Get Carter (2000)

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is an update of 1971 "Get Carter" one of Michael Caine's finest movies. Michael Caine also appears here playing Cliff Brumby. Sylvester Stallone's movie is as much a remake as it is a re-imagination of the British movie. It goes in another direction. The main hero , his relationship with his family and the ending are all changed . In a way this version misses the point of the original movie .The 70's movie was a story about a bad man doing bad things in a bad world which ended with "who lives by the sword should die from the sword" message. Here we have a more Hollywood conventional movie about tough guy with good heart trying to punish the evil. That's what made the fans of the original angry. I feel that if this movie was made under different title it would receive much better reception.The screenplay keeps intact much of the original plot and quotes. The filmmakers do attempt to manufacture new catchphrases for Carter like "This is going to the next level." There was also more of a relationship between Jack and Doreen . On the bad sides the fate of one of the major characters is unknown and Michael Caine's character is underwritten.The Michael Caine's Jack Carter was ruthless and cold-blooded psychopath with wit and charm. This movie humanizes Carter. Stallone's Jack Carter is just a nice guy with a not-so-nice profession as the mob enforcer. Stallone has an imposing presence and is very OK here , however he keeps switching from "ruthless gangster" to "good uncle" mode which is distracting.Stallone is surrounded by (mostly) a very effective cast. John C. McGinley , Mickey Rourke , Alan Cumming , Michael Caine and Miranda Richardson. Especially McGinley and Rourke are great here and fun to watch. The minor characters are interesting and played really well. Only Rachel Leigh Cook as Doreen is rather dull and yet she has a nice chemistry with Stallone.Director Stephen Kay directs this movie with style , some even argue that it's a matter of style over substance. I don't agree. Stallone teaches family values. We get the sense that Carter is a real person who is hurting and filled with regret about not patching things up with his brother. It's about the search for truth and redemption, and the price all of those involved will pay while finding it.Beautiful photography by Mauro Fiore, dizzying editing (in style of Steven Soderbergh's "The Limey") and camera angles, a pulsating soundtrack by Tyler Bates & Jellybean Benitez creates the mood. "Get Carter" feels like a postmodern noir movie.This is not a typical slambang action film. It's a kind of stylish, noir, toned-down action film like Mel Gibson's "Payback". I would even call it a suspense drama. Of course there are some action scenes here as well – few fights and nicely done car chase.The low rating (5.1) might give you impression that it is a terrible movie , but believe me it's not . There are many bad , stupid and devoted of any ambition movies here on IMDb that have higher rating than "GC" that is just disgusting ( "XXX" , "Charlie's angels" , "Transformers" series, "Resident evil" series just to name a few). Also, don't believe the critics who say that this is the worst remake ever . I can easily list many remakes that sucked FAR worse, like "Planet of the Apes" , "Psycho" or "The Wicker man".There were plans to do a sequel which never materialized. Too bad , because "GC" does seem to have a potential for nice franchise , unlike "Hangover" , "Saw" or crap like that. "Get Carter" is actually a watchable film. It can't hold a candle to the original , it misses the point of the original , but on it's own it's not THAT bad movie. I give it 4/10.

I'll keep this short and sweet. First off, Sly, does not deserve a Razzie for this. It's a great comeback, after his bestest in 98's Copland, and he's very good in this role, a trifle menacing, yes. In fact I'd rather watch Sly than Caine, who ironically plays a shady villain in this. Caine's dull expressions and deadpan looks he brought to the Carter role, though indeed, he was much more menacing, just somehow created a real dullness, where Stallone adds a lot of flare to the role, (the actors business) someone you don't want double cross, one guy, so lucky for having Carter spare him, was a moment I found gruelingly tense. Again it's family vengeance for Jack Carter, who leans on people who are late with their payments by use of physical force. One term to describe these heavies are called Shylocks. Stallone is given great dialogue, and has some great acting support from Miranda Richardson, very strong, Caine, character actor, John Mcginley as one of Sly's own, and another baddie Mickey Rourke, no longer a pretty face. He's given some great dialogue too. Jack who's brother was caught up in some dirty dealings involving prostitution and making sex tapes, his need to get to the bottom of this really grows, especially when his niece (Rachel Leigh Cook-very good) is caught up in it. Then he really steams. Here's a guy who's not gonna stop until he finds his man, where he doesn't like outside interruptions, like from Mcginley who he pummels the s..t out of in an elevator, to the racey tune of an instrumental "Jingle Bells". Again here's a livelier remake I like better than the original, which some great action sequences, including a thrilling car chase, hey, but what's a Sly movie without action.

