Popular reviews

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 7

  De Palma's a legend for only casting Sean Penn as the most unlikable scumbags

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 16

  96

  "Adiós, counselor."

  Brian De Palma sets the stage and Al Pacino just walks off, disco blaring. The two are usually only as electrifying as their material, and here, with a sharp, swooning machismo weepie, they both shine as bright as can be. De Palma's set-pieces, whether operatic (the final nightclub/train station chase) or intimate (the playful seduction between Carlito and Gail behind the apartment door) are perfect, and Pacino is given plenty of space to create. A key moment for both artists involves Carlito waiting in the bathroom and taunting the assailants outside after a drug-deal gone bad. De Palma watches from above with a high-angle as Carlito gets up the courage to leave the room, but even before…

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  Review by #1 gizmo fan ★★★★ 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  would do literally anything to have al pacino break down my door just to have sex with me

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  Review by nathaxnne [hiatus] ★★★★½ 11

  Although Carlito's Way in a sense represents the falling motion to Scarface's rising action, it lacks the nervous, overstuffed agitation of Scarface, replacing it with a kind of wistful, elegaic burnout, a paean to uninvolement, to not-doing, or doing other-than. Carlito's Way is more of a piece with The Untouchables, both sweeping historical epics which have the time and space to collect themselves, develop characters, build whole worlds in which to enact tensely clever set-pieces, some of the best of De Palma's career. Carlito's Way and The Untouchables also share a grand, constructed artificiality. They know they are movies, hearkening back to an older-school vibe, when movies had to span the whole of what cinema could do, to offer suspense…

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  Once it was "The World is Yours", now it's "Escape to Paradise". Shit ain't what it used to be.

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★

  When you can't see the angles anymore, you're in trouble, baby.

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  Review by Nakul ★★★★½ 4

  Carlito's Way deserves all of the fame Scarface gets, this Brian De Palma & Al Pacino reunion owns so goddamn hard. Masterful direction on display here by De Palma with some terrific set pieces and a powerhouse performance from Al Pacino.
  The finale is an all-timer, featuring the greatest foot chase sequence in film history.

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★★★ 4

  michael mann's Scarface.

  full discussion on episode 129 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★★½ 6

  Al Pacino plays a Puerto Rican guy. Brian De Palma loves making him do Latino-face.

  My favorite Sean Penn performance ever. Dave Kleinfeld all-time scumbag.

  Better train station shoot out climax than The Untouchables? Yes.

  The scene at the end where the mob guys chase him on the subway and through grand central, and one of them is comically fat always kills me.

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★★★ 3

  "yeah, i had a dream. but now i'm awake... and i hate my dream."
  "the dream don't come no closer by itself. we gotta run after it now."
  "rough night. tired, baby... tired."

  full discussion on episode 129 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

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  Review by christian d ★★★★★ 8

  "Maybe I don't give a shit. Maybe I don't remember the last time I blew my nose either. Who the fuck are you, I should remember you? What, you think you like me? You ain't like me motherfucker. You a punk. I've been with made people, connected people. Who you been with? Chain-snatching, jive-ass, maricon motherfuckers. Why don't you get lost? Go a head, snatch a purse. Come on, take a fuckin' walk."

  do you ever just come to the realization that you, yourself, are a fucking idiot because you've been putting off a movie for so long and then you finally watch it and it's one of the best things you've ever seen? i came to that realization last…

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  Review by Jizzmonkey ★★★★ 4

  Style to behold, a nonchalant flirt with the camera, acting skills most humans cannot possess, a beautiful sheen, perfect protection against the elements, decent protection against Italian mobsters. And I'm of course talking about the star of this film, Carlito's leather coat.