I Totally Get Carter

Rating: C
Never in the most deranged parts of my mind would I ever have imagined that Sylvester Stallone would be involved in the same film as Michael Caine, but in the 2000 film Get Carter that is just what we get. This film, directed by Stephen Kay, is based on a book by Ted Lewis called Jack’s Return Home and a remake of the 1971 film of the same name. Not having read the novel or seen the original, I went into watching the film with a total open mind, not expecting the film to meet any preset requirements that I had arranged in my mind. From the very beginning of the film I got overwhelming feeling that I was going to be highly under impressed because of the other recent film choices that Stallone has been making, but I was wrong.

The story of the film revolves around Jack Carter (Sylvester Stallone) returning home from being the major muscle for some sort of mob or casino in Las Vegas to find out about the exact nature of his brother’s death. The details of his job are never truly revealed. The only hint that we get about his job is at the very beginning of the film when he is beating up someone alongside his co-worker, Con McCarty, played by John C. McGinley, who throughout the entire film came off as the exact same character as Dr. Cox from Scrubs. Also, this secondary plot seems to serve no purpose but to hype up the action throughout the film. We never really care when we find out that Carter’s lover, Audrey (Gretchen Mol) will no longer have anything to do with him but will rather stay with her boyfriend named Fletcher (Garwin Sanford) who is Jack’s boss. Because there is little to no focus on Jack dealing with his job and the life he lives in Las Vegas, we don’t really break down and cry over the fact that he is losing his job, his friendship with Con, and his lover. All we really want to see dealt with is how he is going to find out who killed his brother and what he will do when he does.

The only form of sympathy that we see from Jack Carter is when he is around his niece, Doreen who is played by Rachael Leigh Cook. He feels that he must serve as the father figure now that his brother is dead. I’m not going to go into the twists and turns of the film and reveal the entire plot for you but in shear terms of story, the film is great. The problem comes in when we start talking about the technical aspects of the actors as storytellers. This film is very strange because we get two extreme opposites when speaking of acting ability. There are great actors like Michael Caine, who plays a very important character even though he does not get very much screen time, as well as Mickey Rourke, who becomes an eerily great bad guy who disgusts you at the same time. Then we have Stallone who should have retired years ago from the movie business and Rachael Leigh Cook who should stick to movies that don’t have the adult feel that this one does. Cook simply feels miscast in this film, although I understand where she is coming from in terms of her acting. Another positive note to the acting in this film comes from Alan Cumming who plays an extremely wealthy yet very young business mogul. Personally, I have always enjoyed the talents that Cumming has and this film is another instance that I can tack up on my mental cork board.

The best aspect of the film is the cinematography, the entire movie is given a dark tint that makes you feel like it just got finished raining. This is appropriate considering the film is set in Seattle and revolves around some very dark subject matter, so it does not feel unnecessary. Also, there are some shots that stuck into my mind once the credits began to roll. By far the very best part of the entire process of watching this mediocre film was the car chase in which Carter is running from Con who is there to bring Jack back whether he wants to or not. It is nowhere near the same level of great car chases like in The French Connection or Ronin, but what makes it the best part of the film is the audacity to use the camera in a different manner than other chase sequences. The most memorable shot is near the end of the chase when the camera follows Carter’s vehicle by remaining in one place and basically doing a back flip to follow it. Now I am aware that this has been done before and will be done again but what it makes this so great is that it is a physical representation of how Carter’s world is now completely upside down from how it was before this chase. This is the shot that makes the viewer realize how screwed up this character is now and how sucky this situation really is.

One of the aspects that keep this movie from becoming great apart from the acting is the music. The film was filled with what seemed like truly horrible rave music that was purely arranged to give the audience a headache. I’m not sure what was going through the director’s head when he heard those sounds that made him decide to go with it, but it was a terrible mistake.

