Sylvester Stallone Felt His Big Crime Flop With 11% On Rotten Tomatoes Was Underrated

When Sylvester Stallone was tricked by his longtime rival Arnold Schwarzenegger into starring in 1992's "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot," he likely thought that was the lowest he would ever fall. But by the end of that decade, things were looking pretty dire, and Sly found himself in an ill-fated remake that helped hammer another nail in the actor's coffin (before he rose from the dead with 2006's excellent "Rocky Balboa").

In an era in which Disney can't stop making live-action remakes laden with uncanny valley-CGI monstrosities, there are, believe it or not, many remakes that are actually better than the original movies on which they're based. "The Bourne Identity," for example, was a TV movie before it became the seminal Matt Damon-starring actioner that maintains a lasting influence on the genre even today. From the new "Planet of the Apes" series to "The Maltese Falcon," Hollywood has proved that remakes don't always need to be cynical and redundant, and that sometimes they can improve upon existing films.

Unfortunately, 2000's "Get Carter" is not one of those movies. The 1971 film of the same name, which itself was based on the Ted Lewis' novel "Jack's Return Home," has become known as one of Britain's greatest contributions to cinema, despite critics' initially blanching at its graphic violence. Sly's attempt to remake the movie, however, signaled the start of what would be a rough six years for its lead actor going into the new century, and remains one of his biggest blunders ... though if you ask the man himself, the film is underrated.

Directed by Stephen Kay, "Get Carter" stars Sylvester Stallone as Jack Carter. Instead of Michael Caine's London gangster who returns to his home in the north of England, this Jack Carter is a Vegas mobster who comes home to Seattle after his brother is killed in a car accident. But Stallone's wise guy soon begins to suspect foul play was involved, prompting him to embark on a journey through the city's underworld where he metes out his own form of moral justice by, well, killing a bunch of guys before ultimately reconnecting with his family. Caine himself even shows up as the owner of a club where Carter's late brother worked.

In fairness, "Get Carter" (2000) does an excellent job of immersing you in its dreary Seattle setting, and Mickey Rourke's portrayal of gangster Cyrus Paice is a standout. But that's about all you can say for this ill-fated remake, which arrived at a real nadir for its star. Sly had managed to restore his standing as an A-lister in the early '90s with "Cliffhanger" (one of the best Stallone movies) and "Demolition Man," but went on to front a series of flops and disappointments that left him low enough to consider starring in a live-action Batman fan film opposite Mark Hamill by the time the new millennium arrived. "Get Carter" didn't do much to help in that regard. Despite a script by "American History X" scribe David McKenna, the movie was doomed from the outset, especially since it was produced by Franchise Pictures, the same company that bankrolled John Travolta's adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's sci-fi novel "Battlefield Earth," which remains one of the worst movies ever made.

As you might not be surprised to learn, "Get Carter" was a critical and commercial disappointment, but that doesn't mean its star is completely down on the project. In 2022, Stallone spoke to The Hollywood Reporter in a wide-ranging interview in which he reflected on his entire career. Asked what he considers to be his most underrated film, Stallone highlighted "Get Carter," admitting that although it was a "big disappointment," he learned something from his experience. "I learned the hard way that [remakes], even if you do it better than the original, there's a tremendous nostalgia attached to the original," he said. "And quite often they're not done as well. Like the last 'West Side Story.' Why would you mess with something like that? Not only because [of the original's quality] but because people's tastes change. Musicals don't make it anymore. Kids cannot relate to that kind of music. So who's your audience? It's crazy."

In his THR interview, Sylvester Stallone also revealed that he thought his 1997 crime thriller "Cop Land," which recently found a new audience on streaming, was going to do a little better, and considering it starred Sly alongside Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta and had a decent little conceit, that expectation was understandable. But even the muted response to that movie couldn't match the failure that was the "Get Carter" remake, which brought it $19.4 million on a $40 million budget and seemed to offend every critic who saw it. 

The film currently holds an 11% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and the only "top critic" to give it a positive review was Chris Vognar of the Dallas Morning News, who praised the "stylish" direction of Stephen Kay, adding that "the new 'Carter' isn't half as bad as it could have been." Not the most glowing review, but the rest are worse, with Bob Thomas of the Associated Press asking, "How does a numbing mishmash of a movie like this get made?"

Regardless, Stallone clearly didn't let this failure get him down, and though the years immediately following the release of "Get Carter" would be tough, he ultimately came out on top once again. What's more, Stallone evidently considers "Get Carter" a prequel to Taylor Sheridan's "Tulsa King," a much more successful project in which he stars as newly-released mobster Dwight Manfredi.

Interestingly enough, Stallone's "Get Carter" was not the only remake of the original, with MGM attempting to turn the story into an L.A.-based 1972 blaxploitation film starring Bernie Casey. As schlocky as it was, there's arguably more to like about that George Armitage-directed remake, which certainly managed to do enough to successfully differentiate itself from the Caine version.