Get Carter (2000 film)

Plot

Mob enforcer Jack Carter returns home to Seattle when he learns that his brother, Ritchie, has been killed in a drunk driving accident. While he starts investigating Ritchie's death, his mob partner in Las Vegas, Con McCarty, covers for him with the mob boss, Fletcher. It also comes out that Carter has been having an affair with Fletcher's girlfriend, Audrey.

At his brother's funeral, Jack meets his niece, Doreen, and has a strained and emotional conversation with his brother's widow. He also speaks with Eddie, a friend and coworker of Ritchie's, and he also notices a beautiful woman, Geraldine, who has come to pay her respects. She is evasive and cryptic about how she knew Ritchie and what the extent of their relationship was. At the wake, Jack continues to question mourners and well-wishers about what happened to his brother, which draws the ire of Ritchie's widow. He also talks to Doreen while they sit smoking on the front stoop and she states that Ritchie rarely drank and would never have driven while intoxicated. Earlier at the funeral, Eddie also stated that Ritchie rarely drank and that he was most certainly not involved in illicit activities.

His first stop in his investigation is with loan shark Cliff Brumby, the owner of the club that Ritchie managed. However, Brumby claims that he does not believe Jack's allegations of foul play, but does tell him that Ritchie was having an affair with Geraldine, an associate of local boss Cyrus Paice.

Jack questions Paice, though he is unable to get any useful information from him. Jack follows Paice, who unknowingly leads him to Jeremy Kinnear, a wealthy computer mogul who had hired Cyrus to discreetly procure beautiful women for him and the parties he throws, so as to better preserve his "professional" and squeaky-clean image. However, Cyrus now manipulates and controls Kinnear and forces him to run Cyrus's pornographic websites, blackmailing him with the understanding that if the general public were to become aware of Kinnear's proclivities it would irrevocably damage his public persona. Although Carter cannot get any straight answers, he continues to pursue the truth, and he carefully examines the surveillance tapes from Brumby's club, looking for any sort of clue.

Jack discovers that Cyrus Paice was producing amateur porn movies in which Eddie and Geraldine would pick up different young girls, drug them and rape them. Jack watches one of these films and learns that Doreen was one of the victims. However, Paice and those who helped him make the video did not know that Doreen was Ritchie's daughter. Before he died, Ritchie was given the disc by Geraldine. Meanwhile, Ritchie was murdered as he was taking the disc to the police, with Paice having set it up to look like an accident.

After getting a call from Audrey, who breaks up with him, Con and a fellow gangster from Las Vegas track Jack down and confront him after Jack tells Fletcher that he is done with Las Vegas. After knocking both of the men out during a short and fierce fight in an elevator, Jack has a talk with Doreen about what happened in the video and comforts her, telling her she is a good person.

Intending to settle the score, Jack embarks on a path of vengeance. He gets a frantic, apologetic call from Geraldine, who tells him that she did know Doreen was Ritchie's daughter and that Cyrus is coming to kill her. After he finds Geraldine's body, Carter heads to Eddie's apartment to interrogate him. He demands to know why Eddie drugged and raped Doreen, as she trusted him as a friend. Eddie tells him that Cyrus is at a party at Kinnear's and Carter throws him off of the balcony to his death. Con and the other Vegas gangster have tracked down Carter outside of Eddie's apartment and a car chase ensues. The chase culminates in a game of chicken, which Carter wins when the car Con is in swerves and crashes violently, presumably killing the mobsters. At Kinnear's house, Carter confronts Cyrus, who tells Jack that he should be going after Kinnear, because Kinnear is the man behind Ritchie's murder. Cyrus starts to walk towards the glass doors and Jack attempts to hit him from behind, but Cyrus sees him in the reflection and ducks. Jack crashes through the doors, and is unable to recover as Cyrus then pummels him to the ground. However, Cyrus makes a comment that Jack's brother put up more of a fight than he did, thereby admitting that he was involved in his brother's death. Cyrus then walks away and joins some women on the busy dance floor.

Bloodied, Jack gets up and follows Cyrus to the dance floor for a second confrontation, stating "You should finish what you start." Cyrus agrees, and as it seems as though he is turning to walk away again but he tries to sucker punch Jack, but Jack floors him with one punch. Jack proceeds to brutally beat Cyrus as he is lying on the floor. Jack then pulls his pistol and points it directly at Cyrus's face. It seems as though Jack is going to pull the trigger and kill Cyrus, despite a room full of witnesses, but he changes his mind and leaves him bloody and unconscious, though he may be comatose or dead from the beating.

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 show Kinnear mercy.

Carter catches Brumby attempting to steal the disk from his rental car. Brumby admits that he was involved in the murder, and warns Jack that killing him will force him to run for the rest of his life. As Brumby is walking away Carter calls out to him, but Brumby says he won't turn around. Jack 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 now and explains to her that he has to go away for a while. He tells her to remember that she is special and they say their goodbyes. Carter is next seen getting into his car, and opening a map that leads to Las Vegas.

Cast

Reception

The film received a lowly 12% favorable rating among the critics tracked by Rotten Tomatoes.

Among positive reviews, JoBlo.com praised "the sharp turn given by Sly Stallone, its groovy tunes, and its generally dark and gritty nature." Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDWire called the film "a stimulating visual showcase of stylish film making that keeps a viewer's attention." 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".

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." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said the film is "not a terrible movie" but "too routine for its own good." Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle said that "the film itself is a muddle, but what is good is Stallone". Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film "is murkier than it needs to be, through no fault of Stallone's".

Among the negative reviews, Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film "a useless remake." Elvis Mitchell 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". 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".

The film was nominated for Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone) and Worst Remake or Sequel at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards in 2000.

Home media

DVD was released in Region 1 on February 13, 2001, and Region 2 on 24 June 2002, it was distributed by Warner Home Video.