This movie is a good example of why, in my opinion, the official ratings by on Rotten Tomatoes, made by the so called (professional) critics, are generally worthless. Currently this movie has a rating of 12% according to Rotten Tomatoes which, of course, will lead everyone not aware of how crappy their system actually is to believe that the film is utter crap and that is really utter crap.This movie is nothing fantastic. It would even qualify as a B-flick, but it is not really bad. It is a nice enough action/thriller flick to kill an evening with without really getting disappointed. I have not seen the original one so I am not pre-conditioned against this movie which perhaps helps.Sylvester Stallone does a quite acceptable performance in the role of the silent and threatening mob enforcer. He plays as you would expect him to do and if you do not like Stallone, well then there is not much to do about it. Personally I think he has his style and I like it and do not really want him to change it just because some critics find it "lacking".The movie itself and the story is also fairly okay. Again nothing fantastic or particularly innovative but good enough. It has its ups and downs though. Especially in terms of pacing which is a bit uneven. Sure, not everything can be car chases or fist fights but when it slows down it really slows down. Even though it is a gangster/action/thriller movie it is not overly violent. As a matter of fact it is fairly tame in the sense that, as soon as someone actually gets killed this happens off the scene and is left to the viewer's imagination. A bit silly if you ask me but it did not really bother me too much either so.Close to the end the director indulges himself in some very annoying psychedelic flickering scenes, presumably to hide some of the violence in the final fighting between Stallone and the bad guy. That did bother me. I really do not like such epilepsy inducing nonsense. Not that I have epilepsy but it still strains my eyes and really bother me.Anyway, it was a decent enough movie and certainly good enough to get, at least, an average rating.

Violent film about a hardman named Jack Carter, he is a domineering , dapper angel of vengeance who returns home to investigate a familiar crime and meets sleazy character after another . An acceptable noir film produced by actor Andrew Stevens , Elie Samaha and professionally directed by Stephen Kay (Boogeyman , The last time I committed suicide), though with no originality . An extremely tough movie burdened by cruel murders and seedy characters , based on a novel titled 'Get Carter' by Ted Lewis from 1970 . This brutal , austere crime-thriller focuses a cheerless enforcer Jack Carter (hard-working star Sylvester Stallone) , a tough , amoral gangster who works as a killer in Los Angeles . Passable Sylvester Stallone in the title role , but inferior to Michael Caine (he played Jack Carter in the original) here playing a secondary role as Cliff Brumby (his character was only in one scene in the original cut, but test audiences said they liked him and they transformed the movie to have Caine as the bad guy) . Here Stallone is a hit-man who returns home to investigate his brother's death by some mobsters .As he decides to travel his natal Seattle to investigate who is responsible ; Jack contends enemies , but he stands a head above fellow hoods , but not apart from them . Two-fisted Jack in order to revenge his sibling , vows vengeance and spontaneously meets sleazy characters (bad ass Mickey Rourke and nasty computer magnate Alan Cummings) in the middle of sinister bands war and running afoul into underworld . When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident , gangster Jack Carter travels to Seattle to investigate and reunites his widow (Miranda Richardson and niece (Rachael Leigh Cook) and he subsequently meets ominous characters who may have been involved . Carter aware the murder of his brother at the hands of a "gang" opponent led by a mobster . We see as his facade of sophisticated and elegant mob gentleman with exquisite manners , educated pose , and expensive costumes , begins collapsing , leaving see the lascivious, malleability and a cold killer . Carter starts moving in this ambient but all of this ends in a shocking discovery delivered by a compact disc which greatly angers Carter . This triggers a wave of violence that sweeps the the underworld lumpen in Seattle . Carter keeps the things moving along until ending vendetta. The end of the film is like a summary of the entire story for the scenarios that uses austere bleak and cold environment .This interesting film features thrills , well-staged car chases , raw energy , adult subject matter , clunking cruelty surrounding , lots of violence and enlivened by high-powered performances . Plenty of intrigue, atmospheric music ,noisy action and grisly killings until impressive finale vengeance . It is a very violent film , depressing charismatic , magnificently set , but always strong , with a perfect abstraction of a climate of moral misery to game with a colorful photography by magnificent cameraman Mario Fiore . Adequate and moving musical score by Tyler Bates with a rare mixture . The picture obtained moderated Box office , there were plans to do a sequel which never materialized .The main differences between the classic version and this recently made story are the following : The British 1971 bruising film "GET CARTER¨ far superior to remake , is an original movie with abundant nudism , kinky sex , excessively violent and set in Newcastle , a city in northern England portrayed as a cool place , foggy , sordid , rainy , dirty , gray and industrial aspect , shabby environment and ramshackle scenarios , full of sad pubs , buildings almost in ruins , piers of black water and ravaged aspect postindustrial , while this remake 2000 , viewed as an act of sacrilege in Britain , was set in rain-lashed Seattle , a bustling city full of light and luxurious pubs and glamorous nightclubs . GET CARTER 1971 was splendidly performed by Michael Caine with Ian Hendry , John Osborne and Britt Ekland ; there is also a Black Gangster version titled ¨The hit-man¨, a Blaxploitiation movie regularly directed by George Armitage with Bernie Casie , Pam Grier , Roger E Mosley and Paul Gleason .