I have a fascination with movies that never made any money. You know, the onesonly three people saw but those three absolutely loved it?

"EmpireRecords" is one of those movies. The premise is pretty standard: EmpireRecords is the name of a music store managed by Joe (Anthony LaPaglia), who israther unhappy because he would like to own the Empire instead of just workthere.

One day Lucas (Rory Cochrane, "CSI: Miami") is allowedto close the store by the fatherly Joe. As Lucas is messing around in Joe'soffice, he stumbles across an offer from a chain of music stores to buy theEmpire. So Lucas, in an attempt to save the integrity of the working class (he'sa little off), takes all the money in the safe and goes to Atlantic City to tryand win enough to buy the Empire. As with every movie that involves gambling, heloses it all.

The next morning, he is found by his friends and coworkersMark (Ethan Embry) and AJ (Johnny Whitworth) who is madly in love with Corey (LivTyler in one of her first roles), the college-bound good girl. Also appearing inthis film is Robin Tunney as Debra (the depressed Goth), and Renee Zellwegger inone of her first roles.

This movie has a lot of funny little side stories,such as when a shoplifter who calls himself Warren Beatty (Brendan Sexton) stealsseveral CDs and Lucas, looking through his selection, says, "Warren, let'ssee what you took. Rap, metal, rap, rock, rap ... and Whitney Houston."

I love this movie. It has a great soundtrack of virtually unknown bands,Rory Cochrane is hilarious, and it does a good job entertaining you.