drama, Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. Getting across every character history with each other, how each one lives, and interweaving each conflict into a single narrative that never becomes lost among many of its characters. Sure the stock characters are well developed from the drug addicted best friend, crooked cops, a promising new young criminal, and many more unfortunately play out like a cliche. Carlito Brigante, is older and wiser, however, than "Scarface's" Tony Montana, and for a time seems to be luckier. Great adapted screenplay from David Koepp (which should be expected as he rarely misses). |, December 7, 2017 "Carlito's Way," like "Scarface," is first and last a character study, a portrait of a man who wants to be better than he is. Then there's Sean Penn as Kleinfeld, a scheming, vain little man who starts off seemingly as legitimate as a lawyer of criminals, but as we soon learn, he has slipped into a world that he has no place to belong in. Yet step by step and scene by scene, his fate is sealed. | Rotten (9). The film's somber mood is balanced only by its larger-than-life performances, retro '70s threads, thrilling sequences, and plenty of sweaty disco tunes outside of Patrick Doyle's stellar score. |, July 30, 2012 Compelling, tough, and intelligent from years of dope dealing and soaking up the gang-land atmosphere around him. The movie is narrated by Carlito himself, who explains his hopes, his strategies, and especially his mistakes. We meet him at the legal hearing that will free him after only five years, on a technicality. And he meets a young punk who always introduces himself as "Benny Blanco from the Bronx" (John Leguizamo), the kind of hothead Carlito once was. When Kleinfeld's dealings with the mafia threaten meltdown unless a mob boss is sprung from a prison barge, Carlito feels a terrible obligation to the man who gave him his second chance, and so agrees to go along on a midnight cruise to fish the godfather out of New York harbour. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified. While De Palma is never one to stint on the blow and the broads, Carlito's Way, adapted by David Koepp from novels by Judge Edwin Torres, is comparatively light on the blood. For Strong Violence, Drug Content, Sexuality and Language, CIFF 2020: Black Perspectives Program Highlights Diverse Voices, CIFF 2020: The Roger Ebert Award Returns to Champion New Voices, Immerse Yourself in Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project #3. Carlito Brigante (Pacino) is out of jail and on the streets in his calf-length leather coat after smarmy lawyer Kleinfeld (Penn) has busted the government's case against him. No, it didn't, I did. This has less to do with Carlito (a vaguely written, not-so-clever character) than it does with casting, since "Carlito's Way" brings Al Pacino back to familiar dramatic territory. Carlito's Way is a slow and engrossing character driven crime drama that will keep you watching even though you know the fate of the main character in the beginning of … To clarify in one sentence - it's Scarface with emotion: A character study into a man who wishes to be better than he knows he is. An early scene in a poolroom as a drug deal goes wrong while Pacino performs a trick shot is an absolute model of suspense, and the final chase, through the New York subway to Grand Central Station, chews your nerves for nearly 15 minutes of near-misses and shocks before the actual violence. Pacino looks every inch a movie star, and De Palma provides a timely reminder of just how impoverished the Hollywood lexicon has become since the glory days of the '70s. Penn, in curled hair and wire-rims, makes a brilliant, slippery high-end shyster; his modulated hysteria is amazing. Loyalty to your friends is going to get you killed one day. We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future. However, it is still worth a watch, as what is probably Brian DePalma's last great work. The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Coming Soon, Regal Though the relationship with Miller, a Broadway wannabe working as a topless dancer, is formulaic, everything else in the movie clicks perfectly. Director Brian De Palma acknowledges that "Carlito's Way" is one giant slice of cheese with style. Kleinfeld, with his balding, curly hair and nervy, cranked voice. There have been a lot of shootouts in railroad stations in the movies, mostly routine, but De Palma finds endless variations as Carlito tries to elude his pursuers. Pacino spends the film alternating between a stance of fast-talking macho posturing and one of melancholic regret. | Fresh (39) You root and root for Pacino's character to maintain the straight and narrow after being released from prison only to see him dragged further and further back to a life of crime. Coming Soon. It's 1975 in New York: hot pants have replaced mini-skirts, disco dancers have forsaken pot for cocaine, the O'Jays are on the soundtrack and crime is a going business. Here something more complicated is taking place; Carlito has grown enough to see himself from the outside, to understand some of the mistakes he made, to plot a way to escape from what seems like the inevitable fate of people in his position. | Rating: 3/5, May 12, 2001 De Palma, still atoning for Bonfire Of The Vanities, demonstrates here that when he's in the mood he can be a virtuoso show-off but still tell a story. Bauer Media Group consists of: Bauer Consumer Media Ltd, Company number: 01176085, Bauer Radio Ltd, Company Number: 1394141, Registered Office: Media House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6EA H Bauer Publishing,Company Number: LP003328, Registered Office: Academic House, 24-28 Oval Road, London, NW1 7DT.All registered in England and Wales. Carlito Brigante (Pacino) has just left jail after a decade, and is determined to go straight. You expect a fine performance from Pacino, and, with hopeless, hollowed-out eyes, he gives it. It's humanistic. The acting here, by Sean Penn, is a virtuoso tour de force - one of those performances that takes on a life of its own. | Rating: 10/10 Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. His lawyer, a flashy lowlife named Kleinfeld (Sean Penn), sits by with a smirk as Carlito expansively addresses the judge and courtroom on the lessons to be learned by his release. Although it emphasizes Pacino and Penn's charisma, as well as DePalma's elegant visual perception, the plot - leading up to the sensational climax - is frail, with drained morals and an unrealized sense of melodrama. All rights reserved. Though the story in Carlito’s Way is treated in a fatalistic sense, the moment-to-moment, frame-to-frame experience is anything but rigid and stodgy from over-determination. | Top Critics (9) We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. Al Pacino's performance as Carlito is the heart of the movie. |, September 11, 2020 It might be retreading familiar ground with stock characters helping you connect the dot faster than the plotline, but getting to the already known destination is an engaging character piece. |, May 20, 2003 crime, Universal Pictures, He looks up an old girl friend named Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), who says she dances on Broadway but neglects to explain it's in a strip club. Facing 30 years in prison, where he expected to die, he got a chance to do some thinking, and now he decides he wants to go straight. Carlito's Way is about a Puerto Rican former convict, just released from prison, pledging to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him and lead on to a better life outside of N.Y.C.. Moving along at a slow pace "Carlito's Way" tells an engrossing story. Carlito's Way is a slow and engrossing character driven crime drama that will keep you watching even though you know the fate of the main character in the beginning of the film. While De Palma is never one to stint on the blow and the broads, Carlito's Way, adapted by David Koepp from novels by Judge Edwin Torres, is comparatively light on the blood. Quietly ashamed of his former excess and flawed by his lack of cold-hearted viciousness, he narrates in flashback from a first scene shooting (which recalls Serpico), aware that his attempt to stay clean is doomed. He's a great actor but even I can do a better Puerto Rican accent. In "Scarface," the hero's ambitions led only to power, lust and greed. and the Terms and Policies, Reconnecting with his dancer girlfriend, Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), Carlito gets entangled in the shady dealings of his friend Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn), who also serves as his lawyer. VAT no 918 5617 01, Bauer Consumer Media Ltd are authorised and regulated by the FCA(Ref No. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Carlito's Way: Official Clip - You Haven't Changed, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Wearing a Wire, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Benny Blanco, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Getting Whacked, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Cheesecake, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Hunted by the Mob, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Escalator Shootout, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Shooting Pool and Wiseguys, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Killing the Mob Boss, Carlito's Way: Official Clip - Shot in the Hospital.