The first clue that something would be horribly wrong should have been when they decided to forgo a theatrical release and release this straight to video.
While I have to agree that the movie wasn't that bad, I would have rather spent 10.00 to see it in a theater than 19.99 to own it. My advice - rent it.
This movie is based on Edwin Torres' book "Carlito's Way" (The 1993 Carlito's Way starring Al Pacino was based on the book's sequel "After Hours") and is a prequel to the original film. The main problem is that except for Carlito Brigante himself, the prequel sets up absolutely nothing fom the first film, and actually contradicts most of it.
In the book, main characters that appear in the sequel such as Gail and Sean Penn's lawyer character are at least set up, and it ends with Carlito going to jail (which he is freed on a technicality 5 years later in the sequel)
I'm not gonna give away the ending of the movie here, but it 's not even remotely close to the books (and is the type of ending that makes you wonder if they have a third film that they're planning to stuff in the middle to tie up all the loose ends)
The best part of this film in my opinion was Jay Hernandez as Carlito. He had the voice and speach patterns down pat and looked like a very young Pacino. I also thought P.Diddy was pretty good as "Hollywood" Nicky Barnes (A real life notorious Harlem heroin dealer, who wasn't in any of the books
)In one of the most idiotic casting decisions ever, Luis Guzman is back in this film, playing a totally different character than the one he played in Carlito's Way
. Burt Young (Paulie in the Rocky movies) plays a gangster pretty well. Other than that the rest of the acting was typical of a direct to video movie.
