BuzzSugar

Pop Classic: Empire Records

PopSugarUK — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:00:00 -0700

I knew I had the basis of my first Pop Classic when FabUK posted her Back To Cool article, featuring the style of Liv Tyler playing Corey in the 1995 film Empire Records. This movie has been a firm favourite of mine since I rented it out on VHS years ago, without a clue who the actors were. At the time, all I saw were a bunch of weird kids working in a cool record store, and I loved it. As everything 90s is back right now - as seen in The Wackness, a resurgence of plaid shirts and the return of Take That, among other things - I really don't think there's any better time to look back at this film!

The cast is made up of a bunch of well-known and familiar faces, including Liv Tyler as Corey, Renee Zellweger as wild child Gina, Rory Cochrane as oddball Lucas, Ethan Embry as supersweet Mark, Anthony LaPaglia as store manager Joe, Robin Tunney as troubled Debra and gorgeous Johnny Whitworth as artist AJ.

To read more about the plot and my thoughts on the movie, as well as the trailer and a few fun clips just read more.

Here's the kind-of-cheesy 90s cinema trailer:

The plot goes like this: On the day that cheesy singer Rex Manning (Maxwell Caulfield) is coming to Empire Records to do a signing, the employees of the store have to band together to "save the Empire", as record store chain Music Town threaten to take over the independent music seller. As the day progresses they have to deal with a gun-toting shoplifter, hash brownie trips, plenty of teen heartache, fake funerals and a whole lot of air guitar, all in and around the store itself.

The movie is full of quotable lines, fun performances and comedic and teen-angsty setpieces, as well as featuring some really awesome music from AC/DC, Throwing Muses, Evan Dando, Edwyn Collins, Better Than Ezra and Flying Lizards. If you haven't seen it yet then I highly recommend it to rent or buy - if only to see Renee Zellweger pre-Bridget Jones! The film's been re-released (since its original bare bones DVD release) as a fanmix edition with extra scenes as part of the WHV List.

If you're a fan, then feel free to discuss the movie and your favourite / least favourite moments in the comments! Here's a few of my favourite clips - there are plenty more on YouTube!

Employee Of The Week: Lucas

Sinead O'Rebellion

A love-struck Romeo...

TV Tonight: "The Company"

BuzzSugar — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:30:25 -0700

Here's the bad news: I didn't love the first installment of TNT's "The Company" the way I expected to. The two-hour segment, which airs tonight, seemed a bit jumbled, covering a lot of ground without a good hook to pull me in. The good news is that there was enough compelling content in the first episode that I'm still planning to check out the other two.

Broadly speaking, "The Company" tells the story of the CIA in the Cold War. More specifically, it focuses on two friends (played by Chris O'Donnell and Alessandro Nivola) who are recruited from Yale into the CIA, a third friend (Rory Cochrane) who ends up working for the KGB, and an American intelligence expert's quest to uncover a KGB spy within the CIA.

The book by Robert Littell on which the series is based weighs in at almost 900 pages, so I suppose it's no surprise that the miniseries (which will air in three two-hour segments) also plows through a lot of material. But what did surprise me was how disorganized the whole thing felt, so to hear more about that and see a video of Chris O'Donnell talking about his role, read more

The screener copy of "The Company" that I received came with a poster-sized chart of who's who, breaking down which characters work for the CIA, which work for the KGB or other intelligence agencies, and which are (or at least appear to be) civilians. And thank goodness; part of the idea of "The Company" is that you don't know who's really working for which agency, but I thought the first two hours contained too many characters with too little context.

Beyond that, "The Company" doesn't seem to have a coherent identity thus far. Is it a story of three college friends who end up working on opposing sides of the Cold War intelligence effort? Or is it a story of one man's lifelong quest to track down the KGB's mole within the CIA? I also had to roll my eyes at the "love story" portion of events; those who fall in love seem to do so in about 10 seconds, and of course all of the main characters' relationships are with people who could jeopardize their jobs and their lives. (One of those women, a ballerina who seems to do nothing but dance 24/7, is particularly grating.)

The first hour certainly had its good points, though. I mentioned I'm a sucker for spy stories, and there's some great code-cracking, phone-tapping and allegiance-switching here. Alfred Molina delivers a strong performance as a CIA agent nicknamed "The Sorcerer" who mentors O'Donnell's character and thrives on the danger of his job. And I hope Cochrane gets more screen time in future installments; his character, a conflicted Russian-born, American-bred spy, has more depth than anyone else so far. Overall, "The Company" looks to be a mixed bag - but fellow fans of spy stories still might find it worth a try.

Source

Chris O'Donnell Is In Good Company

Molly — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:18:12 -0700

Chris O'Donnell was looking almost as dreamy as his Circle of Friends/Mad Love days last night at a screening of his new TNT miniseries The Company in LA. Chris hasn't had excellent luck on TV series in recent years (either written off or all together canceled), but I do love seeing those baby blues back on the small screen. This new show which premieres August 5, is produced by Ridley Scott and centers around the double lives of Cold War Era CIA agents. It sounds interesting, but anything that helps keep Chris in our living rooms for at least a little while longer is fine by me.

To see more pics from the screening, including Michael Keaton, Natascha McElhone, Dana Delany and lots more just read more

View 19 Photos ›

Source

Images include Alessandro Nivola, Alfred Molina, Catherine Bell, Chris O'Donnell, Michael Keaton, Rory Cochran, Caroline Fentress, Ricardo Chivara, Natascha McElhone, Dana Delany, and Gregory Cruz