I watch more movies: Blow, Get Carter (2000)

And tell you about them! Short take: Blow, starring Johnny Depp as one of the first big American drug dealers in the early ’70s, was worth seeing; Get Carter, starring Sylvester Stallone, is a remake of the 1971 British original and you’re much better off seeing the original.

Based on the life of George Jung, Blow tells the story of how his father’s business failures but strength of heart combine with his mother’s obession with money and status first push Depp’s character to the top of the drug world and then off to it’s depths. An associate of Pablo Escobar, leader and visionary of the original Medellin cocaine cartel, Jung is so flush at first that the cash generated is literally bursting out of his house. But as one might expect, the greed of partners and Mr. Lawman’s relentless pursuit (Jung is busted five years after retiring from the business) take us to the necessary denouement. Depp is very strong in this character and Ray Liotta surprisingly good as his loving father but Penelope Cruz has little heft to her part other than making the picture pretty. Jordi Molla in his American film debut portrays Diego Delgado, who partners with Jung and then betrays him; Molla is fine in this part, as I never really trusted him. Ted Demme, who has previously made mostly documentaries, delivers the goods (so to speak) with strong, developed characters, good pacing, and visuals well-matched to the plot.

Update 5/3/01 Salon has a pretty good article on Depp and his emerging career. “Even more so than many of his peers, Depp has gone out of his way to work with bright, often idiosyncratic, directors, among them Burton, Roman Polanski, Jim Jarmusch and Terry Gilliam.”

Get Carter was probably not a bad choice for a remake, if you want to remake a film. The original had a definite critical cache but very limited audience awareness (that is, it did about $5 at the box office in original release and is rarely, if ever, shown on American TV), the plot is not standard Hollywoodese, and a very strong title role for a tough guy actor. Much of the original film is reused in this version–character names, script fragments, visuals (such as lots of rain and the opening train sequence under the credits)–but the original ending was very dark and, unfortunately, was tossed out. In this version, Stallone plays a mob accounts payable collector in Vegas whose bartender brother back in their working class hometown suddenly dies in an uncharacteristic drunk driving accident. The brothers haven’t spoken or been close in years but Carter (Stallone) insists on going home for the funeral and a lookaround despite some very heavy warnings and orders from his boss not to go. Director Stephen Kay, in his first major film, goes MTV artsy and that, along with the changed ending, make this film a failure compared to the original. Michael Caine, who played Carter in that version, does his usual strong job in a major supporting role here.