Rating: 
Summary: Pacino, De Palma Together Again!
Review: Over his incredible career Al Pacino has done his best work with a handful of directors. Sidney Lumet(Serpico, Dog Day Afrernoon), Michael Mann(Heat, The Insider), Francis Ford Coppola(Godfater Trilogy), but perhaps none better than Brian De Palma. This is in terms of the characters they created together. Tony Montana in Scarface and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way. In the beginning of the film Carlito is released from prison, a self-proclaimed reformed criminal. His lawyer(Sean Penn at his finest) has sprung him five years into a thirty year sentence on a technicality. Now a free man and wanting nothing to do with his former life Carlito sets out to live clean. He plans to move to the Carribean and rent cars to tourists. The only thing he needs to do is raise $75,000 legitimatly and he is on his way. Much easier said than done. It seems eveywhere he goes he is getting into trouble with people trying to suck him back to his past profession. His nephew gets killed, the DA says he has dirt on him, a gangster looking to make a nams for himself won't leave him alone, and Penn is a mess, time just doesn't seem to be on his side. Meanwhile Carlito hooks up with his old girlfriend(Penelope Ann Miller), but she wants him to leave everyone behind. Carlito can't get out just yet, his pride won't let him, and he makes several bad moves. The picture ends with a mad race to get out of the city. In particular the chase in the train station is one of the most well shot sequences of its kind. This film was shunned by the critics for reasons I can't figure. It is an engaging drama of the life of a gangster who wants out and the code that keeps him in. This is one of De Palma's best films, Pacino is great and the supporting cast is excellent. An awesome film.
Rating:
Summary: Shoots for 5 stars but is only worthy of 4
Review: Carlito Brigante played by Al Pacino, while not as rivetting and frightening as Tony Montana of Scarface is a thrill to watch. The viewer sees a once boastful criminal trying to make it on the straight and narrow and put together $75,000 to go to the Bahamas and buy into a rental car agency a gone straight con before him has started. The only way to earn this money is to manage a disco owned by his best friend, adopted brother and attorney, played by Sean Penn who sets Carlito up in more ways than one. While this might sound like an out of character leap for a gangster, Pacino does make Carlito's passion to escape the world he grew up in credible. What does lack a little credibility is Pacino's Puerto Rican accent; his muddles between Italian, Cuban and faintly Jewish, leaving one to wonder if perhaps this film could've benefitted from more research or training on the usually perfectionist Pacino's part. Sean Penn, whose past films and personal life have left much to be desired and yet appealing promises of megastar possibilities has found his part as the slimy lawyer. Penn is astounding, dynamic and chilling as the coked up lawyer who's willing to destroy anyone who would get in the way of his profit or safety. Sean Penn has graduated from the Brat Pack of movie actors and is now working on his Masters in craftsmanship and ability. This may be at least the year of his Academy Award nomination, at the least, and a possible heavy contender for Best Supporting Actor, at best. Penelope Ann Miller, new to the screen, her past films including Awakenings is simple in her role as a dancer who loves Carlito and who acts as his moral foundation against a tide of drugs, money and crime that inevitably draw him back in. Her acting is neither good nor bad, one isn't quite sure of what to make of Carlito falling for this Anglo girl in a film that does strongly emphasize Puerto Rican pride, honor and integrity, even amongst those who live on the wild side. A definite miscasting but not a horrible one, Ms. Miller does deliver a waif-like seductress energy that offsets the grit and grime of the world Carlito belongs to. One can only suppose though that Rosie Perez or Sonia Braga were busy. One can only suppose also that Pacino, hitting fifty along with Carlito is worthy of being paired up with such a young yisse as Ms. Miller. I think the smell of chauvinism reeks under this. Comedian John Leguizamo, known for his astounding HBO specials on Puerto Ricans is equally chilling and hilarious here as well. When the audience has forgotten about Leguizamo as "Benny-Blanco-From-The-Bronx", his character is drawn back into the film as one of the major cruxes of plot and character and ultimately Carlito's downfall. Ingrid Oliver from All My Children turns in, as her film debut, a powerful performance, often times with just her eyes, as Steffie, a waitress in the disco club Carlito is forced through his friendship with Penn's character to mention. And as the lawyer's girlfriend, Oliver shows a strength and class which makes her a young Black actress to watch. Between Oliver and Penn turning in such moliminous performances, this film is worth seeing. Brian DePalma, known for Carrie, Scarface, Dressed to Kill and The Untouchables, knows this gangster film noir area well, having directed Pacino before as Tony Montana. Producer Martin Bergman having worked with Pacino on Sea of Love and Serpico also knows Pacino and his ability well. Screenwriter David Keopp (Death Becomes Her and Jurassic Park) does turn the true life account into a plausible, taunt and constantly moving script but it does lack a freshness. This may be where Carlito's Way runs into trouble. These three men are too familiar with one another and may not be able to attack a new project as vigorously and freshly as in the past. Carlito's Way seems to suffer from a lack of challenge, if you will, which resonates disturbingly throughout the film. I honestly wanted this film to knock me out of my seat, to open up the Puerto Rican world for the masses as Scarface did to Cubans but it falls short. There must come a time when we break from the old and create anew and Carlito's Way filmed as a 70's film doesn't break any new ground. Based on State Supreme Court Justice Edwin Torres' novels Carlito's Way and After Hours this could've been a mega-smash as a movie and not just a group of great actors getting together to make a good film. We, in everything that we do should strive for our best, for the greatest we can be. We should strive for paradise and as Carlito sees himself in the end, as one of the old school he's too old for this new world of slick gangsters, he's simply the last of the true mo' Ricans. How appropo.
