Get Carter

Sylvester Stallone's remake of the British classic GET CARTER has gone down in history as one of the biggest flops and worst remakes ever. Watching it now, I can see why; it's a completely forgettable film that might just pass muster as an average straight-to-video thriller but which feels like a catastrophe when compared to the original.

The problems with this film are myriad, but most noticeably missing is the sense of location. GET CARTER made excellent use of its northeastern locations, whereas this remake just has an ordinary Seattle backdrop that looks like a hundred other thrillers from the era. It's not one of Stallone's finest performances either; he looks constipated throughout the production, which is a surprise given that he'd made the excellent COP LAND fairly recently which had contained one of his greatest performances.

The casting of Michael Caine in a crucial role just reinforces how tedious and average this thriller is. Sure, the plot is fast paced, but the direction is hollow and the action sequences feel sub-par, somehow. I notice that director Stephen Kay has wisely stuck to television fare after the double whammy disaster of this and BOOGEYMAN (which was even worse).

A mob enforcer goes back to his native Seattle to sort out the suspicious death of his brother.

The original film is one of the best English thrillers of all time and despite being made nearly thirty years ago still packs a punch. Sadly this film is not really in its league, despite a bigger budget and more ground coverage.

The main problem is that the authors clearly love the original and this leaves so much of what happens as a question mark to the new viewer. Characters are thrown in from nowhere and Carters involvement with his bosses' girl is almost in another movie. Micheal Caine's small role (as a barman) is funny in that he was the original Jack Carter, here reprised by Sly Stallone.

While quick to admit this is mediocre stuff you have to say that you get your share of car chases (well done too), fights, creeps, sleaze, family bonding, shoot outs and even the odd bit of light humour. The fight between Stallone and Mickey Rouke (here playing a buisnessman-stroke-creep) for example.

This film features interesting cinematography, with strange forward jump cuts (ripped off from The Limey), odd angles and the use of colour filters. In short, the producers trying to make more out of the material than is in the script. The choice of a wet Seattle is also curious and different. Presumably the nearest to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (the setting of the original) that the producers could think of.

So it is only an average product, but will see much worse than this in our lifetime and it does move along at a fair and steady clip. People are getting to knock Stallone for being Stallone, but he doesn't do bad a job here, a stonefaced enforcer that is prepared to shed a tear when needs be! Not great acting, but he looks the part.

Don't be put off by the low IMDB ratings, plenty of worthy films are two or three points higher but are far more boring. Popcorn fodder it may be, but I thought it was worth seeing through and even declared myself modestly entertained at the end of it. Not as good as the original but not a lot is.

Footnote: This is actually not the first remake of Get Carter. A blackspolitation version was made in the 1970's called "Hitman."

Stallone and director Stephen T. Kay's re-imaging of the stunning, 1971 British gangster film Get Carter is a monumental mess on mostly all levels; a wavering, distorted and frankly quite annoying piece that renders what was once scuzzy pulp into polished actioner and slow burning film-noir into loud, messy, flashy nonsense. Some will claim it is Kay implementing his own style onto a set text, but in this case it is a set text that did not need re-imagining combined with a style we don't want to see, while the original did not need an update and certainly doesn't need to be fiddled with in order to act as a directorial calling card for someone who would later go onto have a career in making television shows.

The 2000 remake of Get Carter begins in its immediacy of establishing some sort of passing of the guard; this by way of briefly playing the old theme tune from the original film over the images before a newer, more contemporary beat kicks in continuing the same basic tone; in a sort of style that sounds like it was spat out of a rave club and landed smack bang on the soundtrack. It's a telling moment; a moment in which the recognition of the old was there, and that this newer version of both the music and film brings everything up to speed for the sake of it. Sylvester Stallone is Jack Carter this time around, a heavy working in Las Vegas more-so London who boards a train in order to travel to Seattle more-so Newcastle in order to attend his brother's funeral. One would hope the distorted, fragmented manner in which Jack's train journey is put across by way of the angles and editing is representative of the character's distorted and wavering emotions as he gradually gets closer to home with the realisation of a sibling's death gradually kicking in, rather than be included for the fact it might, in the maker's eye, 'look cool'.

