Get Carter isn’t just one of the best examples of British neo-noir; it's among the greatest films ever made in Britain. Michael Caine leads the way as Jack Carter, a tough and direct figure from London’s criminal world who returns to his hometown of Newcastle Upon Tyne after learning of his brother’s death. Mike Hodges directed and adapted the screenplay from Ted Lewis’ novel "Jack's Return Home," and the result is a bleakly atmospheric work that combines the feel of its time with film noir elements, all filtered through an unrelenting sense of doom. Caine and Hodges created in Jack Carter the quintessential film noir anti-hero. He smokes French cigarettes and reads Raymond Chandler; the respect and nods to classic noir are obvious as he pursues his course. He’s a vengeful force, but undeniably attractive, even offering humorous observations delivered with relish by Caine, who is at his most intense here. In an odd twist, Jack feels out of place in his own home city, a sharply dressed Cockney amidst the lower classes of North Eastern society. It's a decaying environment of row houses and coal yards, of disreputable clubs and small hotels where, as Jack wryly notes, the beds have witnessed a great deal. Jack Carter is a ruthless individual, bordering on psychotic once he focuses his attention on those who’ve wronged him—a world of mistrust, deceit, thieves, pornographers, and gangsters profiting while society crumbles around them. The atmosphere definitely evokes “Fog on the Tyne.” Yet Jack isn't without feeling; his family connections are important, and there's a moment in the film when he cries, signaling that there’s no turning back from this particular descent. Hodges and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky stripped everything down for maximum impact—you can practically smell the salt of the dark water, feel your lungs filling with chimney smoke, sense the odor of working-class sweat, all while Roy Budd's contemporary score tinkles over the action like a dance of death leading to its final act. And with Caine supported by a group of excellent character actors, Get Carter only improves as time goes on. Like its complicated protagonist (Jack is both antagonist and hero, an intentional contradiction), it’s a film that's tough as nails, something you should receive in the mail in a metal case. No fan of film noir has any reason not to have seen this yet. Funny, alluring, brutal, and possessing an underlying strength, Get Carter is like a nuclear bomb on Grey Street. 10/10

Source on TMDB