MovieChat Forums > Empire (2002) Discussion > Jack and Vic aren't businessmen so what'...

Jack and Vic aren't businessmen so what's the movie's point?

posted 17 years ago by jcl295
4 replies | jump to latest

The whole movie is supposedly about how the line between legitimate business practices and criminal business practices is blurry and indistinct. Vic is supposed to apply the same rules as a businessman to a criminal enterprise while Jack applies cutthroat ruthless criminal tactics to legit business. Right? Wrong.

Jack is a con man who apparently knows nothing of investment banking or business, so if he's not a businessman, how can any comparison between the straight world and the criminal world be drawn?

Vic is the bigger problem, though. He is a TERRIBLE "businessman" who is constantly making BAD AND STUPID DECISIONS and constantly getting played. He doesn't check out Jack, but just takes him at his word that he's an investment banker and then just gives him all this cash for the first deal, he borrows a ridiculous amount of money from Isabella Rossellini for the second investment when she is demanding a five hundred (500!) percent return on the investment which he is unsure he can deliver, then he just gives the money away to Jack and it gets stolen. He can't negotiate with Jimmy about the thing with Hector, and Jimmy just kills Hector, and then Vic can't cap Jimmy even though he's been ordered to! THEN he just kills Jack instead of keeping him alive to get the money and then he thinks he can just run away after basically losing this drug lord's money. His past didn't catch up with him, all his stupid decisions did. How can anyone take this dude seriously if he just sucks and never gets anything right?? The whole movie he just makes dumb decisions and gets punked.

Also, this movie is stupid because it does not know the difference between a drug lord and a drug supplier. If La Colombiana were both, then she would be able to set policies and boundaries for her dealers, instead of being baffled and upset when they start going to war with each other, which doesn't even make sense. It'd be like captains in the same mob family fighting each other; the boss would just step in and put a stop to it.

[–] elchicho25 15 years ago

YEah I wondered if He was sooo street smart.. Why didnt he cover all bases with JAck before handing him a few MILLION dollars..?

[–] RS-Bundy 14 years ago

John L. is portraying a drug dealer who is street smart. But,he’s really only in control of his own boundries. This movie is about a small time drug dealer who wants to be more. We all need to know that he IS NOT portraying some king pin. As a matter of fact the king pin in the movie is “La Colombiana”!

If it aint moving, you can eat it!

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] pirateduck43323 13 years ago

The dumbest thing about this movie is him thinking he could escape to Puerto Rico without repaying La Colombiana and not get capped.

With over a hundred grand he could have gotten far enough away to at least have a chance, but going to Puerto Rico and living with his girlfriends family, there is no way he's still living in three months.

Part of the reason this movie sucked was that the characters of Jack and Vic were too stupid to be believable. Even if Jack was a scummy thief his entire career, the amount of wealth he is portrayed as controlling makes it seem inconceivable that he would end everything to run off with a million and a half from a drug dealer who would have no qualms having him killed.