Get Carter (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Train Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Stephen Kay (Director) Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Get Carter 1971 International Trailer Biographies-Cast & Crew Easter Egg-The Art Of War Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	97:43
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (65:20)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Stephen T. Kay
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Rachael Leigh Cook Miranda Richardson Alan Cumming Mickey Rourke Michael Caine
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Tyler Bates

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, heavily until the producers complained
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mildly
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This 2000 production of Get Carter received at the very best a lukewarm critical reception, and I guess that comparisons to the original 1971 production that starred Michael Caine were inevitable. Considering that time is taking its toll upon Sylvester Stallone, it's really no surprise that he is making attempts to expand the range of the roles he has portrayed in recent years. Cop Land is a good example of this approach, where he basically surrounded himself with a first-rate supporting cast and a well-written script, possibly to hide the lack of range that doomed his more comedic attempts at range expansion to failure. Anyone who knows about Stallone's history will know that his limitations as an actor are hardly his fault, however, and I vastly prefer anything Sylvester Stallone has made in the last ten years to anything Arnold Schwarzenegger has (End Of Days, anyone?).

    Get Carter, according to Stephen Kay and David McKenna is quite an unusual beast, and one that copped a real bum rap at the box office, at that. The film begins with Jack Carter (Sylvester Stallone) chasing down a bad debt in Las Vegas and, naturally, proceeding to beat the almighty crap out of the debtor, during which time we learn that Jack's brother, Richard, has been killed. The official explanation is that he died as the result of driving under the influence, but while Jack hasn't seen his brother in the past five years, he knows his brother well enough to know this would never happen. After getting something of a cold reception from his sister-in-law, Gloria (Miranda Richardson) and his niece, Doreen (Rachel Leigh Cook), Jack proceeds to investigate his brother's death. Jack's first port of call is the office of Cliff Brumby (Michael Caine), who claims that he had nothing to do with Richard's death. We soon find out that Richard's marriage wasn't going as well as one would hope for, and that he had an extra-marital lover by the name of Geraldine (Rhona Mitra).

    Unfortunately, Geraldine just happens to be mixed up with some unsavoury types who ply their trade selling pornography over the Internet, and they have a little secret that they would kill anyone to keep. There are a number of extremely nasty characters making up this porn ring, but the most memorable one is Cyrus Paice (Mickey Rourke), a shady character who tries to dissuade Jack Carter from investigating him by any means he can. It seems that Richard had a recordable compact disc containing a film that the porn peddlers would rather the viewing public didn't get to see, and he was killed for it. Naturally, Richard hid this disc in a place where nobody but Jack would know to look, and when he does view the disc's contents, he gets a shock that sends him on a quest to kill everyone who has any position of power within this organisation. Meanwhile, Les Fletcher (Garwin Sanford), Carter's boss back in Las Vegas, is not happy about Carter's extended leave of absence, and has dispatched a number of thugs to bring him back into line, resulting in some nice action sequences.

    Okay, so I haven't seen the original Get Carter, but I can tell you that this film definitely didn't deserve the flaming arrows that were shot at it by critics all over the world. Sylvester Stallone is well in his element as a gangster who wants to walk away from the business and do something right for once in his life, and Rachel Leigh Cook is absolutely sublime as the niece who most needs his help. Granted, this film doesn't have anything particularly poignant or relevant to say, but those of you who, like me, prefer action films with a little bit of intelligence will have little to complain about here.

Video

    Get Carter is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced. It misses out on being reference quality by such a tiny margin that anyone viewing it on a screen of less than eighty centimetres won't notice the difference.

    The transfer is sharp enough to perform field surgery with, in spite of numerous sequences that take places in extremely dingy locations, and some rather unusual editing methods that, as Stephen Kay explains in his commentary, are designed to get the viewer further into Carter's head. One thing you will notice about this transfer is that it is mostly quite dark, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the brightness level was deliberately turned down in order to emphasise the darkness of the central characters' lives. As a result of this, the shadow detail is a little below what you'd normally expect from a film of such recent vintage, but it is still very good. There is no low-level noise in the film at all.

    The colour scheme in this film is mostly very muted and drab, although Stephen Kay also explains in the commentary that some sequences, such as the Las Vegas introduction, were deliberately oversaturated to give a specific look and feel to the film. The colours represent the mood of the story so impeccably, and the transfer renders them so faithfully, that anyone who complains about them should be adjusting their display unit.

    MPEG artefacts were not a problem at all for this transfer, with the bitrate of the transfer being consistently high and the source material in such pristine shape that you'd be hard pressed to pick any difference between the uncompressed master and this transfer at all. Film-to-video artefacts weren't really a problem, either, although there were some trivial touches of aliasing here and there. Given that I only found four noteworthy instances of aliasing (at 20:44, 53:14, 56:07, and 66:12) in the entire feature, I think this is quite an improvement upon the last Roadshow disc I looked at. Film artefacts consisted of a singular blemish on the picture during a car chase, and that was about it as far as noticeable ones were concerned. I might have missed one or two others, but I doubt that casual viewers are really going to care about whatever miniscule blemishes they might find.

