Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It's probably a fact I'm one of the few persons who prefers "Carlito's Way" over the other Brian De Palma directed crime epic "Scarface". In other words; I absolutely love the original "Carlito's Way" and I'm sad to say that this prequel is nowhere in the same league as the first and original movie! Not just story, character or actor wise but more quality wise! This is a very simplistic, low budget production, that never even was played in cinemas. And rightfully so. This movie has no right to appear in any cinema and it even has absolutely no right to exist in the first place.It's not like I completely hated this movie but it's simply being such a pointless on to watch. It has almost nothing to do with "Carlito's Way" at all and totally has a different tone and style to it. But also when you look at this movie as just a crime/thriller, it's being a terribly lacking one, that poorly got put together by both its cast and crew.The cast is most obviously lacking. It consists just out of a bunch of guys, trying to act tough, which does not work out all, simply because they aren't very good actors. They are all terribly unconvincing in their roles, which also really takes away a lot of the tension for the movie and it's being hard to feel involved with anyone or anything in it.It's not even being a very good 'origins' movie. So supposedly this movie is to show you how Carlito rose to power and gained control over the New York drugs world. But the movie doesn't show you how he slowly rises and gained more and more power and respect but it just simply shows how stuff just happens to him. He doesn't ever come across as a cunning and tough drug-lord, who isn't afraid to steal or kill.They tried hard though. I mean, there is a scene in which out of nowhere Carlito suddenly shoots and kills a couple of guys. It really came out of the blue, which might sound like a positive thing, ala Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" but it really doesn't fit the character, the moment and just the overall style and story of the movie. It doesn't make sense for him to kill and he never does anything outrageous like that again, later on in this movie, which lets the scene feel all the more out of place and out of character for him. For the rest of the movie he actually comes across as a very nice guy, which probably is being another good indication how miscast Jay Hernandez is in his role. Throughout his career he has always played friendly guys, so why even consider him casting in a tough gangster role, that first got immortalized by Al Pacino, in 1993.The movie also absolutely tells you nothing about the background or youth of Carlito. In that regard, this movie feels all the more pointless as a prequel. It doesn't tells you anything new, at least nothing interesting and you are obviously way better off watching the original "Carlito's Way" instead and forget about this movie.But it's not just simply the casting or characters themselves that make this movie a poor and disappointing one. It also really could had used a more tight script, that offered some good moments and surprises and some better storytelling as well. This movie really doesn't get pleasantly told, which makes you feel glad when the movie is finally over.Bad as a genre flick and even worse as a prequel to "Carlito's Way"!4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This was just a terrible movie. It hurt me to watch it. Almost every action was unmotivated within the context of the movie, the acting was really poor (P.Diddy was the best actor which really says something about the movie) and the plot was generally predictable. Some links to Carlito's Way were okay, for example his dream of one day moving to the Carribien, but on the whole they were weak. The love interest in my opinion was flat out wrong but hey that's debatable. Anyways I really wasn't expecting much before watching the movie and I guess you could say even those expectations weren't met. I feel bad for Jay Hernandez because he actually is a decent actor (Friday Night Lights). He's lucky though because I'm sure there won't be too many people watching this movie. I generally give movies a decent rating if they spark my interest at all so I'm gonna go ahead and give this one two stars. Better luck next time. And yes I did enjoy Carlito's Way.

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

I really loved this movie and it was way better then the last one.I really liked how they had Chuck Zito in this one, he was in the last one as well but was not really shown where with this one they showed him a lot.I like how this one played out way better then the first one and Carlito was way hotter then the last guy.I do not really like how they put Sean Combs in it because to me he has no talent and not to mention I do not even remember any blacks being in the first one so it made no sense to put them in this one.I would have to say if this movie did not have Sean Combs in it I would give it a 10 instead of an 8.