Review: Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power


As the title suggests, this film follows a young Carlito Brigante (Jay Hernandez) and his rise to power from about the 1960s. His crew is unorthodox, especially for the time; You see, Carlito is Puerto-Rican, dapper Earl (Mario Van Peebles) is Black, and Rocco (Michael Kelly) is an Eye-Talian. Luis Guzman is hilarious as an over-the-top hitman who comes into the middle of things to steal a few scenes, Tarantino-style. Sean Combs plays a powerful gangster who is fine with you so long as you don’t step on his turf, ‘yo! Burt Young plays a mob Patriarch for about the zillionth time, but is somewhat subdued here, thankfully (He’s a fine actor so long as he’s reined in by a strong director).

 

Fans of the original will hate this cheaper 2005 B-movie prequel to the Brian De Palma fave, but I expected a cheesy yet watchable B-movie and I got it. I’m OK with that. Umm, with Mario Van Peebles, Burt Young and Piddly Widdly Ding Dong in the cast, what were you expecting? An Altman film?

 

Hernandez hasn’t anything close to Al Pacino’s presence, but he also doesn’t have his irritating inclination to go way over-the-top and shout ‘Hoo-ah!’ either. He’s fine enough. Even better are a surprisingly charismatic Van Peebles (who is usually pretty bland), outrageously flamboyant scene-stealer Guzman (doing the right kind of over-the-top shtick. Get in, act up a storm, then leave before the audience tires of your histrionics- take note, Nic Cage!), and a genuinely fine supporting turn by Kelly, as one of the more level-headed mobster characters you are likely to come across.

 

Unfortunately, the story is seriously clichéd, nothing you haven’t seen a zillion times before (even if you haven’t seen the earlier film), so it is kinda hard to care. Also, I didn’t buy the period either, it’s supposed to be set before the first film, but aside from a Superfly Van Peebles, it seemed a little contemporary to me (<cough> Diddy <cough>) Still, it’s fairly tolerable and better than I had anticipated (as is Combs himself, though certainly no thespian, let’s face it). Written and directed by first-timer Michael Bregman, a relation of Martin Bregman, who of course, produced the original. 

 

Rating: C+

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