Stars: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, John Leguizamo, Viggo Mortensen, Luis Guzman

Director: Brian De Palma

Summary: The fast-moving story of an underworld legend, Carlito Brigante, desperately trying to escape his past. However, he has one final favour to repay...

Notorious Puerto Rican heroin dealer Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) is released from jail on a technicality thanks to the manipulations of his sleazy lawyer buddy (Sean Penn). All he wants is to keep his nose clean and earn enough money to start a business in the Bahamas--and maybe rekindle romance with his old flame, played by Penelope Ann Miller. Instead he finds himself back in trouble as a result of old-world codes of honour and misguided loyalties. It all takes place in 1975 Manhattan, in and around a nightclub Carlito manages, so there's plenty of classic disco music pulsing on the soundtrack. John Leguizamo plays one of the younger generation of hoodlums out to prove something. Viggo Mortensen and Luis Guzman star as a couple of Carlito's buddies from the old days. Brian De Palma, who directed Pacino a decade earlier in SCARFACE, makes this seem almost like that film's sequel. As expected, there's plenty of elaborate tracking shots and suspenseful set pieces, most memorably a pulse-pounding chase through Grand Central Station. It's adapted from two novels by New York Supreme Court Judge Edwin Torres based on his childhood in East Harlem.

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Al Pacino cuts a noble figure in Carlito's Way, an enjoyable drama by director Brian De Palma (Scarface), based on a pair of books by Edwin Torres. Pacino plays a Puerto Rican ex-con trying hard to go straight, but his loyalty to his lowlife attorney (a virtually unrecognisable Sean Penn) and enemies on the street make that choice difficult. In a somewhat unlikely role, Penelope Ann Miller plays a stripper who has a romance with Pacino's character. The film finds De Palma tempering his more outlandish moves (think of Body Doubleor Snake Eyes) just as he did with the popular The Untouchablesand Mission: Impossible. But while Carlito's Waywas not commercially successful and never rises to the level of greatness, it is a genuinely compelling movie graced with a fine performance by Pacino and a surprising one from Penn. --Tom Keogh

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1993
Release Date:	March 29, 2004
Runtime:	138 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	820 716 0
Keywords:	Action, Way, General, Edition, Adventure, Carlito's, Enhanced
Genre:	Action/Adventure