Carlito's Way
From the director of Scarface
From the director of Scarface come the critically acclaimed crime thriller Carlito's Way. Oscar® winner Al Pacino gives an electrifying performance as former drug kingpin Carlito Brigante, who is sprung from prison by his high-powered attorney (Academy Award® winner Sean Penn). He stuns the New York underworld by vowing to go straight from a history of violence, but his plans are undermined by misguided loyalties and an outmoded code of honor. In a life-or-death battle, Carlito takes on the relentless forces that refuse to let him go. Co-starring John Leguizamo and Luis Guzmán, Carlito's Way is a powerful, action-packed ride all the way to its explosive conclusion.
Member Reviews
I liked this one a lot better than Scarface - Superdave
As a cinematic walk on the wild side of crime and drugs, Carlito's Way is both entertaining and challenging. The presence of Pacino make comparisons to Scarface inevitable, and Carlito's Way could actually be a kind of sequel, assuming Pacino got nabbed at the end of Scarface, got out after five years thanks to a technicality and decided to go straight. His hood friends and sleazebag lawyer, however, make sure he gets sucked back into a life of not just crime but criminal intrigue, complete with double-crossing and murder. Scarface had a certain macho appeal to everything, but I always liked this one better. It's a more hard-boiled crime thriller, and less superficially pretty in its production design and cinematography. The criminal scheming has a greater complexity to it, and the mobster characters seem more desperate and closer to the edge. Scarface was played out in the big money high stakes world of the cocaine trade, but here the possibility of death by double cross seems to hang on the heels of everybody much more. Sean Penn's lawyer character, like any good movie villain, seems capable of anything, and drives the action by weaving schemes around one character and then another and having them double cross each other. This makes for an interestingly plotted movie as we follow one scheme after another, each trickier and more desperate than the last, some succeeding, others falling apart. The question is not whether it will all come down at the end, but rather who will manage to dodge the fallout.Amazing - PoolBoy79
One of my most favorite movies. Carlitos Way is about a man named Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) who just got out of the "joint". He says he is retired and that he will not go back to his gangster ways. But as Al Pacino has said in the Godfather part III, "Just when I want out, they pull me back in." That's basically what the movie is about. So to get out of "el barrio" (the hood)he needs money to get into the car salesman business. But so I don't spoil it, that brings him into a whole other mess.
The acting is excellent, since Al Pacino is such a great actor. Director Brian DePalma is the great director of "Scarface"
Watch It!Great job from so many aspects - Porkchop
CARLITO'S WAY (1993) has the same feel of having been created by a genius,
and perhaps is Brian de Palma's answer to Francis Ford Coppola's work,
ONE FROM THE HEART, 10 years after the fact. Many aspects appeal to the crowd,
ranging from the powerful story, the nostalgia, the sensual and sentimental spects
to action and ruthless underworld scenes.
The film is boosted by Penelope Ann Miller, whose presence alone in the picture works wonders,
as she interacts with Carlito ( Al Pacino) and plays a sensual, adventurous yet vulnerable young
woman who is skilled in creating the illusion of love on st his hard edged, natural
personality from his gangster days, with a humanity and personal longing for romance.
The music ( Latino rhythms and 70's dance classics) , coupled with the staff and the way the club
scene is laid out, draws the audience into the action from the realism of all those aspects, if not
for the importance given to the cash flows generated by the actual night club, managed by Carlito.
Sean Penn is perhaps at his best as an actor, playing a substance addicted attorney
with a high risk clientele operating in the underworld (weapons, rubouts, substance trafficking,
gangsterism, gambling, money laundering, etc, who lacks scruples in the way he conducts his
legal assistance operations, at the same time being successful in getting an acquittal for his clients.
The repercussions of embezzlement ( the guns and lime pit waiting and ready, and contract) is not ambiguous as the victims tend to want to do justice by their own hands.
At the end of the day, Carlito (despite his upbringing), still is in disbelief on how ready some people are to double-cross their intimate friends, for profit, despite all perceived bonds of love, loyalty, friendship and trust ( rare commodities indeed.) "Saving your own skin" is the lesson, and he sees that the more things change, the most they stay t
Member Reviews
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I liked this one a lot better than Scarface - Superdave
As a cinematic walk on the wild side of crime and drugs, Carlito's Way is both entertaining and challenging. The presence of Pacino make comparisons to Scarface inevitable, and Carlito's Way could actually be a kind of sequel, assuming Pacino got nabbed at ...Amazing - PoolBoy79
One of my most favorite movies. Carlitos Way is about a man named Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) who just got out of the "joint". He says he is retired and that he will not go back to his gangster ways. But as Al Pacino has said in the Godfather part III, "Just ...Great job from so many aspects - Porkchop
CARLITO'S WAY (1993) has the same feel of having been created by a genius,
and perhaps is Brian de Palma's answer to Francis Ford Coppola's work,
ONE FROM THE HEART, 10 years after the fact. Many aspects appeal to the crowd,
ranging from the powerful ...