    This disc is RSDL-formatted, with the layer change taking place just before the end of Chapter 18 at 65:20. The pause is a little noticeable, and I can't help but think that it would have been a little better if they'd placed it a second or two later, but it sure beats the hell out of having to get up and turn the disc over.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Again, the audio transfer would certainly be of reference quality if not for the tiniest of flaws that I am sure most casual viewers won't be too concerned about. Still, I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't mention them, so here goes.

    There are two soundtracks on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a bitrate of 448 kilobits per second, and an audio commentary by director Stephen Kay in Dolby Digital 2.0 with the unusual bitrate of 320 kilobits per second. I listened to both of these soundtracks in their entirety, glad once again that Roadshow don't choose to overload their discs with dubs that are superfluous to requirements.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, even with the natural slur in Sylvester Stallone's voice that he can't help having anyway. Every line in the film is clearly enunciated, whether it be a quick two-word shout or part of an extended, tender exchange designed to further the story. There are no problems with audio sync, and some of the instances of looping that are pointed out in the commentary were quite a revelation to me. Unfortunately, a brief but noticeable pop was heard at 26:58.

    The music in this film is a strange beast, with an interesting combination of contemporary numbers by a handful of radio stars, and a score by Tyler Bates that elevates the film to a whole new level. The score music is quite driving and augments the mood of each scene quite well without taking away from the dialogue and the on-screen action. Much of the score also has a repetitive, synthesiser-based feel, making it hard to distinguish from the contemporary numbers, but this is a rare instance of such music actually feeling and sounding like music. The car chase sequences are augmented by jazzy numbers that give them an almost Blues Brothers sort of feel, which is probably the highest compliment I can think of for car chase scoring.

    The surround channels are aggressively utilised to support all manner of sound effects throughout the film, with even the extended dialogue sequences getting a wide, immersive sound stage. There were two especially great uses of the surround channels, both of them car chase sequences, at 36:40 and 74:10, which used all six channels to put the viewer right in the middle of the action. Even though these two moments are the best examples of the surround field doing its work, it keeps doing its work from the first shot to the very last. The subwoofer was also quite aggressively utilised to support the music, the cars, and other such sounds, which it did constantly without calling any attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is themed around the film, rather heavily animated, and it is 16x9 Enhanced. Navigation is a breeze, and the presentation sets a mood without being annoying.

Dolby Digital Trailer - Train

    Well, at least it isn't the City trailer.

Audio Commentary - Stephen Kay (Director)

    Director-only commentaries often raise alarm bells in my mind, primarily because they tend to run out of steam due to the director having nobody to bounce his energy off, but this one isn't too bad, considering that factor. This commentary is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 with the unusual bitrate of 320 kilobits per second, and the original English soundtrack mixed in at a lower level. Stephen Kay reveals a lot of interesting insights into the logistics of shooting, casting choices such as why Mickey Rourke was cast in that particular role, what Michael Caine had to say about Sylvester Stallone's suitability for his role, and then he even points out subtle continuity faults and product placements. Although he pauses a fair amount of the time, Stephen Kay manages to give an insight into the film that is utterly priceless.

Deleted Scenes

    This is a collection of deleted scenes presented as a singular featurette, clocking in at exactly eight minutes. Each deleted scene is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 Enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The picture quality of these scenes is very ordinary. The footage included in this featurette doesn't exactly add anything to the film, and it would have been nice to see some of the other footage that Stephen Kay refers to in his commentary.

Theatrical Trailer

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded sound, this two-minute and twenty second trailer makes the serious error of selling this film as being purely about action. It therefore reveals next to nothing about the film, except the fact that Michael Caine makes an appearance in it, which is hardly a revelation by now.

Trailer - Get Carter 1971 International Trailer

    This two minute and thirty-three second trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It is not a particularly interesting trailer, although it does do a good job of selling Michael Caine as a professional killer.

Biographies - Cast & Crew

    Biographies for Sylvester Stallone, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Leigh Cook, Mickey Rourke, Alan Cumming, Michael Caine, and director Stephen Kay are provided under this submenu. Interestingly, Stallone's biography is not afraid to mention film appearances such as Party At Kitty And Stud's, in spite of its comfortable positioning at number twenty on the IMDB's hundred worst films of all time. Richardson's biography lists Eat The Rich (a film I would love to see on Region 4 DVD) as one of her film appearances in 1987, and whomever put Rachel Leigh Cook's biography together couldn't get the spelling of her name consistent from screen to screen.

Easter Egg - The Art Of War Trailer

    From the Special Features menu, press right and you should see a highlighted pistol icon. When you do, press enter, and the trailer for The Art Of War should begin playing. Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded sound, this two minute and fifteen second trailer does little to convince me that I need to see yet another film that steals an idea from John Woo.

    The Region 4 and Region 1 versions of this disc are fundamentally identical, although the Region 1 version is packaged in a Snapper case, making our version the version of choice.

    Get Carter is a far better film than it has been given credit for, and comparisons to the original 1971 version are unfair because this version has clearly been made with a whole different mentality and goal in mind. Give it a chance, and you'll discover an action film with a brain and a heart, which is definitely better than anything I've seen Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal put out lately.

    The video transfer is excellent, and almost reference quality.

    The audio transfer is also excellent, and also almost reference quality.

    The extras are limited in quantity, but their quality is respectable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall