Whether a film’s style be sleek and stylish, dark and eerie or quick and intelligent, image is nonetheless one of the most important factors and can make or break a movie.

The look and feel of everything in the movie has to have a purpose and has to make sense. Otherwise, the film comes off as an impossibly stupid riddle for the audience.

For Stephen Kay’s new film, “Get Carter,” starring the all-too-famous “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone, image proves to be its strong point on all levels.

And, as this film is a remake of a 1971 action/drama of the same name, that proves to be quite an accomplishment.

For Stallone’s character, ultracool mob enforcer Jack Carter, style and image are a part of his day-to-day life, most of which he spends collecting debts and exacting revenge for the people he chooses to work for in Las Vegas.

But Carter is his own man with his own set of life’s guidelines and rules. The lines that divide these blur when news of his brother’s death reaches Las Vegas, forcing Carter to travel home to Seattle, the city which he has been absent from for five years.

He wants to make amends with his family - he wants a second chance.

The story, updated in a screenplay by David McKenna (“American History X”), mainly circles around the events that transpire once Carter gets to Seattle and starts asking questions, not believing that his brother’s car accident was anything involving drinking and driving.

He believes his brother Richie’s death was actually a murder, and this threatens to change his purpose for being in Seattle from redemption and forgiveness to a weekend full of detective work and revenge.

Rather than showing the expected scene after scene of blood, gore and violence, this movie gives audiences a more dramatic angle at action.

True, there is violence and a good amount of blood, but the film’s core doesn’t consist of these things. It consists of a good drama centering around family and more redemption than revenge.

And when it comes to style and image, this movie is loaded. Carter’s sleek demeanor alone is unforgettable, and the film’s tone goes along with the story perfectly. Its whole look and feel go right along with the setting and direction it’s taking.

Thanks to innovative camera work, editing and direction, it is easy to know how Carter is feeling just by looking at the screen. When his world turns upside down, the audience knows it; when he has nothing but the thought of pure revenge on his mind, everyone can tell.

Starring with Stallone is recent Oscar-winner Michael Caine, who starred as Carter in the first film. This movie does have an impressive cast, with all members filling their roles with the attitude needed in the movie. They all seem like they’re in the right place.

Playing Carter’s widowed sister-in-law is Miranda Richardson (“Sleepy Hollow,” “The Crying Game”), while Rachel Leigh Cook (“She’s All That”) fills the role of her daughter, Doreen.

And as for bad guys - because every good action movie needs at least one villain - Mickey Rourke (“The Rainmaker”) and Alan Cumming (“Eyes Wide Shut”) round out the cast as two of Carter’s suspects.

“Get Carter” comes off as something unexpected. Stallone plays a role almost halfway between the kinds of characters he has played in the past. He’s no “Demolition Man” or “Rambo,” and yet his character doesn’t have the caliber of “Rocky.”

This film proves that even after such successes as “Rocky” and “Cop Land” and such losses as “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,” Stallone still has the abilities of a great actor and still knows how to take the opportunities to show them off.