Stephen Kay’s directing seems to be amateurish but also has instances that are original and interesting and keeps the viewers in their seats. I particularly enjoyed a segment in which Carter throws someone off of a building but we never actually see him push the person off the edge. All we get to see is Carter pushing him around and scaring the hell out of him then there is a cut to Carter walking out of the building onto the street and we see the top of a car caved in with the person laying dead in the middle of the carnage. Kay doesn’t give us the violence directly but instead lets us have only what we need to allow the story to progress.

In all, the film has whispers of greatness but ultimately fails to live up to its potential echoing the ability of the director. This only proves that great directors can only make great movies. Kay has talent but doesn’t seem sure of how to use it with confidence and doesn’t know where his niche is in the film industry. I would suggest watching this film if you are interested in seeing how to use a camera but not for examples of great acting.

In Awe of the Scar Tissue

Rating: B+
How many drugs can a rock star do? How many relapses can a person go through before getting it through their head that this is not the way to go? These are the kinds of questions I found myself asking while reading Anthony Keidis’ autobiography, Scar Tissue. The 400+ page book was an excitingly binding ride filled with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The star of the Red Hot Chili Peppers discusses his personal history and how he and his friends rose to fame as the in-your-face funk punks that they are known as.

It should not be forgotten that this book is solely about this individual’s journey through his own life and not just one of the band members talking about the struggles they had on their way to stardom. In fact, Keidis makes it clear throughout the book that he didn’t really care whether or not the band made it as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry, he just wanted to jam out with his good buddies and share the love with the world hoping to be embraced.

Almost the entire first half of the star’s account discusses his life before his career and how he gets involved with drugs at the tender age of eleven. He talks about being born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and moving to L.A. to be closer to his father who just so happens to be extremely involved in trafficking drugs to celebrities. This is an absolute recipe for disaster for most kids but not for Anthony. He takes what he has grown up around and with the help of his friends creates some of the most cutting edge music of the eighties and ends up dominating the charts throughout the nineties.

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I had my reservations about reading it because I didn’t think that it would be all that interesting. It seemed like a rock star that just wanted to tell the general public about the hundreds of girls that he has conquered. He made me sit down and just read the opening hook and without a second thought; I bought my ticket and took the ride. The writing is very well done and constantly keeps you moving the entire time you are reading. Whether the book was ghost written by the co-writer, Larry Sloman, is another matter that I am not all that sure about. However, just from the poetic skills that Keidis has in his songs, he could have just used Sloman as a consultant. Whatever the case may be, the writing is very solid with the exception that the use of the word “and” after each word in a list can get to be very old very quick. Unfortunately, that happens a lot. Another unfortunate occurrence is that there were a good number of typos and very obvious mistakes that should have been caught before sending the book out into the world.

One of the major themes that the book tries very hard to get across is Keidis’ cautioning of the use of drugs. He even gives tips on how to deal with those problems should the reader be experiencing them. Keidis is very clear about his caring for other people and easily admits his own faults in some of the situations that have been integral in his life. The book also spares no details on certain sexual exploits that happen very often throughout the book.

There is a great amount of detail that the book is written with that makes you feel like you are right there in the audience, sitting on the bed with him in rehab, or in the studio listening to the raw cuts of the songs. What I like especially about the book is that there are a few sections of pictures that act as a sort of photo album for the times that have already happened and the times that are about to occur soon into the reading. Also, the lyrics from some of the songs are planted in occurrence with the time that they were written letting us see what inspired him to write certain things in his songs. This makes you feel like you are actually inside of the music and every time you hear the song afterward you know what was going through Anthony’s mind when he wrote it thus bringing you closer.

Most biographies are written well into the person’s life but not Anthony’s. He writes more than 400 pages worth of his life when he is only in his mid to late 30s. I would love to see a sequel to this book written just to get the other half of his life that is so mesmerizing. If you have not read this fantastic book, I highly recommend that you go out and buy it. Don’t borrow it from a friend or go to the library. Buy it; it is very much worth it even though there are a few errors in terms of editing.