Carter finds an unnatural manner in being able to waltz around kicking guys' heads in; bullying his way into confrontations with people and evading injury during car chases with more sombre, more down to Earth scenes with Doreen (Leigh Cook), his niece and his brother's daughter. The scenes with Doreen enable Carter to act as some sort of would-be fatherly figure as he attempts to take her under his wing; delivering advice as if it were his brother's own, about life and what to do with it and how keeping on the straight and narrow is important – it's a life lecture from an action lead who, on other occasions when speaking to other characters, tells them: "Sure it does" when told that revenge doesn't work and it's implied that it ought to be something to be chased down.

The film sees Carter visit a whole bunch of misfits, from Alan Cumming's techno-boffin Jeremy Kinnear to Mickey Rourke's porn king-come-businessman Cyrus Paice, an individual who distributes a lot of pornography akin to Caine's version, only because it's now 2000 and it's the 21st Century we've moved into here, everything is done by way of computers and disk drives instead of 8mm film stock. I say the 1971 film was "Caine's version", but Michael Caine does actually have a role here, that of Cliff Brumby who you'll remember was tossed over the side of a multi storey car park in the old one by Caine himself. The joke around about the time of the release of this, I'm sure, must've been that Caine is playing the character he tossed away over the side in the original; while in playing a part in the ill-advised remake of Get Carter, thus has now tossed his own career over the side. Fortunatley, this didn't have the ill guided effect on his career it might've done.

Snide jokes aside, the problem that the remake of Get Carter is a dunderheaded, bits and pieces revenge action thriller starring someone whom seems to gradually get less and less interested as the film progresses is just half the issue. It's additionally just too all over the place to get involved in and too wavy in whether it wants to pay a lot of attention the the '71 version or not. Whilst the film attempts to get some sort of dramatic flow to proceedings going, there'll be a scene straight out of the original that'll disrupt its course and make you go to yourself: "Oh yeah, it's that part." or "Oh look, this is how they're re-imagining this bit." which is so distracting and so annoying, completely destroying any sort of dramatic weight the film might have been carrying up to the respective point.

Running on colourful visuals and really lacking that distinct aura of menace the original certainly carried, 2000's Get Carter is rather a gross misfire. Its want to balance a morality tale with wanting to be faithful and unfaithful in equal measure to the original doesn't sit, while the meek level of substance by way of Stallone life-lectures twinned with the fact what it is that he does is on display just comes across as sanctimonious and stupid – if there was ever a point in which this remake really needed to borrow from the '71 version, then it was with the ending and Carter's overall fate. If director Kay has translated anything, it's that he's translated a once unhinged, crime fuelled revenge tale into an unengaging and soppy series of grumbles, gunshots and girls that does absolutely nothing for its audience.

Approximately 1/10th as good as the original, this version of GET CARTER doesn't even have the courage to use the original ending. And it is edited in today's hyper-trendy style using extremely brief shots edited together in a welter of images hoping to create an impression of kinetic action. Instead, it's just indecipherable chaos.

Stallone tries his best, but his mustache and goatee have the odd effect of squeezing his lips together increasing his resemblance to a fish. He's also saddled with long, boring scenes with his niece (or maybe she's his daughter) that really don't lead anywhere. This has a different main villain than the original, but it's hardly a surprise since Mickey Rourke's character gives it away in his first scene. (But what happens to Mickey Rourke later? If he's dead, why wasn't there some kind of reaction from the numerous bystanders?) Stallone needs to forget about the audience liking him, and go for the realism of the character, but he never, never will show that kind of imagination and integrity.

Showy, trendy junk.

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 .