Carlito's Way, starring Al Pacino and directed by Brian De Palma, is an excellent movie. Al Pacino is Carlito Brigante, a Puerto Rican druglord just out of prison and trying to go straight while the streets are doing everything they can to put him back inside or six feet under. Both Pacino and De Palma do great jobs with this film which to me ranks up there close to Scarface. Not as good as Scarface but close to that level. Did you know Carlito's Way is actually based on a book called After Hours by author Edwin Torres?

Ironically Edwin Torres's first book, named Carlito's Way, is the prequel to After Hours. Carlito's Way: Rise To Power was the actual movie released based of Torres's first novel, Rise To Power was much more accurate to the book but not nearly as good as Pacino's and De Palma's version. After Hours deals with Carlito Brigante when he gets out of Sing Sing and tries to re-adapt to a crime ridden society that has left him in the past.

If you've seen the movies or not both of Torres's books are excellent reads. They are so extremely graphic and realistic that I myself thought Torres was Brigante until I found his bio. While Torres was born and raised in Manhattan's Spanish Harlem but instead of being a delinquent is actually now a judge on New York's Supreme Court. Torres was a criminal defense attorney and apparently combined his knowledge gained there with his childhood and created quite a unique and likeable anti-hero in Carlito Brigante. Torres opens a window into Spanish Harlem and the criminal underworld so realistic you'll almost feel as though you were there. And it only gets better with Torres's second book After Hours as Carlito Brigante gets his last chance for redemption.