In 1987, America charted the changing face of corporate America with Oliver Stone's Wall Street.
In Britain, Empire State chronicled the transformation of the East End of London. These are two very different movies with contrasting budgets.
This low budget film is filled with future actors for Eastenders. It has a sprawling cast that all meet up in an East End nightclub. Frank (Ray McAnally) is a lowtime gangster who runs the nightclub. Only to find that his lease of the club has been bought out and his boxer's latest fight was nobbled and he lost a lot of money.
Paul (Ian Sears) is the up and coming Yuppie gangster who has some initial backing to develop a housing project. Paul needs the money from Chuck (Martin Landau) an American investor who has flown into to look at the proposals.
In the midst of all this are other characters such as a journalist looking for a missing person who came down to London and disappeared.. A crook with financial issues and under pressure from his girlfriend.
Director Ron Peck is a name familiar in queer British cinema. There is homosexual subtext in this film. Several characters are rent boys or use rent boys. There is even a camp element to the movie.
Empire State is also underdeveloped. You care little about the characters and there is no focussed story. For example Paul has no other investors lined up apart from Chuck. You wonder how he managed to get this far with his plans.
The random shootout at the end is bewildering. A lot of the movie does not make sense.
Empire State was funded by Channel 4 at a time when they released low budget films at regular frequencies. Good news for the British film industry but there was not much quality control. It was as if Channel 4 were hoping that more by luck they will have their next Mona Lisa or My Beautiful Launderette.
Empire State disappeared without trace. Not finding an audience in the cinema, the video rental market or even on television.
