Customer Reviews

Get Carter

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Hollywood has remade movies for decades. When sound was introduced in the late 1920s, it was only logical to take some of the better silent movies and do them again. Cecil B. DeMille remade his 1925 movie The Ten Commandments in 1956 It is a timeless story and will no doubt be done again in the future. Some movies have great stories that are worth retelling. An example is A Star is Born which was first filmed in 1937. It was remade in 1954 and in 1976. Sometimes, a producer will buy the rights to a foreign film in order to do an English language version. Three Men and a Baby was a remake of a French film. All too often, however, remakes happen for reasons that are logical only to the people who decide to do them. Get Carter is one of those movies. The original an English film released in 1971. It starred Michael Caine, who also appears in the new version, perhaps as a reminded that, most of the time, what was successfully done in the past is best left there.

Jack Carter, originally Caine's character, is this time played by Sylvester Stallone. Carter is a very bad man, which worked perfectly the first time around. Why the producers decided to tone the character down for modern audiences is beyond me. He is still unsavory, but that's not the same thing as being bad to the bone. The result is that this Carter is far less interesting.

After working in Las Vegas for five years as a debt enforcer for a casino boss, Carter returns home to Seattle after his brother is killed in a car accident. He finds the circumstances of the death to be suspicious. A little checking around shows that some of the people the brother knew have a lot to hide. Soon, several of them have reason to fear Carter, who, after all, is all too familiar with their shady little world. The trick for Carter in this dark little thriller is to find out what his brother might have known that cost him his life.

Get Carter is literally one of the darkest films I have seen in years. Director Stephen T. Kay wants to make sure we get in the mood of the story. I was yearning for a little sunshine long before the movie ended.

I will note that Stallone gives a more subtle and nuanced performance than usual. If the producers were determined to do this remake, then Stallone was a good choice for the lead. Besides Caine, the movie also stars two of my favorite British actors - Miranda Richardson and Alan Cummin, both playing Americans. Richardson adds class to the picture, but her role is hardly a stretch for her. Add Cummin to a growing list of English actors who have learned how to play American villains better than Americans themselves. As a vain, self-centered zillionaire, Cummin's character is delightfully nasty.

This movie is not the worst choice you could make to spend an evening with. Had the original never existed, reviewers probably would have been kinder. The fact is that it suffers by comparison. If you like your thrillers dark and on the nihilistic side, you might enjoy this, but if you can find a copy of the original, by all means watch it instead.

Having not seen the original for some time,I finally saw it in its entirety last week.Considering I've only just seen the remake tonight,it's fair to say it's going to be difficult to describe it as a film that stands on its own two feet.GET CARTER(1971) was about a mobster going back to Newcastle to find who murdered his brother.His search for the truth is ruthless. GET CARTER(2000) follows much the same story,Newcastle is now Seattle.I had my misgivings about Stallone playing Carter,but surprisingly he pulls it off.Not only does he look the part,this is one of his best roles. Supported by a sleazy Mickey Rourke,Miranda Richarson as his late brother's wife,and Rachael Leigh Cook who shines in this version,as her daughter Doreen. I wasn't expecting an action fest because the original gets by because of Micheal Caine's ruthless determination to get the truth. I do like this version but I have to deduct two stars for trying to sanitise Carter and adding a happy Hollywood ending.Also most of the film,the director is so obsessed with attention span,he "strobes" the picture regularly and unnecessarily.The final confrontation between Carter and Mickey Rourke is an anticlimax.The beach chase replaced by a brawll on a dancefloor.Not quite as memorable. Stallone seems to better with age and here he still packs a punch.And rather being a hinderance to a remake with a"you're the disease,I'm the cure" approach,he's much better in this film.

You'll need it to stay awake!

If this movie was made about 20 years ago; I could see it being a hit. The trouble is that Stallone is choosing scripts that would have worked ...if done in the eighties.

We've all seen this plot before. He performance is good but his character is too one note. He wants revenge for the death of his brother. I didn't believe his hit man with a heart of gold act though. The action scenes were good. The action was very influenced by music videos. While not a total waste of time the movie needed more substance to work.

I could see Stallone in roles taken by Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro..I think that he needs a role that doesn't put him in the tough guy mode. "Cop Land" proved to me he could do Oscar material.

Get Carter is film in which Stallone fans will enjoy thoroughly. Although it is different. The different camera angles and weird screen effects make the movie hard to follow the first time out.
The acting is pretty solid. Though Mickey Rourke seems to sort of slump on his part.
All in all, it's a great thriller movie that does have some nice action to it. Stallone delivers well here. I don't think many will be disappointed.

In 'Get Carter' Sylvestor Stallone plays Jack Carter a Las Vegas bookey or as he likes to say a "financial adjuster" and if you don't pay well let's just say he becomes 'Rocky' in a unofficial boxing match in the back alley while your tied down to a chair!
However the movie is based upon the revenge of his brother's death who supposebly died in a drinking and driving accident which obviously he does not believe and takes a train to Seattle to check it out. So as Carter searches all of Seattle for his brother's killer the suspects keep changing for whenever he muscles or question's the one who he thinks organized itor did it they give him another name. So after a while he no longer cares who exactly did it and starts killing anyone he for surely knows was at least involved. Get Carter also co stars Mickey Rourke, Alan Cumming, and Michael Caine.

A slow, dreary film so poorly lit several scenes exist in half darkness. Especially funny is a scene where one character asks another to take off his glasses -- you know, so he can see his eyes -- and we can't see his eyes! Too rich.

Stallone is Carter, a Vegas hitman out to avenge the death of a brother and the abuse of a niece. Caine's a goon, Rourke's a goon, Cook's the sexually abused niece and Cumming's just weird.

Stallone talks endlessly of taking the tough-guy standoffs "to the next level;" only Rourke is allowed to respond with his own level, after which Stallone returns with a level not seen since the final duel in "Cobra."

It is an excellent movie, even if the pace is a bit slow at times, unfortunately . Well at least you get what you need in a good action movie, with a few psychological hints, and more phrases than most Sly movies. In fact action is not always present, but when, it's there, it's always at a good level !! The bad guys get what they deserve, which is great, and I kind of like the main character (Jack). There's also Doreen and Audrey of course, and Cyrus Paine, and Thorpey always hanging around...

The movie contains an interesting Las Vegas scene too, and a long train scene.
The end is really great: Jeremy was scared to death (really), but left alive (great for the story !!), while Brumby is catched and gets shots in the back.

This film does for Stallone what Pulp Fiction did for Travolta. Stallone and Rourke play two seasoned thugs. The characters are gritty and believable as are the fight scenes. Definitely worth the ride.

Stallone was great in this film. This is one Hell of a movie, great music, great direction-the movie had a great "feel" about it. It was a real pleasure to watch-BUY this movie, it's a great one to watch.