CARLITO'S WAY: RISE TO POWER - HD DVD review

The Brian de Palma directed and Al Pacino starring 1993 film "Carlito's Way" was based upon the second book featuring the character of Carlito titled After Hours. That film took the name of the first book to avoid confusion with a film already released as "After Hours." Twelve years later, Universal decided to bring the first book to life with the direct-to-video release of the novel Carlito's Way as the prequel "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power." With only Luis Guzman returning from the first film and taking a new role, no returning actors portrayed the same roles and aside from the main character being Carlito Brigante, this direct to video film shares nothing with its bigger and more familiar sibling. "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" was sent direct-to-video for good reason and it is easy to see that the film would have never recovered the cost of marketing and prints.

"Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" begins with a very young Carlito Brigante (Jay Hernandez) spending his days in prison with Rocco (Michael Kelly) and Earl (Mario Van Peebles). The three run a number of operations from inside the prison walls and have the aid of a prison guard in their dealings. Earl runs a very successful sports booking operation from within prison and is provided with a telephone. Rocco is a well-spoken Italian who happens to have a full kitchen in the oversized cell and sends their friendly prison guard to fetch tomatoes from New York City. Carlito continues his dealings as well and between the three of them, they are just as successful from the confines of their prison cell as they were on the outside. The unlikely pairing of an African American, a Puerto Rican and an Italian has resulted in a powerful alliance.

When the three are released from prison, they seek out mob boss Artie Bottolota (Burt Young). At first Artie attacks the racial heritage of Earl and Carlito, but Rocco informs them that Artie actually likes then and has agreed to give then ten kilos of heroine to sell. This allows the three men to hire the necessary pushers and begin to build their empire. Of course, in order to do business, they need to make a deal with Hollywood Nicky (Sean Combs) and agree to only sell their drugs in a limited section of the city. Nicky agrees and it doesn't take long before a lot of wealth and notoriety heads the way of Carlito, Earl and Rocco. With the fame, Carlito places some of his focus on a pretty young coat check girl, Leticia (Jaclyn DeSantis). He first tries to buy her with an expensive coat and she is not eager to have anything to do with his lifestyle, but he eventually wins her over.

With success comes problems and Carlito finds difficulty from various directions. Earl is looking to retire to the Caribbean and leave Rocco and Carlito to deal with his sports bookkeeping. This isn't a tremendous problem, but Carlito does not want to see his friend go. The downside to Earl's retirement is his younger brother Reggie (Mtume Gant), a black revolutionary who looks towards the Black Panthers for his inspiration and wants very little to do with anybody that isn't black. Earl tasks Carlito with trying to help shape the young man, but a violent confrontation with some of Artie's bodyguards places both young men's lives in jeopardy. Leticia's brother is another problem for Carlito as he knows the type of life Carlito leads and warns him to stay away from Leticia. When Carlito refuses and continues to romance Leticia, he is shot by her brother and Leticia must flee the country with her brother to survive. When Reggie does something incredibly stupid, Carlito finds himself being held responsible by Artie and a hitman, Nacho Reyes (Luis Guzman) is sent after him. Of course, Carlito overcomes these obstacles and his empire thrives.

"Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" is a prequel to the very good "Carlito's Way," but lacks Brian De Palma's touch and although Jay Hernandez does a good job in the title role, he is no Al Pacino. He sounds a little like Denzel Washington, but Hernandez just can't quite fill Pacino's shoes. This film is based upon the first half of the original novel detailing the life of Carlito Brigante. The first film began with Carlito getting out of jail. This straight-to-video prequel does not end with him ending up in jail. The second half of the first novel was not filmed and there is a ‘middle story' out there somewhere. However, by using only half the story and trying to stretch it out to a full length movie, "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" doesn't have enough story to be a feature film. With only a ninety four minute running length, the film moves slowly as detail is used to replace story. There just isn't a great deal that happens during this film and although it isn't the slowest moving film I've seen, it does not keep one's attention easily. I can certainly understand after watching the film why it wasn't given a theatrical release.

Luis Guzman returns to fill another character's shoes, but the rest of the cast are brand spanking new for a Carlito film. Jay Hernandez has a good chance of becoming a star. He is a decent actor and has the looks and mannerisms to take him somewhere. Unfortunately, his nice-guy looks didn't translate to Carlito Brigante. It doesn't help that I kept imagining the weathered Al Pacino in this role, but I didn't see the same fire from Hernandez. Mario Van Peebles and Sean Combs have made a name for themselves in the music world, but they haven't done much as actors. I liked Earl, the afro-sporting bookie and felt that Peebles brought the most to his role, but Sean Combs did absolutely nothing to sway my opinion of his acting skills (or lack thereof). Michael Kelly also did not fill the bill, but Jaclyn DeSantis was a sight to behold. Luis Guzman is a good character actor and he was good enough in this film, but the only actor that really brought a smile to my face was seeing ole Burt Young in the film. The world needs more Burt Young.

"Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" is perhaps a little better than many have given it credit for. IMDb has it sitting with an abysmal 4.9 rating. That rating constitutes much of the Internet savvy public. The critics have hit even harder and the film sits with a hideous score of 33 percent. Apparently, one out of three critics thought it was watchable, but most did not. I'm going out on a limb and giving the film a score of 5 for Entertainment Value, which is only a ‘little better' than what others view the film, but I think it does nicely tell the early days of the main character and if anything, "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" gives a little more backstory to the far superior Al Pacino picture. It also has Burt Young. How can anybody completely ignore a movie where Burt Young is the Godfather?

Video:

The HD-DVD transfer of "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" finds the 1.85:1 framed picture taking up the entirety of a 16x9 picture and the film does look better than its 2.35:1 predecessor. Much of this is due to the fact that this film is only about two years old and most recent films typically look pretty good. The coloring of the film is good, as is the level of detail. You can't count every hair on Leticia's leopard coat, but you can see much of its furry texture. Facial features are also good. The early scenes in the film were woefully grainy and lacking detail because of stylistic choices made, but the picture does improve. The film still cannot compete with the upper tiers of HD-DVD releases, but I can't recall a single moment after the first ten minutes where I had a complaint about the picture quality. There were two or three minor instances of color banding on darker backgrounds, but you can see that in some of the bigger releases. For anybody actually wanting to purchase this film, there is no reason to avoid it because of its affable visuals.

Sound:

The prequel follows the original in also possessing a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. English and French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtracks are also contained, but the TrueHD mix is easily the preferred mix and I found a lot to like with this soundtrack. When Hollywood Nickly blew away a drug dealer in a bar and then calmly asked for a cream soda (I told you the story wasn't that great), the bullets sounded very solid and were both natural and aggressive in sound. The .1 LFE channel rumbles more than once during this picture and when the bass wants to be heard, it most certainly is. Rear surrounds contain a little more than ambient noise, but the environment is what you typically get as there is not a lot of action in this film. Dialogue is a heavy part of the film and the spoken word is always clear. This is a very sound soundtrack and shows the clarity and definition that is possible with Dolby TrueHD sound. Again, the disc is not something to show off for the merits of HD-DVD, but anybody looking to buy "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" will be more than satisfied with the sound.

Extras:

Although a direct-to-video film, Universal has included a similar number of supplements in "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" to what they did for the original film. A collection of Deleted Scenes (7:05) begin the list of extras. These do not add much to the film, but I did like the first scene that showed young Carlito being introduced to the mafia life. The Gag Reel (6:07) is pretty long for a gag reel and has some funny moments aside from Luis Guzman trying to clear his nasal passages. There should have been more Burt Young. The vignette Got Your Back: Carlito's Brothers in Crime (5:37) finds the lovely Jaclyn DeSantis, Martin Bergman, Michael Kelly, Jay Hernandez, Burt Young and a few others giving some quick details on the environment featured in the film and the making of the film itself. For as short as it was, this was a decent little vignette. Bringin' the Hood to Life (7:58) is an extension of the first vignette and has the stars and crew talking about how this was a prequel to the original and they talk about adding onto the story. The Making of Documentary (11:43) is an EPK feeling making of feature that mixes scenes from the film, some of the better lines and a pounding Seventies score to help promote and discuss the making of the film. It was too promotional, but was not a carryover of the first two pieces. The Set Tour with Earl (3:38) has Mario Van Peebles in character giving a quick tour. Cute, but short. The Trailer is also included.

Closing Comments:

I can only recommend "Carlito's Way: Rise to Power" to two groups of people. The first group is those that love Jay Hernandez. The second group is those who love "Carlito's Way." Other than Burt Young, there isn't a lot to look forward to if you do not fall within those two groups of people. The story takes half a book and stretches it out to feature length. Sean Combs populates too much time in the film and should have been replaced by Samuel L. Jackson. It isn't a bad film if you look at it as being the prequel to "Carlito's Way." It is passable entertainment in that regard. On its own, it just cannot stand I honestly did not look at the film as being stand-alone entertainment. The HD-DVD disc is good in both sight and sound and does improve upon the original because it is only two years old. The supplements are nicely done and do add a touch to the film. It is more like a second dipping into the wallet for additional material for the "Carlito's Way" HD-DVD release. Come to think of it, perhaps Universal should have bumped up the price of "Carlito's Way" to $34.95 and made it a two disc set with both films.