Carter

The story is hilarious and the further the movie goes the worse it gets. Actually the beginning is pretty good and has some stylish scenes.

The main character is charismatic and delivers some good action......even though he almost never gets a hit, which is ridiculous.

Unfortunately the movie budget was clearly not very high, which doesn't help of course and makes the stupid story look even more ridiculous.

Carter is watchable if you don't think too much and don't mind the lack of professionalism.

In fact if they would have continued the way the movie started it wouldn't be so bad, but after ~ 45min everything goes down under.

4 out of 10 with tendency towards 3.

The entire film is shot and made in a way that makes it look like a one-shot long take. But you can notice that there were lots of cuts because there are like 85% of the actions that were pretty insane, so that would be extremely impossible to shoot one long take lol.

It was Hardcore Henry type movie that had more actions, only the editing was kinda poorly done. Lots of cheap green screens and CGI, but doesn't bother me anyway. The actions sequences were actually pretty insane and impressive, IMO. The camerawork is kinda cool, but some people might find it annoying.

Would have been one of the best action films if it was shot in 4-6 long takes without green screens, for sure. Overall, I liked it, it's quite unique. Except Hardcore Henry, I've never seen any movies like this one.

Editor: How many cuts & transitions do you want?

Director: Yes

Man! My head hurts and my eyes need some rest. Even though I do love these fast-paced action features, this turned out to be too much! I know and I understand that there would be some who have an undying appetite for such kinds of filmmaking, and that's fine, cause to each their own! But if you ask me, I could not enjoy the ride as much as I wished for.

Part of it is due to how turbulent & disorderly it had ultimately become! What was inaugurated as an inventive piece that comprises distinctive one-of-a-kind action, slowly turned itself into one tiring repetition. Add cheesy performances and a suboptimal write-up to that equation and we got ourselves a highly forgettable affair.

The idea of this film was very promising and attention-grabbing, especially for lovers of action films and thrillers (for me!). However, the execution and direction of this film just weren't satisfying enough.

In the beginning of the story, I was already doubtful after seeing the sauna scene - "Carter", a single man with no memory, manages to kill over 20 (probably 30+) men, all with knives and other kinds of weapons, basically single-handedly and without a scratch. Even the best-trained killers wouldn't be that capable. The opening already tells you how the story will go. The action scenes are way too unrealistic, almost fantasy-like. For a film that's classified as an action thriller, that's not so good.

The one-scene one-cut technique used during the camera work was nice and refreshing at the beginning but later on became frustrating. A lot of "empty" scenes showing empty rooms, the underneath of a car etc...just absolutely unnecessary scenes.

The non-Korean actors ruined the show for me. Their acting was simply bad, very amateur-like and mediocre.

Carter was a style over substance dizzying 132 minutes of utter ridiculousness, ruined by horrible camerawork and a convoluted story. Huge props to lead actor Joo Won, all the skilled stuntmen, insanely choreographed action scenes and the great action set pieces and visuals, but sadly, all that effort was wasted on unwatchable dizzying, seizure-inducing, single-take-looking headache-inducing camera work - and just as bad editing. Had all the great action and fight scenes been shot normally - with tact, intelligence, and aim, this film's action could've topped the Mission Impossible films. But instead, it was like a drunk on meth, with one fancy camera drone trying to keep up with the action. Then add a decent conceptual story, that ended up being incoherent and tried too hard to be smart with convoluted twists, and drag it out with unnecessarily repetitive long action scenes - for over 2 hours. It was frustrating, exhausting, and a huge missed opportunity to be a great action film. If you want to see it done properly - with great action and a great story, watch The Roundup with Don Lee. Writer and director Byung-gil Jung needs to stick to basic camera work and lessen the overbearing dramatics, as well as work towards better story-telling - in under 2 hours.