December 6, 2002 | Much like Extreme Ops, another video-ready movie that won the lottery and got a theatrical release, Empire is while blown up for the big screen. It will be mildly interesting to see which of these two trifles will reach its natural habitat - i.e., VHS and DVD - first.

Written and directed by Franc. Reyes, a New York-based choreographer and songwriter with obviously limited filmmaking experience, Empire is a yawningly familiar melodrama about an enterprising hustler who's undone by his own ambitions.

The movie's most impressive asset is John Leguizamo's deadly serious and highly effective performance as Victor Rosa, a Latino drug dealer whose dreams of upward mobility are best expressed by the brand name of his most popular product: Empire, a singularly potent heroin mix. With the help of his street-savvy and heavily armed crew, Victor peddles his wares throughout the South Bronx, and murders any interlopers who muscle in on his market. But he doesn't face his most ruthless opponent until he leaves the mean streets and heads to Wall Street.

Through a classmate (Denise Richards) of his girlfriend (Delilah Cotto), Victor connects with Jack Wimmer (Peter Sarsgaard), a WASPy investment banker who openly admires Victor's entrepreneurial skill. Victor profits from one of Jack's ventures and borrows heavily from Latina drug kingpin La Colombiana (a miscast but game Isabella Rossellini) to invest in another. Unfortunately, Jack - who appears to be a graduate from the Enron School of Business Ethics -- turns out to be more treacherous than any street thug.

Time and again, Empire traffics in easy ironies about amoral pursuits of the American Dream. To give the movie fair credit, however, it does score a few provocative points about class-consciousness and moral relativism. And Leguizamo manages a couple of genuinely poignant moments as Victor's bright new world of respectability falls apart. That might not be worth the price of a first-run admission ticket, but it could be viewed as a bargain for a video-rental fee.