I walked into Get Carter with high expectations. However, the slow pacing, the lack of action, and a mid-range plot makes it a passable, but not great, action film.
Jack Carter (Stallone) is a professional thug. He gets paid to remind people of promises they've made when they've forgotten them. He does so by being brutally vicious, taking things "to the next level." When he realises that his brother's death wasn't the accident that it was portrayed to be, he returns home to Seattle to finally do something right for a change. Everyone's a suspect: Cliff Bumby (Michael Caine), his brother's employer; Cyrus Paice (Mickey Rourke), Carter's counterpart who has a thriving business in Internet porn; and Jeremy Kinnear (Alan Cumming) a spoilt billionaire computer hacker who has gotten himself into trouble. Slowly Carter must unravel the mystery as to who really killed his brother, aided by his niece Doreen (Rachel Leigh Cook) who is the key to solving this puzzle.
The pacing as I said is pretty slow---even the car chases seem pretty mellow. There is never a sense that Carter's in trouble, yet at the same time, unlike in films like Rambo or Rocky, it is not clear that Carter's a good guy to cheer for. The bleached look the film gives to Seattle is pretty cool, as is the music featuring artists such as Paul Oakenfold, Delerium, and Moby.
The violence in the movie appeared to bother people, but it did absolutely nothing for me. I've often argued that all these movies have completely densistised me to on-screen violence. However, it seems the more desensitised I get to movies, the more sensitive I am to real-world violence. I could easily watch the most violent movies and not even flinch today, yet a news report about the fighting in Israel (violence is the ultimate exercise in human stupidity) can literally bring me to tears.