Empire Records
Short description
Empire Records is a 1995 comedy set over a single day at an independent record store of the same name. The store's manager, Joe, learns that the owner intends to sell the business to a large chain, and he wants to buy it himself to keep it independent. His plan runs into trouble when he finds that Lucas, who works the night shift, has spent the previous evening's takings during a trip to a casino. While Joe scrambles to recover the situation and his young staff rally around the store, the employees spend the day dealing with their own problems: Corey is determined to change her life, A.J. is trying to work up the nerve to tell her how he feels, Debra has shaved her head, and a teenage would-be robber turns up. The film follows the group as these personal stories and the threat to the shop play out before closing time.
The film was directed by Allan Moyle, its place between Pump Up the Volume and Xchange in his filmography, from a screenplay by Carol Heikkinen. Liv Tyler, Johnny Whitworth, Renée Zellweger, Robin Tunney, Anthony LaPaglia and Rory Cochrane lead a credited cast of 28, supported by a crew of 94. It was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures and Riche-Ludwig Productions on a budget of 10 million dollars.
On IMDb-facing audience terms, the film holds a 6.6 rating on TMDB from around 850 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 4.6 from 35 reviews, a clear gap between professional and viewer response.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was heavily cut during post-production, removing three characters who played significant roles and cutting approximately 40 minutes of material. In addition, the duration of the storyline was reduced from 2 days to one day.
- The song Video Killed by Radio Star by The Buggles plays in one of the film's scenes. It was the first song broadcast on the newly launched MTV channel on August 1, 1981.
- Screenwriter Carol Heikkinen herself once worked in a music store in Phoenix, Arizona. That store closed in early 2005.
- During the filming of the scene where Warren flees the store, stuntman Christopher Lee Bennett hit the car door with such force that he fractured a rib.
- The film's script reflects what its author, Scott Rosenberg, experienced when returning to his hometown in Massachusetts. According to his own words, it was the worst winter in the city's history, and he was then waiting to see if his screenplay 'Air Prison' (Simon West filmed an action movie with Nicolas Cage based on it in 1977) would go into production, and thinking that he was getting tired of writing screenplays for action movies. As Rosenberg said, he became much more interested in writing about his friends, who were about to turn 30, and their problems, and that's how the screenplay for 'Beautiful Girls' came about.
- In one of the deleted scenes, a band performing on the roof of a building is arrested and taken away. This episode was based on a situation with The Beatles, who once performed on the roof of the Apple Records building until the police arrived.
- Before filming began, director Ted Demme summoned all the actors to Minneapolis and housed them all together for 2-3 weeks so they could get to know each other better.
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