p e n g u i n d e v i l

Admittedly, I’m about the first to oppose movie re-makes anyway. Also, I do like Michael Caine and am generally fond of British crime movies… So, naturally, when they remade Get Carter 10 years ago starring Stallone in the Caine role, I was, well, not sceptical but, rather, hostile. . Of course, I never did see the remake and, most certainly, Stallone had earlier redeemed 15 years of crap (considering First Blood, or maybe even Nighthawks to be his last good film) with his great performance in the incredible Cop Land, but I don’t get the feeling that the respectability really returned, especially not putting him in the same league as Michael Caine. But, honestly, I had never seen (nor heard of) the Caine Original until the remake came out. So a week or so ago, I sat down to watch Get Carter for the first time and, well… It is not one that I’ll be keeping around.

The story was workable, some of the cinematography was quite good and Caine was good, but the generally weak acting of everyone else and the bad direction made it one for the mediocre book. Caine is a hoodlum whose brother has died and he shows up to find out who did it and seek his revenge. As one might imagine, Caine leaves a trail of naked ladies and corpses in his wake. I know that sounds good, and it takes place in a nice and grim urban backdrop (though the strange coals carts on the sea were my favorite), but the acting isn’t good, the lines are delivered half-hard-heartedly and the choreography (for the fight scenes) is really lame. It really just couldn’t keep my attention very well.