O Pagamento Final: Rumo ao Poder

A complete and utter slap to the face to DePalma and Pacino.

Do I need to even explain the plot? A rise from slums to riches in the ghetto streets of Harlem....yawn! Boring! What makes Carlitos Way a truly amazing movie was the sheer fact of storytelling and characters that explain how he got to where he was.

Shame on whoever greenlit this project.

Prequel? No.

Story? No.

Sean Puff Piffy Dadd farty licky? No..

Pass. Better movies out there. Go rent Number 23 with Jim Carrey. Trust me..you'll lauh harder.

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.

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.

I haven't read the book nor watched the original Carlito's Way... all I know about the latter is who stars and who directs that one, and I know even less than that about the novels. Perhaps that's why this didn't come off as being as awful as people seem to feel it was... no basis for comparison. The story isn't poor, and it's decently enough told. The plot develops throughout, with some surprises. The acting varies. The lead could be better. Combs, eh, I don't know. Young isn't bad, but hey, is he ever? The pacing is fine. The music is fair. Editing could be better, but it's not terrible. Effects and such do reveal a budget, one that wasn't the biggest, but it's not as obvious as it could be. There is hardly any action, and it's certainly not worth watching this for. There could be more tension, where such is attempted built. Language is... loose, and there's violence, sexuality and drug use as well... this is hardly a film for children. The voice-overs leave a lot to be desired. All in all, you could find movies that deliver considerably less. Be aware that this is more of a gangster feature than an action flick. I recommend this to people who enjoy cinema(or, in this case, direct-to-video releases) regarding the environment. 5/10

Maybe the worst part of this film is the casting for the lead role Carlito Brigante, whichever way you look at it everybody expects a Pacino, but casting Jay Hernandez is a let down, even though he is a fine actor, he really had a lot to do to try and follow in Pacino's shoes, and i am afraid to say he failed dismally. Over all it is not a bad film, there is a lot worse out there, some nice acting from not so well known names, but i must say i was surprised by Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs performance, not your normal pop star turned pretend actor, he was really very good, and i for one will look forward to future work from him. I would suggest you take a look at this movie, forget about the original Carlito's Way, and just enjoy it for what it is.