Rating: 
Summary: Previews ruin it!
Review: Great movie, F***ing terrible DVD. I didn't pay for previews, I paid for the movie. Absolutely ridiculous!
Rating:
Summary: Every Time I Want Out---They Pull Me Back In
Review: Ten years after director Brian De Palma first teamed with actor Al Pacino, for the landmark gangter epic Scarface, Carlito's Way is another powerful film. Based on a pair of books by Edwin Torres, the film tells the story of Carlito Brigante, (Pacino) an ex-drug kingpin, who is tryng to go straight. After his Cokehead attorney David Kleinfeld (Sean Penn), gets him out of jail on a legal technicallity, all he wants is to live out his life with his girlfriend Gail (Penelope Ann Miller). This decision doesn't sit well with his former associates, who will do whatever it takes, to make him pay for his actions. De Palma uses the same no holds barred style here, that he used on Scarface, for this gritty epic. Once again, Pacino becomes the character he plays and proves why he's one of this country's best actors. Penn is also very good here as well, as a man held hostage by his own shortcomings, even as he tries to help Brigante. The script from David Koepp (Panic Room, Spider-Man, and Jurassic Park) crackles with an intensity and raw power seldom seen and felt. De Palma capitalizes on the strengthes of the script with pitch perfect direction--Carlito's Way, along with Scarface, and The Untouchables, make for quite a De Palma crime trilogy. First released as a "movie only" DVD, the collector's edition of the film, has just enough to hold a viewer's interest. "The Making of Carlito's Way" documentary has author Torres, De Palma, and others talking about the film. Sadly though, no cast member is present--and it shows, still documentary producer Laurent Bouzereau does a good job despite those limits. A fairly generous photo and poster gallery tops off the real extras. I would have liked to hear a commentary, or seen a deleted scene or two, to put the disc over the top. Extra quibbles aside, Carlito's Way, is a must see.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Film
Review: The amazing Al Pacino plays Puerto Rican drug lord Carlito Brigante in this stylish Brian De Palma film. Parolled after serving 5 years of a 30 year prison term, thanks to a legal technicality exploited by his lawyer friend Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn), Carlito vows to go strait, returning to his old neighborhood. Things aren't how they used to be as Carlito discovers, and he must try to find a way to make an honest living. But his old neighborhood crowd haven't forgotten him, and soon he finds himself involved in a drug deal gone bad. Carlito is determined to stay clean, and seeks refuge running a popular night club, hoping to quietly raise the $70,000 he needs to realize his dream of renting cars in the Carribean. He also looks up his old girlfriend Gail (Pennelope Anne Miller), a jaded but hopeful stripper who is Carlito's one true friend and confidant. Try as he may to stay out of trouble, he can't avoid his old habits. His loyalties to his sleazy lawyer friend Kleinfeld, and his contempt for the young punks who have taken his place in the drug trade prove to be his downfall, and he must risk everything to make it out alive. The performances are fantastic, particularly from Penn as the coked-out lawyer who is in way over his head, and by John Leguizamo in a small but pivotal role as Benny Blanco, a young "wannabe wiseguy". De Palma successfully blends style, action and drama, anchored by Pacino's solid performance. The camera-work is terriffic, and the final shootout at Grand Central Station is a thrilling climax. We ultimately learn the lesson that our past sometimes catches up with us, and that the street "never forgets". A great movie.
Rating:
Summary: Pacino and dePalma back on form.
Review: I bought this film in a box set with Scarface, and I consider this the better of the two. A simple story of a criminal who can't go straight, a man who can't change who he is, because of his past. Al Pacino is convincing as the Puerto Rican Carlito Brigante, and Sean Penn at last gets a good role. In fact, his performance as Kleinfeld, the shady lawyer is the real success of this film. Fine support too, from Penelope Ann Miller and John Leguizamo. I loved the soundtrack, reminding me a bit of Scorsese in it's compilation. DePalma's direction is as good as ever, and the film is not prolonged in the same way that Scarface was. The gangster genre is something which is difficult to break new ground with, but Carlito's Way is nevertheless very impressive.
Rating: 
Summary: The best film of Brian de Palma
Review: The facts derivated from the story put us before a man who wants to get away his destiny , but (in a mgnificent shakesperian mood), nobody can escape from his past.
