Production Companies Franchise Pictures, Morgan Creek Productions, Epsilon Motion Pictures (in association with), The Canton Company, Carter Productions LLC, Warner Bros. Pictures
The original Get Carter (1971), directed by Croupier's Mike Hodges, stars Michael Caine as Jack Carter, a mob enforcer who returns to his hometown after the suspicious death of his brother. The plot has a breezy, improvised feel and Caine is fantastic, an amoral man who would sleep with any girl or torture any guy to get what he wants. In the American remake, Sylvester Stallone plays a sanitized version of Jack Carter, a guy who is violent but ultimately moral. It doesn't work nearly as well. The whole movie seems like it's been crafted around the Stallone persona, which gives it a manufactured rather than spontaneous feel. Admittedly, that is not helped by the film-school pyrotechnics of director Stephen Kay, who fills the frame with so much unnecessary camera movement that it really feels like he spent more time setting up the camera shots than he did on the script. Moving the story from a small town north of London to Seattle works better because of the subplot concerning Internet porn, of which Seattle is a virtual hotbed. The downside is that it allows for Alan Cumming's portrayal of a Bill Gates-like billionaire as a near-retarded boy-child. Other actors fare better with their roles, particularly Rachel Leigh Cook and Mickey Rourke, though Michael Caine's presence only serves to draw unfair comparisons to the original. That said, if you buy both versions you will learn more about the state of Hollywood at the turn of the millennium than with a year's subscription to Variety. --Andy Spletzer
2.
Jack Carter's brother is dead. And Jack (Sylvester Stallone) wants to know why. A Las Vegas mob enforcer, he carefully packs his guns and sets off for Seattle by train. At the funeral, he discovers his brother was full of alcohol when he died in a car accident. But according to his niece, Doreen (Rachael Leigh Cook), his brother didn't drink. Jack starts on a tortuous trail that leads, via gang boss Brumby (Michael Caine) and porno-loving thug Cyrus Paice (Mickey Rourke), to a Seattle computer billionaire named Jeremy Kinnear (Alan Cumming). Among those trying to "get Carter" is Con (John C. McGinley), another enforcer from Las Vegas.
GET CARTER is the second remake of the bleak and gritty 1971 British thriller of the same title. In the original, directed by Mike Hodges (CROUPIER), Michael Caine was Carter. The first remake was George Armitage's 1972 film HIT MAN. Scriptwriter David McKenna and director Stephen T. Kay have shifted the location in GET CARTER 2000 to the Pacific Northwest. While they have made it less perverse than the original, this version is more upscale, and more jolting, with splintered jump cuts and pulsating music.
3.
Jack Carter (SYLVESTER STALLONE) has spent his life collecting for other people — debts, agendas, retribution. He stands alone and always stands apart. But when his brother is killed in an accident, it takes Carter home ... to the family he abandoned, to the debts that were never paid, and a mystery that will take him to the center of his own soul.
For Jack, the trip home to Seattle is a second chance to make amends for past mistakes. He re-connects with his brother's wife, Gloria (MIRANDA RICHARDSON), and her teenage daughter, Doreen (RACHAEL LEIGH COOK), who are both suspicious of his sudden interest. But when he discovers that his brother’s death has murder written all over it, his purpose quickly changes from redemption to revenge.
Jack forms an uneasy truce with Doreen, and soon she is helping him navigate the seamy underbelly of the city, through a deceptive world where nothing is what it seems. Carter is inclined to mete out his own brand of justice to the guilty; but the closer he gets to the truth, the more he questions his own motives, and instead of vengeance, he finds forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption.
4.
He's taking action with attitude to the next level.
Ask Las Vegas resident Jack Carter what he does for a living, and he'll explain he's a "financial adjuster." Pay what you owe, or Carter will adjust your arm, nose or spleen.
Plenty of adjusting awaits, including a change in Carter's own sense of honor and family - when Sylvester Stallone plays hard-edged, Carter in this sleek action thriller, co-starring Miranda Richardson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Alan Cumming, Mickey Rourke and Michael Caine (who headlined the 1971 version of Get Carter). Vegas muscle and glitz meets dot-com, triple-latte Seattle, as Carter prowls to smoke out his brother's killer. Thugs and killers may see Carter coming. But it's already too late to get out of his way.
5.
Why did Hollywood think it was a good idea to take Get Carter--Mike Hodges' classic 1971 study in gangster psychology--transplant the setting from decaying Tyneside to a present-day American metropolis, neuter the screenplay so that precious little of the original's acerbic humour and subtlety remain, and assign the lead role of Jack Carter, memorably taken by Michael Caine in the original, to Sylvester Stallone? No amount of Rocky-cum-Rambo routines can convince you that he's remotely inside the character, even though here Carter's psychotic side has been airbrushed out as he seeks revenge for the murder of his brother and rape of his niece.
Miranda Richardson is a wearily sympathetic Gloria, and Rachel Leigh Cook a not-too-bratish Doreen (is this actually used as an American name?). Mickey Rourke looks suitably wasted as loutish businessman Cyrus; Alan Cumming is an annoyingly smug computer whizz Kinnear (wouldn't you have pulled the trigger?), while Michael Caine loses all credibility for his cameo appearance as Cliff Brumby. Did he really need the cash?
On the DVD:Get Carter on disc is a classy but lifeless production. Extras include the theatrical trailer, cast and crew details, and six deleted scenes which are too brief to be more than off-cuts. Three spoken and nine subtitled languages are provided, and there's director Stephen Kay's pithy running commentary to enjoy. Even he, however, often sounds at a loss to explain just why the film was made. Thank goodness the original movie is also available on DVD. --Richard Whitehouse
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