtrack we had Gin Blossoms, The Cranberries, Toad the West Sprocket, Better Than Ezra, Cracker, and others. But for some reason, probably money, the left off “Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits, “I You Want Blood” by AC/DC, “Video Killed the Radio Star”, GWAR in general, and especially “Plowed” by Sponge. But at least they included “Sugar High”. One REALLY interesting thing I’ve read is that the movie originally had like 40 MORE minutes to it. Along with cutting it down from a two day story to a one day story they cut out three entire characters. One of the characters was played by Tobey Maguire. I know, this stuff blew my mind too. Never the less, it’s a damn good movie. I know it’s flawed, a bit airy, and probably dated to some but I’m grading this movie on a curve. Let the credits roll and enjoy that last conversation talking about Primus and the Pixies. That in itself is a great example of what this movie is all about. There’s nothing else I can say except that I full heartedly recommend this one. B+
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