RATING:

Yo El Mayimbe here! Holla to all the Latino and Non-Latino fans for making the Miami Vice Script Review a success. Thanks for your patience in dealing with me with the timing of the script reviews. After all I am on Latino time. My goal is to do a script review a week. I will try my best to keep up on that goal.

Speaking of Latino -- like I said in my last review -- a lot of Latinos have been busting my onions for something Latino themed and related. Unfortunately, in today's day and age the pickins are slim -- slim indeed. Most of your Latino stuff is that WAY OVER RATED foreign stuff. Don't get me wrong I love the Motorcycle Diaries and City of God like everyone else and I think those are brilliant films. But those movies don't deal with the Latino experience in the United States. Young Latinos in America don't give a fuck about those movies -- explaining why they are moderate successes at the box office. A lot of Latinos, myself included, would love to see more American themed Latino stuff coming out of the studios.

Well, I got one -- sort of -- sources tell me that Carlito's Way: Rise To Power will get an October theatrical release. I hope so because then that will be the only studio theatrical release dealing with American Latinos is this one. Just one jodido flick. Pathetic ain't it? Considering we are the largest minority in this country.

I am a big Jay Hernandez fan. We have to support these young up and coming Latino actors like him and Rick Gonzalez. Those two guys have had a good past year especially Rick (Coach Carter) but they are usually relegated to supporting roles in the studio movies.

I say to the studios to let these two young cats get their shot at leading male roles. Well, it seems Universal got their act together (They are releasing this film) since after all they made drug dealer dollars with Empire 2 years ago -- a film written and directed by an American Latino. Empire cost $3.5 million to make and has made $60 million dollars overall (Domestic, Foreign, DVD, Rentals, etc.,). Look it up for yourself if you don't believe me.

So my second cry to the studios is "Ya'll motherfuckers can make money with us!"

I will be honest with you -- I wanted to hate this script going in because it is written by a White guy who probably doesn't know his ass from his elbow about New York Urban Latino culture or Nuyorican culture for short. That is the other problem. A lot of the stuff dealing with Latinos are written by white guys -- usually culminating in stereotypes. Scarface and Carlitos Way were written by white guys. So there will be some stuff that doesn't feel authentic and Latinos will see it a mile away that it was written by a white guy -- as I did when I read this script.

For example, Cuban hitman NACHO REYES (the character to be played by Luis Guzman who played Pachanga in the original Carlito's Way) -- Nacho?! Are you fucking kidding me? I know no Latinos nor ever heard or met one in all my life named Nacho. Not even Mexican. I especially don't know any Cubans named Nacho? Do you? Please e-mail me if you do. That is a name given to us in the movies by white guys. See my point. There are other nuances like that but it doesn't take away from the story. A lot of it you won't even see.

But you know what? I didn't hate this script. I actually liked it. Regardless if the hero is a hoodlum or Drug Dealer. It is not bad at all nor nothing you haven't seen already -- but it isn't great either. It is good fun. A popcorn movie. Hence two and a half stars.

What the production did do right was cast a Latino actor as the lead and not an Italian actor like Al Pacino (no dis-respect). It is much easier for a Latino to catch regionalisms in specific areas of the country than it is for an Italian. And to all those Latinos out there who will bitch and moan "Oh, they cast a Mexican actor to play Nuyorican" (like the New York Post did) well ya'll need to shut the fuck up and give this kid a shot. So what?! At least he is Latino. Jennifer Lopez is Puerto Rican and played Mexican successfully TWICE in Mi Familia and in Selena. I'm a Dominican out here in Mexican centric Los Angeles and have caught on to the mannerisms and regionalisms easily of the Latinos out here. Even their slang (Que Ondas! No Mames Whey! Chingaderas! IOI). Let's not even discuss the broad spectrum of all the Latino characters John Leguizamo played successfully in his movies and hilarious one man shows. I was told that Jay pulled off the title role successfully since he was surrounded by Nuyoricans. I am excited to see his performance. That is why I am rooting for this project. More for him to be successful and do something else Latino in the future.

Nuff said on that subject.

So what from the Carlito's Way movie 10 years ago is in this script?

Just the nightclub owner Saso. That is it. Carlito's Way: The Beginning is like the first act and the Carlito's Way from 10 years is the third act. To me I felt like there is a whole 2nd act missing. This script doesn't bridge to the movie at all.

So what is it about? Here is what I got:

In this gripping prequel to Brian De Palma's 1993 explosive hit Carlito's Way, Jay Hernandez stars as the young Carlito Brigante, who from an early age is seduced by the power and excitement of the New York underworld. Assisted by his two "brothers" in crime, Rocco (Michael Kelly, Dawn of the Dead) and Earl (Mario Van Peebles, Ali), Carlito is on the fast-track to becoming Spanish Harlem's ultimate kingpin. But when he is challenged, Carlito has just one thing on his mind...survival. Co-starring Sean Combs, the Carlito's Way prequel is a non-stop action thriller that reveals the ferocious beginnings of an underworld legend.

The opening monologue:

CARLITO (VO)
Sooner or later, a thug will tell his tale. We all want to go on record. So let's hear it for all the hoods. The Jews out of Brownsville. The Blacks on Lenox Avenue. The Italians from Mulberry Street. The Irish in Hell's Kitchen. Like that. Meanwhile, the Puerto Ricans been gettin' jammed since the forties and ain't nobody said nothin'. Well, I'm gonna lay it on you one time, for the record. Who are these people, the Peurto Ricans? They come in all sizes, colors, and shapes. They hit New York and filed into the roach stables in Harlem and the South Bronx. They sat behind the sewing machines. Stood behind the steam tables. And marched behind the brooms. In other words, they busted their ass. But a few of us couldn't handle the weight at the bottom of the totem pole. Wouldn't squat, couldn't bend. Had to take our shot. We was the hodedores. The gangsters.

