Should I Watch..? 'Get Carter' (2000)

Get Carter is a crime drama film released in 2000 and is a remake of the British 1971 film of the same name. Directed by Stephen Kay, the film relocates to the US and follows a mob enforcers who returns to his home town to investigate the strange death of his estranged younger brother. The movie stars Sylvester Stallone, Miranda Richardson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Mickey Rourke, Alan Cumming and Michael Caine - who famously starred in the original film in the lead role. The film was roundly panned by critics and the film struggled at the box office, limping its way to global takings of just $19.4 million, way below its budget. This wouldn't have been helped by the fact that it was denied a theatrical release in the UK or the fact that the film was nominated for two of the infamous Razzie Awards, given to the worst films of the year.

Jack Carter is a hulking mob enforcer working in Las Vegas in the employ of shady casino boss Les Fletcher. After his younger brother Ritchie is killed in Seattle, Jack takes the opportunity to return to his hometown for the first time in years after feeling that something is not quite right. After all, Ritchie wasn't known for doing anything illegal and certainly wasn't the type to wind up killed in a drink-driving accident. While Jack's presence unnerves his widowed sister-in-law Gloria and teenage niece Doreen, his partner Con works hard trying to cover for Jack's absence in Vegas - with little success.

Jack soon discovers that Ritchie's death is indeed far more convoluted than it appeared. He meets a mysterious woman called Geraldine at Ritchie's funeral who is evasive when questioned and soon meets the owner of the club where Ritchie worked, ex-pat loan shark Cliff Brumby. As Jack digs deeper in the circumstances surrounding Ritchie's death, he soon finds himself stirring up trouble wherever he goes. Just what is the true story and will Jack live long enough to find out what it is?

The original Get Carter was a grim and brutal take on life in the criminal underworld at the time in Britain, a far cry from his earlier performance in The Italian Job. But it had a killer soundtrack and set the tone for UK gangster films ever since whereas this remake has all but been forgotten already. It feels more like it's attempting to replicate a more American film-noir than its inspiration, at least if the complexity of the plot is anything to go by. Despite its relatively short run time, you'll need your wits about you if you stand a hope of understanding what's going on because the film doesn't reveal its plot all that easily. It's far too busy dishing out Dutch angles, funky tracks and badass characters to bother with things like exposition or cohesion.

Stallone certainly looks the part, ever present in a sharp suit and sunglasses that he has no problem wearing indoors without worrying what people think of him. He grunts and mumbles his way through the film as he always does but at least Jack Carter has something a bit darker about him than Sly's usual roles. In the right hands, this could have been something far more interesting and Sly does his best in the role. However, he is upstaged by a young Leigh Cook as troubled teenager Doreen who feels far more genuine a character than almost anyone else on screen. I also have to credit Richardson and Cumming for employing a respectable American accent, something Caine is perhaps wise to leave alone. But it's a difficult film to really enjoy - the film is full of bad people doing bad things, reminiscent of Mel Gibson's equally grim thriller Payback from the year before.

• Caine's cameo was planned to be for the one scene and only done as a favour to his friend Stallone, who had worked with him on Escape To Victory. But he proved so popular in test screenings that he was called back to film additional scenes and his part was expanded. He still managed to film all his scenes in just a couple of days.
• Kay clashed with Franchise Pictures (who financed the project) over the film's tone. They wanted a traditional action film whereas Kay wanted something more like an 'anti-revenge' picture. The original script, which Stallone approved of, was much more violent than the finished film.
• Rourke's inclusion in the cast was controversial, due to his off-screen reputation at the time. But Stallone was insistent, paying a portion of Rourke's salary himself so the production wouldn't lose money if Rourke proved unreliable. Such fears were unfounded, however - he was professional and punctual during the shoot, which prompted Franchise Pictures to cast him in their next film The Pledge.

Unfortunately, even this film's staunchest defenders will struggle to convince you that it's that great a movie. The filmmakers have assembled an impressive cast but few remain invested enough in the project to give a memorable performance. As I said earlier, the film's plot is very hard to follow and isn't helped by a pounding soundtrack played at a volume level that's far too intrusive. Dialogue, when you can hear it, isn't all that great, with Rourke in particular getting some poor lines to deliver. The most enjoyable member of the cast is probably McGinley but unfortunately, he feels like a more foul-mouthed version of his Dr Cox character from Scrubs and for fans of the show, it kinda takes away any menace he hoped to project.

The film looks and feels very much a project of its time with excessive editing, crash zooms and quirky angles. It seems like a desperate attempt to hold your attention but this doesn't work because this is one of the most glacial, dull films I've seen in a long time. Nothing seems to happen for ages and when the film does burst into life with an all-too-brief action scene, it still manages to underwhelm. Car chases are repetitive and uninspired, fight scenes are finished far too quickly and they don't contribute to the picture all that much either. Personally, I blame the inexperience of director Kay who suddenly found himself helming a remake of one of his favourite films (apparently) and was blinded by the budget as this remains his biggest project to date. What's frustrating is that I believe there is a good film in here somewhere. It just needed a better director, a more interested cast, a less hyperactive editor and a tighter script.

It's important to remember that this has almost nothing to do with the original other than loosely following the plot. But even if you can separate the two, this version of Get Carter is nowhere near as enjoyable or memorable as its predecessor. It's too confusing, slow and underwhelming with a disjointed look, distracting music and a washed-out look to it that makes it hard to invest in. My advice is to stick with the original, which is punchier and far more memorable than this dross.

Great For: slipping through your memory, showing us the non-Frasier side of Seattle, Rachael Leigh Cook's fledging career

Not So Great For: fans of the original, anyone hoping for a quality thriller, boosting careers

Get Carter is one of a number of middling efforts that plagued Stallone's career at the time, which was slowly being ground down into repetitive and unmemorable efforts like Daylight, Driven and D-Tox. Other than a brief reminder of his talents in Cop Land, his career was stuck in neutral until he revived his famous role in 2006 in Rocky Balboa. Since then, he has largely remained close to his previous successes as he brought back Rambo in 2008's Rambo while uniting with countless other faded action stars in the long-shuffling Expendables series. While questions abound about the quality of these films, it has kept Stallone relevant in a Hollywood that has passed many stars of his style behind.

Remakes are often a tricky proposition to sell to audiences, as Disney are discovering with their current obsession of remaking their animated films into live-action affairs. One of my least favourite is the 2003 version of The Italian Job which craps over the cherished memory of the 1969 film by being a bland, Americanised heist film with little of the charm of the first film. And this is part of the problem - US remakes of foreign films often lack many of the cultural nods and significance of the films they are remaking. It also doesn't help that these films are made purely for financial reasons instead of creating anything new. But occasionally, they manage to make a better remake - Three Men And A Baby is considered far better than the French original, as is James Cameron's bombastic action comedy True Lies. The recipe for making a decent remake is rather intangible but surely a more experienced director than Kay (in only his second outing as director) would have made a better job than this.