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Carlito's Way: Rise To Power

2005, Movie, R, 100 mins

Carlito's Way: Rise To Power: Review

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It took more than a decade for producers to try to cash in on CARLITO'S WAY (1993), but this prequel doesn't live up to the original film's cult reputation. The triumvirate of Puerto Rican Carlito Brigante (Jay Hernandez), African-American Earl (Mario Van Peebles) and Italian-American Rocco (Michael Kelly) is an anomaly in the notoriously insular world of crime dynasties and their partnership represents a new organizational prototype. Rather than being traditional made men, the former prison buddies are more loyal to each other rather than to any established clan. They promote themselves to the Mafia as middlemen, each of whom can establish a network of dope couriers in his individual neighborhood. And unlike spotlight-hogging kingpin Hollywood Nicky (Sean Combs), they take comfort in being small fish in a big pond. But once Carlito has achieved some small measure of job security, he makes the mistake of courting hat-check girl Leticia (Jaclyn DeSantis), whose family doesn't approve. After Letitia's brother tries to knock him off, Carlito exiles his beloved and her family to Puerto Rico and refocuses his energies on drug trafficking. Earl also faces a personal crisis crises as he tries to groom his headstrong brother, Reggie (Mtume Gant), to take his place; Reggie insults Earl’s boss, Artie Bottolota Jr. (Domenick Lombardozzi), by spouting Black Power slogans and signs his own death warrant by kidnapping Artie Jr., the heir apparent of a Mafia Don. As Rocco tries to smooth things over with his paisans, Earl and Carlito scramble to protect Reggie. Hollywood Nicky senses that their alliance is crumbling and plots to muscle them out of the business altogether. Will Carlito sacrifice Reggie to keep himself, Rocco and Earl in dirty money? Although the film boasts handsome production values, writer-director Michael Bregman evinces no feel for the story's multi-ethnic milieu and overuses voice-over narration; without high-voltage stars like Al Pacino on hand, there's nothing to distinguish this flashy follow-up from dozens of direct-to-DVD crime pictures. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
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