militon

I love Al Pacino. Just wanted to state that upfront. Now, his presence is not necessarily a guarantee for a five star movie, but usually it means that the movie is not total crap. This is the case with this particular title.

The story is decent enough - Pacino's character, Carlito, is an ex-drug dealer, fresh out of prison, trying to go straight, but unable to do so, as one would expect (there's no quitting or retiring in the crime business).

The characters are well enough developed. Carlito, as the main one, in particular. Especially his inadequacy in a world that's new to him (not only the legit world, but also the crime scene, with the new punks, people he knew but he finds to be changed, etc). Sean Penn (who I find annoying at times, but can't deny his talent) plays the support character of David Somethingorother, Carlito's old friend and lawyer. He once again does an extraordinary job. Some of the other characters might seem a little too stereotypical, but most of the '90s crime flicks suffer from this.

Brian de Palma does a good job directing this flick, but I can't help wondering if he didn't spend too much of his career doing movies like Carlito's Way, The Untouchables, Wise Guys, Scarface (which are all great, don't get me wrong, just a little similar) and not enough doing things like Bonfire Of The Vanities or Raising Cain. But that's another story. Let it be said, however, that the movie is totally worth watching, be it that you're a mafia movies lover, or just want to see Sean Penn in a pair of round glasses, a la John Lennon.

I was so disappointed after seeing this movie. I had great expectations for it. I've been following the Darwin awards for some time now. Call me a sick person, but I find them funny. Anyway, there was a lot of potential for this film, and having checked the cast before hand, I thought I had all the more reasons to check it out. Little did I know that the guys would make such a p_ss poor job at putting together a decent story, that the main actors would look so awkward in their roles, and that the guys I was looking forward to seeing in the movie (i.e. Chris Penn, the "MythBuster" guys, Juliet Lewis) are only doing cameos.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not a bad movie, I gave it a decent 7/10 because it had it's moments, but considering it's potential, I was ... well... disappointed. Can't think of another word.

Oh, and this might tick quite some guys off. But here it is anyway. Metallica have just gone one more step down that road. I'm not against going for the money. To all those saying "they're selling out, man, they are bowing down to the almighty dollar" I'd just like to say "so are you, mate. because you need the money to provide yourself with the best lifestyle you afford". So I'm not against "selling", I'm just against doing it with no style at all.