Carlito's Way: Rise to Power

American director Brian De Palma's best known work is probably the 1983 crime epic Scarface starring Al Pacino, but its thematic companion piece Carlito's Way (1993) has plenty of fans too. Of course, eventually a prequel was produced for the latter, chronicling the eponymous Carlito's initial rise to the status he wishes to relinquish in the original film.

At the beginning in the 1960s, Puerto Rican hoodlum Carlito Brigante (Jay Hernandez) is doing time for petty crimes when he meets two incarcerated criminal bosses in the prison. With the black Earl (Mario Van Peebles) and the Italian Rocco (Michael Kelly), Carlito sets up a drug trading business in Harlem, New York, upsetting the delicate situation between the rivaling ethnic groups controlling the area's criminal activities. The main rivals being an Italian family the Bottolotas and the empire led by a suave black gangster boss named Hollywood Nicky (Sean Combs), Carlito and his associates find their place between the two opposites, doing favours for both whenever necessary. His wealth increases and he starts a relationship with a girl named Leticia (Jaclyn DeSantis), but the gangster lifestyle is not without its hazards.

Despite the change of director and lead actor, the expected elements of an urban gangster tale are all there: self-confident, hotheaded thugs, badass crime lords, honour codes, bloody vendettas... Even though I miss De Palma's touch with long takes and big chase scenes, I think director Bregman handles the storytelling decently, if less memorably. The colourful lighting in the atmospheric nightclubs is as good-looking as in the first movie and the authentic New York exterior locations always provide a great backdrop for the scenes of tough street life. Making the 1960s setting more evident could have added a nice touch to the whole though.

Since we already know the conclusion of Carlito Brigante's story from the first movie, the prequel does not feel the need to examine his actions from a moral point of view very much. Perhaps for the same reason character development has been left rather faint too, even though the story superficially tries to provide different sides to Carlito's personality, such as romantic, brotherly and ruthless. Jay Hernandez may not be as charismatic as Al Pacino, but I don't have major complaints about his acting, or almost anyone else's for that matter. Mario Van Peebles delivers one of the best performances in the movie, as does the always good Luis Guzmán as a hit-man Nacho Reyes, a role different from what he played in the first film. Sean 'Diddy' Combs' role as Hollywood Nicky remains pretty forgettable though, partly due to the way the character has been written, partly to Combs' emotionless 'cool' appearance.

For a straight-to-DVD movie Carlito's Way: Rise to Power succeeds far better than could be expected. It doesn't present anything new within its genre or provide interesting ponderings about the morals of crime, but I find it to be a perfectly watchable gangster flick. Though smaller in scale than the first film, Rise to Power can nevertheless be recommended (with some reservations) to fans of the Brigante saga.

Carlito's Way: Rise to Power is a prequel to the film Carlito's Way. Without giving too much away though, the film's end doesn't fit to the beginning of the original, and thus is a bit of a disappointment. I have heard that there is another "missing piece" in between this film and the original, currently being worked on as a novel, if this is true, then time will tell how they all fit together, and many people criticising this film for not working with the original may have to eat their words. So, taking Carlito's Way: Rise to Power as a film in it's own right, it does quite well. Carlito meets two guys in jail and they push drugs when they get out. The usual gangster movie clichés are played out, but with some good comedy touches, clever plot and a focus on the morality of it all in dialogue. Any character played by Pacino is going to be a tough role to fill, but I felt Jay Hernandez did very well, and would love to see the "missing piece" get made if it is true. Sean Coombs was also surprisingly good, having the bulk of the best comedy lines. All in all, as long as you don't expect a movie that is as good, or directly links to the original, you should enjoy it.

In the 60's, the Puerto Rican Carlito Brigante (Jay Hernandez), the Afro-American Earl (Mario Van Peebles) and the Italian Rocco (Michael Kelly) become best friends while in prison. When they are released, Rocco intermediates a heroin business with a family of the Italian Mafia leaded by Artie Bottolota Sr. (Burt Young). Carlito negotiates with the lord Leroy "Hollywood Nicky" Barnes (Sean Combs) the area where the trio could operate in his neighborhood and sooner the three friends become powerful. Later, Carlito dates and has an affair with the beautiful Leticia (Jaclyn DeSantis). When Earl decides to move to Barbados with his girlfriend and leave the heroin business, his stupid younger brother causes a situation with the Italian mobsters, and Carlito and Rocco have to resolve the mess to save their lives.

"Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" is not as bad as written in many reviews in IMDb. Actually it is a good story, with the beginning of the criminal life of Carlito, showing his ability to negotiate. The story has good doses of humor, a decent plot and a surprising twist in the end. I do not dare to compare this movie with the excellent Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way, but I personally liked the explanations of the criminal life of Carlito and his friends. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Pagamento Final: Rumo ao Poder" ("The Final Payment: in the Way to the Power")

Marty Bregman should be ashamed of himself for putting his name on this. After he produced great films like Serpico,DDA,Scarface,SofL,and Carlito's Way. I understand they were trying to make Carlito younger like in the book Carlito's Way. The first movie w/ Al is based off of Eddie Torres After Hours. That being said at the end of Carlito's Way R2Power he is around 30 and most of the loose ends are connected, especially with David Kleinfeld, and Lalin. Also the book takes place from the 50's when he is a teen to the late 60's when he goes to Lewisburgh.Mini Bregman made a film that basically is trying market to hip-hop rap gangsters.

This was just a terrible movie. It hurt me to watch it. Almost every action was unmotivated within the context of the movie, the acting was really poor (P.Diddy was the best actor which really says something about the movie) and the plot was generally predictable. Some links to Carlito's Way were okay, for example his dream of one day moving to the Carribien, but on the whole they were weak. The love interest in my opinion was flat out wrong but hey that's debatable. Anyways I really wasn't expecting much before watching the movie and I guess you could say even those expectations weren't met. I feel bad for Jay Hernandez because he actually is a decent actor (Friday Night Lights). He's lucky though because I'm sure there won't be too many people watching this movie. I generally give movies a decent rating if they spark my interest at all so I'm gonna go ahead and give this one two stars. Better luck next time. And yes I did enjoy Carlito's Way.