| Get Carter | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Stephen Kay |
| Produced by | Mark Canton Neil Canton Elie Samaha |
| Written by | Novel: Ted Lewis Screenplay: David McKenna |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Miranda Richardson Rachael Leigh Cook Alan Cumming Mickey Rourke John C. McGinley Michael Caine |
| Music by | Tyler Bates |
| Cinematography | Mauro Fiore |
| Editing by | Jerry Greenberg |
| Studio | Morgan Creek Franchise Pictures |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 6, 2000 |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $63.6 million |
| Box office | $19,412,993 [1] |
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, and Rhona Mitra. Michael Caine, who starred in the original, plays a supporting role. The film was released by Warner Bros., which had recently acquired the distribution rights to the original.
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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 Ritchie's wife, Gloria (Richardson), and his niece Doreen (Cook), and investigates Ritchie's death after he realizes Ritchie 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 Ritchie managed. Brumby does not believe Jack's allegations of murder, but does tell him that Ritchie 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 Ritchie's daughter. Before he died, Ritchie was given the disc by Geraldine. Ritchie 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 Cyrus 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 Cyrus, losing at first only to return and beat Cyrus to a pulp. The fight ends with Jack holding a pistol to an unconscious Cyrus; the scene cuts abruptly and whether Carter kills Cyrus is unseen. He then confronts Kinnear, who says that all he told Cyrus to do was get the disc back from Ritchie, not kill him, and that it was Cyrus 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 meets Doreen one last time at Ritchie's grave. He is clean shaven, and explains to her that he has to go away for awhile. He tells her to remember that she is special, and they say their goodbyes. Carter is next seen getting in his car, and opening a map that leads back to Vegas.
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, less than the production budget of nearly $64 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]
The film was nominated for Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone) and Worst Remake or Sequel at the Golden Raspberry Awards in 2000.[13]
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