Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005) (V)

Director:

Michael Bregman

Writers (WGA):

Michael Bregman (screenplay)
Edwin Torres (novel)

Release Date:

1 December 2005 (Iceland)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

In the late 1960s, Carlito Brigante (Hernandez) emerges as the heroin czar of Harlem.

Plot Keywords:

Heroin | Mafia | Prison | Prequel | Corrupt Cop

Cast

Jay Hernandez	...	Carlito Brigante
Mario Van Peebles	...	Earl
Luis Guzmán	...	Nacho Reyes
Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs	...	Hollywood Nicky (as Sean Combs)
Michael Kelly	...	Rocco
Giancarlo Esposito	...	Little Jeff
Jaclyn DeSantis	...	Leticia
Burt Young	...	Artie Bottolota Sr.
Mtume Gant	...	Reggie
Domenick Lombardozzi	...	Artie Bottolota, Jr.
Juan Carlos Hernández	...	Sigfredo
Eric Nieves	...	Chucho
Jaime Tirelli	...	Leticia's Father
Nelson Vasquez	...	Manny Sanchez
Casper Martinez	...	Colorado

Also Known As:

Carlito's Way 2: Rise to Power (USA) (working title)
Carlito's Way: The Beginning (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, violence, sexual content and drug material.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:18 | Singapore:M18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18A (Manitoba) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15 | Iceland:16 | Brazil:16 | Norway:15 (TV rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Rogue Pictures

Trivia:

The movie is based on one of Edwin Torres' book series on the criminal life of Carlito Brigante. This is based after the first book in the series "Carlito's Way". Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993) took the first books title because at the time it was decided that they would not take the title of the second book "After Hours" to avoid confusion with the Martin Scorsese -directed movie of the same name (After Hours (1985)).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The posters in the barbershop include modern day haircuts.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Carlito Brigante: Sooner or later, a thug will tell his tale. We all want to go on record. So let's hear it for all the hoods. The Jews out of Brownsville, the blacks on Lennox Avenue, the Italians from Mulberry Street, the Irish in Hell's Kitchen. Like that. Meanwhile...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Follows Carlito's Way (1993)

A disgrace

Where can I begin. I heard this movie was coming out and I was very mad. I am a huge fan of the original Carlito's Way and when I heard about this, I thought it would be just like almost all the other sequels that come out in Hollywood. I thought it would be bad. Boy was I wrong, this movie was much worse than I expected. Not saying all sequels are bad, but thats the problem with Hollywood these days, they make too many sequels and remakes and rush them. This was not a theater release, it is a DVD release. Still, in my opinion, there was no reason at all for this to be made. After I heard about this film was in progress, I then later heard Pacino was not in it. That right away killed any chance this movie had of being good. Why did I check this movie out then some of you may ask? Well I had the opportunity to see it so I did. I don't only watch movies that I have high expectations of, I had low expectations on this one obviously. I just wanted to see if it would have anything relevant in it. Now, if any of you reading this are a Carlito's Way fan, you know a lot of the story in the first one has to do with him going to jail.

*VERY MINOR SPOILER* I wont ruin anything, because this may actually make you not want to waste 2 hours watching this trash. All I will say is- in the end of Carlito's Way 2, we don't see Carlito go to jail. Now, I don't know about any of you, but I would have thought a prequel to Carlitos Way would show how he ended up in jail. I even had some interest in actually seeing what happened.

Now, thats not my only problem with the film. The actor who played Carlito did not do too bad a job, but he could not have saved this film if he tried. There's not even all those little things that should be thrown in there that Carlito's Way fans would like. You don't see any appearance of Kleinfeld or other key characters in the first one, I would have liked to see something like that. What is even worse, is Luis Guzman is in this film, yet he doesn't play the same character he plays in the first film. Big mistake on their part, why cast the same actor for a different character, it made the movie worse than it already was.

Bottom line, I am a Carlito's Way fan, this new straight to DVD release is a disgrace. If you are a fan, don't watch this movie coming in with high expectations. This movie did basically nothing for me, and it is definitely one movie I wont be picking up on DVD, or watching ever again.