Review of Get Carter, Oct. 12, 2000

Oct. 12, 2000
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Get Carter
(Rated R)

By Amy Diaz
HippoPress.com

Sylvester Stallone plays - surprise! - a tough guy character in Get Carter, a seamy underbelly/prodigal brother makes good movie.

Jack Carter (Stallone) is muscle for a non-specific criminal element, enforcing the law of the lawless or something. When his younger brother is killed, he goes to visit his brother's widow (Miranda Richardson) and daughter Doreen (Rachel Leigh Cook). Convinced that his teatotaler brother didn't die of drinking and driving, Carter follows a trail of unsavory characters from his brother's mistress to a thug (Mickey Rourke) to a software bazillionare (Alan Cumming). All the while, his former employer is trying to track Carter down because either (a) he wants Carter back at work or (b) he suspects Carter of sleeping with his girlfriend. Or both. The movie never makes this part very clear.

Get Carter is mostly about chasing and fighting and chasing and fighting and occasionally some shooting. The big mystery behind the death of Carter's brother becomes somewhat obvious as the movie goes on but the obviousness doesn't make it logical.

Where tension is missing from the actual story (which is damn near everywhere), the movie tries to add it with a bunch of skewed camera angles or quick zoom-ins. From the music to the gray-and-blue lighting to the highly stylized photography, I get the sense that there was an intensive post-production effort to juice up the movie. Commendable, but not terribly effective.

For someone who is not strong on annunciation, Stallone is not bad in Get Carter. He has a few funny moments - most of them sight gags about his John Gotti/Regis Philbin-style silk suits. He has a few moments that can be generously interpreted as acting. He does a credible job of being awkward yet caring in his scenes with Cook.

For all the high-energy stunts that fill the screen time of Get Carter, the movie feels oddly flat. Without strong performances to carry the story, Get Carter is a sporty car that just won't run.