| HugeReviews.com
Reviews:
Stallone
Noir: Get Carter
by
Christian De Matteo
Super
I’ve been a Stallone (Rambo, Rocky, Cop
Cop
Land) fan since I was a little kid.
Somewhere in my house are photos of an 11
year old me with a big-ass toy Rambo gun, a
headband and no shirt, sporting my actual
stomach scars that make me look much like I did in fact live through Rambo
III (remember that great popping noise as he
stuck the bullet in the whole in his stomach to
clean it?).
Oscar,
I think, proved that Sly could even do comedy
(and speak clearly) and Cop
Land
showcased a much-underrated acting ability.
I seriously believe Stallone is an
excellent actor whose fallen prey to one of the
worst cases of typecasting Hollywood’s ever
done. People
forget that this is the guy who wrote
Rocky (an Oscar award winning film) as well as The
Lords of Flatbush,
Cobra
and Driven.
He’s not a big brute but he can play
one on TV.
Get
Carter
should have been another strong, strong reminder
of all this for Hollywood and the American
public, but no one saw the damn thing.
Well, this is a real shame because Get
Carter is a very solid film that cannot be
considered an action movie.
This is a Noir Drama, with some damn exciting parts and two great car chases.
Rachel Leigh Cook plays his niece and the chemistry
between the two of them is phenomenal, one roof
top scene in particular that will hit you right
in the gut.
Writer David McKenna provides Sly with a
scene of deep and painful emotion between an
older uncle and young niece, and Stallone plays
it so well that you forget he is indeed acting.
McKenna also does a very brave thing by
writing “stupid” dialogue, which is totally
intentional and fits the characters that say it.
For example, when nerdy gazillionaire
Alan Cumming utters the always-terrible phrase
“I’ve got more money than God,” as painful
as it is to hear someone actually say that, it
fits him perfectly because he is cocky, arrogant
and immature
enough to really say that to another person.
McKenna does this throughout, and it all
works.
Director Stephen Kay plays the camera to represent
Carter’s inner workings and emotions
symbolically throughout, and does this so
skillfully that it works every time.
Watch out for the upside down car driving
off. The film is perfectly stylized, never over doing it like The
Limey did frequently just to show off, but
just enough to make his point without extra
verbal exposition.
Throw in Mickey Rourke (Rumble
Fish) as a sleazebag (always perfect
casting), Miranda Richardson as the bereaved
wife of Carter’s dead brother and Michael
Caine as Carter’s brother’s boss and you
have a fine, intriguing, exciting, rewatchable
crime film with and incredible performance by
the great Sylvester Stallone.
|
