Get Carter isn’t Sylvester Stallone’s worst movie (that would probably be a toss up between Judge Dredd and Cobra), but it is disappointing considering the film’s potential. With an excellent cast and good production values, Get Carter looks as though it could be a slick and suspenseful thriller in the same vein as Heat or The Professional. Instead, it consists of a sloppy story that is full of gaping plot holes that makes little sense in the end.

Stallone plays Jack Carter, a Las Vegas mob enforcer whose brother in Seattle is reportedly killed in a car accident. However, Carter suspects foul play and travels to Seattle to investigate his death. The convoluted plot revolves around the owner of a club (Michael Caine), a millionaire computer tycoon (Alan Cumming), and one of Jack’s dubious old acquaintances (Mickey Rourke). Playing his brother’s wife and daughter are Miranda Richardson and Rachel Leigh Cook, respectively. There is also a woman named Audrey (Gretchen Mol, uncredited), who seems to be Carter’s love interest back in Las Vegas, but that is never fully explained and we only see them interacting during telephone conversations. With such an exceptional cast, you would think that Get Carter would have been a much better film than it is. Unfortunately, the script does not give them much to work with, and the result is a stylish-looking film that lacks substance and a story that leaves a lot of loose ends.

I had hoped that the deleted scenes provided as extras might give some insight into the film and fill in some of the unexplained elements of the plot. Sadly, these scenes do little to flesh out the plot or explain the motivation of the characters. The only other extras are two trailers (including one from the original 1971 version of the film), cast and crew biographies, and a director’s audio commentary track.

If it were not for the outstanding audio quality of the soundtrack, I would have lost interest in Get Carter far sooner than I did. The overall sound of this film can best be described as subtle, but still very involving. The surround channels are used mostly for ambience with relatively few explosions, gunshots, or other effects in the rear hemisphere of the room. The front soundstage is expansive with excellent use of the three channels to spread out the well-recorded music. Of special note is the quality of the dialogue that is clear and intelligible, but also very natural sounding. Dialogue is also not limited to the center channel. Sometimes voices can be heard from offscreen conversations and even from the surrounds during crowd scenes. This soundtrack would not be considered reference quality, but I thoroughly enjoyed its well-crafted, atmospheric quality. The video quality of Get Carter is also very good. Although much of the film looks dreary and quite dark because it was filmed in Seattle during the winter, there is still plenty of detail in these dark scenes with deep blacks and good delineation of outlines and shadows.