Get Carter is the 2000 remake of the 1971 crime film of the same name, starring Sylvester Stallone in the title role. The film also features Miranda Richardson, Rachel Leigh Cook, Alan Cumming, Mickey Rourke, Rhona Mitra. Michael Caine, who starred in the original, plays a supporting role.
Plot
Mob enforcer Jack Carter (Stallone) returns home to Seattle when he hears that his brother, Ritchie, has been killed in a drunk driving accident. He tries to make amends with Richie's wife, Gloria (Richardson), and his niece Doreen (Cook), and investigates Richie's death after he realizes Richie was murdered. While he starts snooping around, his mob partner in Las Vegas, Con McCarty (John C. McGinley), covers for him with the mob boss, Fletcher (Garwin Sanford). A secondary plot revolves around an affair Carter was having with Fletcher's girlfriend, Audrey (Gretchen Mol).
His first stop in his investigation is with loan shark Cliff Brumby (Caine), the owner of the club that Richie managed. Brumby does not believe Jack's allegations of murder, but does tell him that Richie was having an affair with Geraldine (Mitra), an associate of local boss Cyrus Paice (Rourke).
Jack cannot get anything from Paice, who unknowingly leads him to Jeremy Kinnear (Cumming), a wealthy computer mogul who uses Paice's prostitution services, as well as Eddie (Johnny Strong), one of the club's bouncers. Although he cannot get any straight answers, Jack continues to pursue the truth, carefully examining the surveillance tapes from Brumby's club, looking for any sort of clue.
Jack discovers that Paice had made an amateur porn movie where he and Geraldine would pick up different young girls, drug them and rape them. Jack watches the film and learns that Doreen was one of the victims. Paice and those who helped him make the disc did not know that Doreen was Richie's daughter. Before he died, Richie was given the disc by Geraldine. Richie was murdered as he was taking the disc to the police, with Paice having it set up to look like an accident.
Con and a fellow gangster from Las Vegas track Jack down and confront him after Jack says he is done with Vegas. After knocking both of the men out, Jack has a talk with Doreen about what happened.
Intending to settle the score, Jack begins a path of vengeance. He gets a frantic, apologetic call from Geraldine, who tells him Paice is coming to kill her. After he finds Geraldine's body, Carter heads straight to Eddie's apartment, and throws Eddie off of a balcony to his death. Carter gets involved in a car chase with Con and the other gangster, only to lose them when he causes them to lose control of their vehicle. Visiting Kinnear's house, he confronts Cyrus, who tells Jack that he should be going after Kinnear, because Kinnear is the man behind Ritchie's murder. Jack has a vicious fight with Paice, losing at first only to return and beat Paice to a pulp. The fight ends with Jack holding a pistol to an unconscious Paice; the scene cuts abruptly and whether Carter kills Paice is unseen. He then confronts Kinnear, who says that all he told Paice to do was get the disc back from Richie, not kill him, and that it was Paice and Brumby who committed the murder. Carter decides to not kill Kinnear.
After getting a call from Audrey, who breaks up with him, Carter confronts Brumby as Brumby is breaking into his car to retrieve the disc. Brumby admits that he was involved in the murder and, as he is walking away, Carter shoots him in the back.
After settling the score for his dead brother, Carter decides to give up his life of crime, having formed a bond with Doreen.
Cast
Critical reception
Critical reaction was negative. The film received a 12% favorable rating among the critics tracked by Rotten Tomatoes.[2] It did not do well at the box office, with worldwide takings of approximately US$19 million coming under the production budget of $40 million.
Among the positive reviews, JoBlo.com praised "the sharp turn given by Sly Stallone, its groovy tunes, and its generally dark and gritty nature."[3] Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDWire called the film "a stimulating visual showcase of stylish film making that keeps a viewer's attention."[4] Chuck O'Leary of FulvueDrive-in.com said that "the original Get Carter is better, but this is quite watchable as far as modern-era remakes go."[5]
Shawn Levy of the Portland Oregonian gave an average review, saying that while "the film doesn't touch the original, it doesn't hit rock bottom, either."[6] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said the film is "not a terrible movie" but "too routine for its own good."[7] Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle said that "the film itself is a muddle, [but] what is good is Stallone.".[8] Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film "is murkier than it needs to be, through no fault of Stallone's."[9]
Among the negative reviews, Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "a useless remake."[10] A.O. Scott of The New York Times said that the film is "so minimally plotted that not only does it lack subtext or context, but it also may be the world's first movie without even a text."[11] Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News called the film "a throwaway story hidden beneath a messy jumble of weird camera angles, worthless editing tricks and an ill-placed, obnoxious score."[12]
References
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