Get Carter

December 10, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 102 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Well, it’s better than Stop, Or My Mom Will Shoot! We love Sylvester Stallone, but he’s produced more than his fair share of stinkers, so we are always apprehensive about his movies. When he’s playing himself, being cool, blowing up stuff, shooting people and generally kicking ass, we tend to like his movies. When he strays too far from that formula, the results are often tough to sit through. Do you know anyone who has actually been able to watch the aforementioned Stop, Or My Mom Will Shoot! from beginning to end? If so, did they need treatment afterwards?

Get Carter

Fortunately, in Get Carter, Stallone plays the type of character we love to see him play. Jack Carter is in “Financial Services”. You see, when someone takes out a loan but forgets to make a few payments, Jack drops by to remind them about their debt. You could say he really pounds the reminder into their head so they do not forget again. This is one of those movies where the hero in the movie is actually a bad guy much like Mel Gibson’s Payback. The storyline here is that Jack’s brother has died, and he’s coming home to pay his respects, find out what happened and seek revenge.

The movie is a remake of an early 1970’s British film of the same name starring Michael Caine in the lead role. Caine is back for the remake, but obviously not playing the title character. I have never seen the original, so I can’t compare it, but then I doubt many people have as I had honestly never even heard of it until the promo’s for the remake started. The movie has some very modern characters in key roles including a computer geek billionaire along with other bad guys who are into things like the Internet, so I’m certain the story has at the very least been upgraded to be more contemporary.

Get Carter moves kinda slow in several spots, this is not fast paced non-stop action by any means. However, we do get a few quality ass whippings on screen, a bit of gun play and a couple of car chases. Plus we get to see Sly Stallone playing an ultra cool character. On the down side, in addition to moving a bit slow, some of the action sequences have some of that artsy fartsy Oliver Stone style editting that we hate with a passion. It just barely manages 3 stars from us. It’s entertaining, but certainly not without quite a few flaws.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Michael Caine, Mickey Rourke, Miranda Richardson, R, Rachael Leigh Cook, Sylvester Stallone, Theatrical