Mayimbe note to the writer: Uh, buddy hodedores is spelled jodedores with a j!

It is stuff like that -- that took me out of it sometimes because it tells me the writer didn't do his homework. At least spell the stuff right.

But this script has that obligatory gangster voice over through out it like goodfellas. I'm cool with it. I like Voice Over in movies actually.

What the script has going for it and what I like is that Carlito is a swaggering motherfucker.

The first ten pages are blazing fast. Shows us Carlito working at a candy store, running cons with his boy COLORADO and going to prison -- Elmira Correctional -- where he is bunked up with his future buisness partners ROCCO, 28, Italian (Michael Kelly from Dawn of the Dead) and EARL, 35, African American (Mario Van Peebles).

CARLITO (VO)
Earl was the brains. One of the top numbers guys in Harlem. Inside or out, nothing ever went down without discussing with Earl. Rocco had all the connections. He was mobbed up with the Pleasant Avenue crew.

By page 11-12 we get both the inciting incident and the call to adventure. Let's take a look --

EARL
All getting out of here soon, Carlito.

CARLITO
(sarcastic)
I miss it already.

EARL
Time to stop all your bullshit.

CARLITO
What bullshit?

EARL
Gorilla-ing people, robbing cars, selling refer. Go to get yourself together.

Rocco hold a stern look on Carlito, backing Earl up.

CARLITO
Las time I checked we was all doing time.

EARL
Me and Rocco are business men.
(snorts)
You..? Small time hood.

ROCCO
Want to start making real money, Charlie?

CARLITO
Yeah, like who don't?

EARL
Heroin has taken over. Bigger than the stock market.

ROCCO
My people have a very dependable supply line.

EARL
But them Italians ain't going up to 125th to deal with the brothers and they ain't heading west to deal with the Latinos. They need distributors in those neighborhoods. Guys with brains and heart. Stand up muthafuckas.

ROCCO
You can be a part of this, Charlie, or you can keep hustling quarters the rest of your life.

HOLD ON: CARLITO
doing just that...

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. EAST HARLEM - DAY AND NIGHT

A MONTAGE of late 1960s street life, BLACK AND WHITE STILL SHOTS accompanied by...

CARLITO (VO)
And that's how three cats from different alleys got together. Me, Earl and Rocco. We hit Harlem like Frazier hit Ali...

Six months later Rocco takes Carlito and Earl to get their product from Rocco's boss -- ARTIE BOTTOLOTA SR (Burt Young) and his fireplug son ARTIE JR (Domenick Lombardozzi from HBO's The Wire). We meet some annoying cops BIG JEFF and LITTLE JEFF. Carlito recruits his boy Colorado to work with him.

On page 20 we meet P.Diddy's character --

"HOLLYWOOD" NICKY BANKS resplendent in a $50,000.00 fur coat and Gucci glasses. Nicky looks out over his domicile with a steely, impenetrable gaze. He's a show-halting presence. Patton meets Liberace.

CARLITO (VO)
Hollywood Nicky owned West HArlem. It belonged to him. Outright. Everything from 110th up to Dyckman. And from 5th Avenue to the Hudson River.

VARIOUS B&W STILLS OF HOLLYWOOD NICKY...

At a variety of press worthy events, some are even black tie...

CARLITO (VO)
Nicky got the name "Hollywood" since you could always find him at the fights, movie premieres, Broadway shows...Had more broads chasing him than The Beatles. Lived on a whole floor of the Waldorf Astoria.

Anybody who knows their gangster lore like I do knows that the obvious inspiration for this character is the real former Harlem Kingpin Leroy (Nicky) Barnes. I always thought the Nicky Barnes story would make a good movie. For more on the real life Nicky Barnes, check out Jerry Capeci's gang land news coulmn about Barnes HERE--

Earl makes a deal with Banks. Earl, Rocco, and Carlito later go to Saso's nightclub where Carlito meets his love interest LETICIA. He courts her for the next couple of pages. Her brother SIGFREDO is not having her sister date a gangster -- this comes into play midway through the 2nd act. Later two guys CHUCHO AND MANNY fuck with Leticia to get to Carlito. Carlito deals with them violently. Earl doesn't like the way Carlito went about it and by page 50, Carlito takes a ride with Big Jeff and Little Jeff.

Carlito's troubles are only beginning. A character named REGGIE comes into play and fucks everything up. I won't spoil it here.

And that boys and girls is where I end the review. Wanna know more? Go see the movie. For all you Luis Gusman fans, Nacho Reyes makes his appearance in the 2nd half of the 2nd act. He is like the Victor The Cleaner character Harvey Keitel played in Point Of No Return.

LIke I said, I wanted to hate this script but I actually didn't. I ended up liking the script -- it's entertaining -- and I hope it makes an entertaining movie which I think it will. I will definitely go and see it on opening night to show my support for Jay Hernandez and see how he pulls off playing Nuyrorican.

Hey, I rather have a Latino themed film to see this year than no Latino film period -- regardless if it was written by a white guy or a Latino Guy.

Coming up for the next script review -- since we keepin' it gangsta' -- I got my hands on LOCK AND LOADED -- the 50 cent movie and I will say off that bat that it is damn good -- by Emmy winning writer Terence Winter (he won the emmy for writting the episode of The Sopranos: LONG TERM PARKING in which he killed off Drea De Mateo's character Adriana. Bastard! No more Adrianna in her hoochie outfits!).

So hasta el proximo capitulo...

Yo Soy El Mayimbe!

mayimbe@latinoreview.com