CARLITO'S WAY (1993)

CARLITO'S WAY (R) The climax is a supremely exciting, 10-minute-long sequence in which the hero, a retired New York Puerto Rican heroin dealer named Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino), is chased through subway cars and Grand Central station by a relentless posse of hit men. Until then, Brian De Palma's film is a competent and solidly unsurprising urban-underworld thriller. Playing a former criminal who turns out to be a deeply honorable man, Pacino is trying for something quiet and emotional, but the character as written is so morosely well intentioned that he's a bit dull. It's fun, though, to see Sean Penn ham it up as Kleinfeld, an ugly-nerd < gangland lawyer who tricks Carlito into helping him execute a hit. Carlito's Way is perfectly okay entertainment, yet this 2-hour-and-21-minute movie would have been every bit as good (if not better) as a lean and mean Miami Vice episode. B ( 196, Nov. 12) -OG

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