There's no doubt that this film has multiple virtues. Sean Penn grew up like actor al least two thousands steps. His role is so well made like the sinister lawyer without a drop of scruples, and this is the fate's arm that literally takes to Tony Montana and throws to hell.
In my personal view, I think Sean Penn deserved an Academy award by this role.
It's a sinister view about the redemption given by Montana since he leaves the jail.
Pacino gives one of his more relevant roles all along his career.
He gives us that crude sensation of walking in the edge of the knife through all the film. Will it be necessary to say that in this film like in others, Pacino is much more than an actor, he is a nature's force and elevates the standard performance of every one of his partners?.
Watch for instance one of my favorite beauties of the cinema: Penelope Ann Miller. Her role is so well made that this film literally gave to David Lynch the final decission for including her in Mulholland's drive.
There are several unforgettable sequences in the film. The first of these belongs to that claustrophobic situation in which we find Carlitos, when he decides to rescue the money of his beloved friend. In his honor code, Carlitos can not give a "no" like answer. And that's the road to his perdition.
The other anthology scene is that made in the hospital when he visits to the lawyer by last time. The slow camera describes all the movements of the false police who revenges to his father and we can see how the bullets are released by Carlitos just before.
The final shots camera in the chase when Carlitos has planned everything and runs with the clock dictating its final minutes. The angles of camera and the tension produced in the train station for me is above his tribute to Potemkin in "The untouchables".
Carlitos way is a cult movie. But also you can consider like the shakespeare spirit made present in what I would design together with Road to Perdition , the most original "film noir" movies in the last fifteen years.
Rating:
Summary: I love everyone in this movie.. this movie is a bad NOVELA
Review: I LOVE everyone in this movie. Pacino, Penn, Viggo, Luis Guzman, Leguizamo; and Brian DePalma is the BEST. On the DVD they have an interview with Producer Martin Bregman, where he mentions that when he first got the screenplay, he read it and thought it was a joke and the worse screenplay he had ever seen. EVER. He was right. But he did the film because Al told him the actors could get this picture right. The problem is that the original author of the books (Carlito's Way & After Hours) is an amateur writer in the first place. The screenplay writer is a white guy with no understanding for the Latin culture. (Most of Oliver Stones brilliance in 'SCARFACE' was that he is a white guy that really did capture the essence of Cubans and latins in that enviroment) Then most of the actors are not Latino either. But that isn't the big problem. The big problem is that there is no cohesion between the 'writer' the 'screenplay writer' the 'director' and the 'actors' of this film. The actors and DIRECTOR act as if they did it for the paycheck (though that is not the case as rich as they are). Brian DePalma directs it as if he was interrupted on some lull in his directing and was yanked away from a vacation, and needed to get this done fast. Even Sean Penn is oddly uncomfortable in the role... Penn seems like he is trying to get it together all the way through (It's rumored that Penn was mad at himself for not being able to capture the essence of this role and insisted on dozens of takes for his scenes). Then the screenplay writer hurriedly has to put in a LOVE INTEREST, and she had to be white because they knew that the marketing of the film would suffer being so latin oriented. So you see the sell-out there. In the real world the Sean Penn character would never be hanging out with these people, nor would he be so accepted by them either. Then the premise of Carlito's quest is to accumulate $75,000 and leave forever. $75,000??? That is and was chicken feed. To achieve this goal he actually buys 50% of the 'hottest' club for $25,000! Just $25,000! What a joke. OH GET THIS >>> AL PACINO is caught moving his lips to the fat guys (SASSO character) lines when they are talking to each other at a table. And don't you hate movies that revolve around clubs as if a whole world is created within them? Real life doesn't happen in clubs. Real life happens in Hospitals, real life happens in offices.
Rating:
Summary: I HAD TO CHECK MY DAY PLANNER...
Review: and make sure it wasn't 1975 and I was late for high school. DePalma's got the mood and atmosphere so exact I was certain I could still get Chrysler stock at $3.00 a share. CARLITOS WAY is another Pacino character development exercise that probably would be better remembered had it not come on the heels of his Oscar winning work in SCENT OF A WOMAN. What is unforgettable is Penelope Ann Miller's stage/pole dance sequence (I can't listen to Cheryl Lynn's "Got To Be Real" the same way again). A lot of familiar faces from other Pacino work and the usual great half dozen quotable lines. Sean Penn deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination...the high perm alone should have nailed it for him.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Performance from Pacino!!!
Review: Al Pacino plays Carlito Bregante, an ex-con who is very famous for his previous crimes but is trying to lead a straight life. This is an excellent movie for anyone but a definite must see if you are an Al Pacino fan. Carlito slowly gets pulled back into the life he lead before because he is trying to help the people he cares about. I'm not gonna tell the whole story because I dont want to ruin it for those who havent seen it. But this is a great movie and I recommend it for everyone.
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