Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Carter (2022)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Length: 2h 12min
Rating: TV-MA
Production/Distribution: Apeitda, Netflix
Director: Byung-gil Jung
Writer: Byeong-sik Jung, Byung-gil Jung
Actors: Joo Won, Kim Bo-Min, Sung-Jae Lee, Camilla Belle, Mike
Colter
Blurb from IMDb: Thrown straight into a
dangerous mission with none of his memories intact, a man must escape death
while trying to figure out who he is, how he ended up here, and who is the
mysterious voice in his ear calling him "Carter"?
Selina’s Point of View:
I was in my glory
when I saw the trailer for
Carter.
Korean cinema has
a special place in my heart and, as an 80s baby, so do brainless action flicks.
When I saw the trailer for
Carter, then followed it up with the
realization that a Korean director I know and like was behind it, I was excited.
After sitting
down to watch, I’m just angry.
When you hear
people talking about movies that are style over substance,
Carter is
exactly the kind of thing they’re talking about. Every shot seemed to have
mountains of thought put into it, but nothing else did.
Now, keep in
mind, I have enjoyed style over substance films before. I really enjoyed
Sucker
Punch (2011). But, in this case, the thought put into the cinematography
for
Carter was exceptionally misguided. It’s like the director decided
before filming that he had to use shaky cam, and then ignored when it didn’t
work.
Cat gets motion
sickness when watching badly made shaky cam movies. About 10-minutes into
Carter,
I texted her to let her know I’d handle this one myself. I don’t have motion
sickness from anything, but in this case the effect was nausea inducing. Even
for me. I had to take regular breaks – just about every 15-minutes or so –
because it was costing me my equilibrium.
I could have
forgiven the stylistic choices if there had been any pay off. Unfortunately, there
really wasn’t.
There were a few
cool visuals, if you could focus on them long enough, but there was nothing
else going for
Carter. The script was bad, so was most of the acting.
Even the fight choreography didn’t stand out. In fact, the final fight scene feels
like it’s 20-minutes long and involves the main character doing the same thing
over and over again.
I couldn’t figure
out if I needed to vomit or go take a nap.
Don’t waste your
time on
Carter. If you’re curious about the director,
Confession of
Murder (2012) is streaming on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Plex.
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 30%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 50%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score –5.1/10
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1.5/5
Movie Trailer: