Dreams can die but nightmares can flourish, an understanding brought about by the disillusionment that every De Palma hero experiences.

| Sep 26, 2023

Penn, in curled hair and wire-rims, makes a brilliant, slippery high-end shyster; his modulated hysteria is amazing. So is Brian De Palma's direction.

| Mar 23, 2015

As with so many De Palma films, Carlito's Way soon manifests as an essay on its own forms.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 9, 2006

Pacino looks every inch a movie star, and De Palma provides a timely reminder of just how impoverished the Hollywood lexicon has become since the glory days of the '70s.

| Jun 24, 2006

"Carlito's Way" is best watched as lively, colorful posturing and as a fine demonstration of this director's bravura visual style.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 20, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 12, 2001

Pacino has his moments but for the most part he's surprisingly underwhelming. He's a great actor but even I can do a better Puerto Rican accent.

| Jan 1, 2000

A masterful piece of entertainment anchored by an interesting story and fine performances and hoisted by an intoxicating field of vision that nevertheless, maintains a sharply focused perspective.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

About halfway through, the overwhelming fact that the movie is a complete nothing becomes too much to ignore.

| Jan 1, 2000

"Carlito's Way," like "Scarface," is first and last a character study, a portrait of a man who wants to be better than he is.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A competent and solidly unsurprising urban-underworld thriller: De Palma's imitation of a middle-drawer Sidney Lumet movie.

| Original Score: B | Jan 1, 1993