Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005)

Since in the original Carlito's Way Al Pacino narrated the whole thing in flashback from his death gurney, it would not be possible to do a sequel and outside of Michael Corleone, Al Pacino just don't do sequels. So young television actor Jay Hernandez was given a shot at a prequel film, Carlito's Way: The Rise To Power.It was hoped that this film would make Jay Hernandez a major star. Sad to say that didn't happen, through no fault of Hernandez. He is a most charismatic young man and hopefully will get a second big break.What Pacino did in the first Carlito's Way was create a portrait of an aging Latino gangster who would just like to live without any more hassles. But as one of his other creations, the aforementioned Michael Corleone said, they keep dragging me back in.Hernandez doesn't inherit a family tradition like Michael Corleone, he's a street kid from East Harlem and was caught in first the social welfare system after losing his parents and then the criminal justice system after some street crimes. In prison he meets up with Michael Kelly and Mario Van Peebles and in the spirit of the new times forms an alliance with a black man and an Italian man to carve out Spanish Harlem as his heroin turf and to have two allies available to deal with the black and Italian gangsters on the scene.Actually the performance that caught my attention was that of Mtume Gant who plays Van Peebles younger brother. Gant is inflamed by all the revolutionary rhetoric of the Sixties and Seventies, but in actuality just proves to be a punk.In the original Carlito's Way, Sean Penn had a major role as a criminal defense lawyer who decides to go in business for himself as a gangster. I was so hoping to see a younger version of his character in Rise To Power. From what Pacino did in the original, Rise To Power turned out to be nothing more than a routine gangster drama. I hope Jay gets a second break.

I haven't read the book nor watched the original Carlito's Way... all I know about the latter is who stars and who directs that one, and I know even less than that about the novels. Perhaps that's why this didn't come off as being as awful as people seem to feel it was... no basis for comparison. The story isn't poor, and it's decently enough told. The plot develops throughout, with some surprises. The acting varies. The lead could be better. Combs, eh, I don't know. Young isn't bad, but hey, is he ever? The pacing is fine. The music is fair. Editing could be better, but it's not terrible. Effects and such do reveal a budget, one that wasn't the biggest, but it's not as obvious as it could be. There is hardly any action, and it's certainly not worth watching this for. There could be more tension, where such is attempted built. Language is... loose, and there's violence, sexuality and drug use as well... this is hardly a film for children. The voice-overs leave a lot to be desired. All in all, you could find movies that deliver considerably less. Be aware that this is more of a gangster feature than an action flick. I recommend this to people who enjoy cinema(or, in this case, direct-to-video releases) regarding the environment. 5/10

This is just a butchering of a wonderful story by Edwin Torres. This movie doesn't follow the storyline in the book. And, there are so many inconsistencies with the original movie that you have to wonder if the screenwriter had even seen the first movie.Al Pacino (the original and still the best Carlito) gets out of prison at the start of the original one. Here, Carlito retires with his woman in paradise. What happened to Gail from Lorain, Ohio? In this installment, she isn't mentioned, and Carlito retires with and presumably will marry some other girl.Also, where is Kleinfeld? I think he was in the first book.I also like how Mr. Guzman plays a totally different character in this film. He was Pachanga back in the Pacino days. Now, he is Nacho Reyes, a killer from Cuba. I remember that Nacho Reyes had a much bigger role in the book. It's been a while since I read the book, but where did Sean Comb's character come from? Also, I think this movie really glosses over the racial tensions in Harlem that Torres was writing about. And, the mob doesn't get the treatment that they did in the book. They are also wiped out in this movie. But, magically the Pleasant Avenue bunch is around for the second movie.The book told a great story. This movie could have told a great story. This is just a huge disappointment. Read the book. It's a better use of your time.

This movie had potential and I was willing to give it a try but there are so many timeline problems that are so obvious - it's hard to swallow being treated like such an idiot.Rise to Power is set in the late sixties. Carlito's Way is set in the mid to late seventies. For this movie to be realistic, it would have to be set in the fifties, if not the late forties.Rise to Power has no sign of Gail (Pennelope Ann Miller), no sign of Kleinfeld, no sign of Rolando that Carlito supposedly ran with in his "hey-day". None of the primary characters in the original film were in this movie. We're supposed to believe that Carlito met all these people in the span of a few years.Rise to Power ends with Carlito walking down the beach talking about retiring in paradise which is what he wanted to do in the original film. Also, the pre-quel creates the Rocco and Earl characters - what's supposed to happen with them since they are clearly not in Carlito's Way? It's also hard to understand how Carlito could have the relationship with the Italians he has in the original film watching the events of Rise to Power. Where are the Taglialucci's in this film? There is probably seven years between the two films and he spends five of them in prison. It's like trying to put a square plug into a round hole.It is obvious that no one was interested in telling a good story and that they were more interested in making some bucks by making an average gangster film and throwing a character called Carlito Brigante into the story. The film had some good moments but I think they would have been better off leaving this movie to stand by itself instead of trying to make it a prequel to Carlito's Way.If you feel determined to see this movie, the only advice I can give is to not think of the movie as a linear pre-quel. Think of it like the spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood's man with no name, in other words two movies that have the same character but aren't necessarily connected with each other.