The Movie: Before I watched this DVD, I went to see my the review I wrote for its remake with Sylvester Stallone which I saw some time ago, because I couldn't remember a damn thing about it. Well wouldn't you know it, My review actually says, "It's not gonna be the most memorable movie you've ever watched, but I doubt you'll come away from it feeling like you wasted your time." -- I guess I was right!

The original version of Get Carter stars Michael Caine who plays a slick, smooth, mob hitman who comes back home to investigate the suspicious death of his brother. This is a pretty big contrast from the character Sylvester Stallone plays in the remake who is more of a bumbling, but endearing oaf of a meathead mob muscle guy. Personally, I think in this respect, the remake makes for a better story.

As the plot thickens, the main character (Jack Carter) digs deeper and deeper into the circumstances surrounding his brothers death, and deeper into the underworld of organized crime... and finds out more and more stuff that really, he wouldn't want to know about his brother. Apparently, his brother was not as squeaky clean as Jack would like to believe. But along the way, there seems to be quite a bit of random violence, and hardly any of what little emotional involvement was created by the remake.

In other words, the original Get Carter is a lot of gratuitous sex, drinking, smoking and violence, and very little substance beyond that. By the end, I was nearly bored out of my mind, and it seemed like the movie was never going to end.

The DVD: The anamorphic video transfer is remarkably clean and free of any dust, scratches, or compression artifacts, however the original film itself had the somewhat desaturated color, softness and graininess that I've come to expect from early 70's movies. So while the transfer I'd say is technically perfect, the overall quality of the image isn't exactly going to knock your socks off.

The audio is in the original mono and like the video transfer, is technically perfect, meaning it shows the limitations of early 70's technology, but there really isn't anything bad I can say about it, as it is perfectly useful audio.

Special features were a bit on the short side. You get a commentary track, and a trailer in anamorphic widescreen. You also get something labeled as "music trailer" but it's more like a music video showing the composer of the score performing the soundtrack on an array of keyboard instruments, with scenes from the film cut in. I really would have liked to have seen some tie ins with the remake, at least a trailer or something.

One word of caution though... don't watch the trailer before you see the movie as it gives away pretty much every key scene in the movie. Or then again, just watch the trailer and save yourself the trouble of seeing the whole movie haha.