Total Recall
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Movie Reviews of Total Recall
Movie Review: Good flick
Summary: 5 Stars
I have watched it several times. Arnold plays one of his best roles I think in this one.Movie Review: See youah at da pahty, Ricktuh
Summary: 5 Stars
Dis is a great movie! Buy eet! Do eet now! Vatch Ahnuld break off Ricktuh's ahms!Movie Review: If I'm not me, den who dah hell em I?
Summary: 4 Stars
Though I've read a fair bit of Philip K. Dick, whose short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" was adapted by a whole mess of people for this 1990 Paul Verhoeven film, I've neither read this piece nor any others that have been adapted into film. Strange, eh? So I come at this, as I did on first seeing it new 20 years ago, knowing a bit about the basic ideas behind it and most of Dick's fiction, but without being able to comment too much on the work as an adaptation. Perhaps that's for the best; I doubt Dick would have approved of any of his work being turned into an Arnie slugfest; then again, on a second viewing and watched carefully, there's definitely more than meets the eye.
First off, not surprisingly if you're familiar with the author at all, this is a story about identity and the nature of reality. Douglas Quaid (Arnie) is a construction worker on Earth in 2048 who keeps having nightmares about Mars. His wife Lori (Sharon Stone) worries about him and tries to keep his mind off these regular dreams, but to no avail. Quaid decides to visit "Rekall", a company that provides dream vacations that can be implanted into your memories directly, giving a sensation every bit as real as if you'd actually taken the physical trip. Or so they claim. But something goes wrong as Quaid is strapped into the chair, waiting for his dream of being a secret agent on Mars to begin. He starts convulsing and going nuts, and soon he is sedated and dropped in a cab to be sent home. Now his real nightmare begins, as first his best friend from work (Robert Costanzo) tries to kill him, followed by his wife - who claims she's an agent sent to monitor him. Turns out that Mr. Quaid really was an agent on Mars, and he's had his memory wiped and a new persona created by Cohagen, the director of the Mars colony, a ruthless dictator type played by (who else) Ronny Cox. Soon Cohagen's chief henchman Richter (Michael Ironside) and a crew are out to bring Quaid in, and Quaid is on the run through the antiseptic city, and then on to the domes of Mars where he works to find out the secrets that Cohagen is trying to surpress.
Though the "is this real or is it a dream" theme does recur at various times in the film and is always an uneasy current running through most of the narrative, at heart Total Recall is a non-stop action/thriller, and a pretty solid one overall. The ace supporting cast, which also includes Rachel Ticotin as an apparent former lover of the amnesiac Quaid on Mars and Mel Johnson Jr as a wisecracking cab driver, manages to outshine our hero on many occasions, which is fine as Arnold's physical presence isn't really as important here as it usually is. This is clearly a role that could have been readily adapted for any number of actors (Patrick Swayze was one of those considered for it at one time), but Arnold's stardom helped get it made, and helped raise a budget that allowed for some fairly impressive sets and effects. The look of the film is industrial and at times antiseptic, and in fact it may look pretty cheap if you're used to the high-gloss sheen of most new big-budget action films, but it serves Verhoeven's purpose of showing a future-world in which the have-nots still seemingly far outnumber the haves, and the lives of the lower classes aren't worth a hill of beans to the few ruthless men in charge. There's less room for the director's typically satirical and jaundiced vision here, but it's certainly not missing.
Ultimately the big climactic last few sequences ring just a little hollow to me and the last scene in particular is just silly as hell. But Arnold's last line and a few other touches here and there do help to remind us that we may be in a dream the whole time, and who would want to dream of saving the world in a prosaic, ordinary, believable way?
Another spectacularly good and original score by Jerry Goldsmith here; the man could practically do no wrong as far as I've been able to tell. The "making of/behind the scenes" feature here is one of the better examples I've seen; this comes very, very close to being deserving of a "5" from me, but sometimes the flaws need as much recognition as the merits. In any case, among Arnold's 5 or so best films I think, and I'm sure I'll return to it again in less than 20 years this time.
Movie Review: Utterly flawed and absolutely brilliant
Summary: 4 Stars
TOTAL RECALL is a flawed masterpiece, marred by multiple errors of aesthetic judgment and flat out absurd moments. Nonetheless, it raises a host of wonderful questions, has a huge number of memorable moments, and is arguably Arnold Schwarzenegger's best film after the first two TERMINATOR movies.
Although the story doesn't stay especially true to the Philip K. Dick short story upon which the movie was based --"We Can Remember It For You At Wholesale" -- it does contain the endless self-referentiality found in Dick's best stories and novels. Construction Worker Douglas Quaid (it was Quail in the short story, but the studio thought it might be viewed as a slap at then-vice president Dan Quayle goes to a virtual reality company named Rekall that provides the imprintation of fake memories of holidays. Having had persistent dreams of Marx, he wants a holiday to Mars. After some prodding, he agrees to pay for some extras, namely, an adventure package, in which he will feature as the hero in an espionage tale featuring resistance fighters, alien artifacts, a brunette who looks like the one who has been featuring in his dreams, and will get to save the world. But shortly after being placed in the equipment things start going wrong because it turns out he has already had false memories implanted. He quickly finds himself chased by the authorities before going to Mars where he meets the brunette of his dreams and with the use of alien artifacts saves the world. Or does he? Any viewer will be wondering along the way whether any of this is real or whether this is just his virtual adventure holiday. The film ends with Quaid wondering whether any of this truly was real or whether it was just the programming. And we are given no answer.
TOTAL RECALL was one of the very last important science fiction films made before the advent of CGI. It was one of the last to employ primarily miniatures and matte paintings rather than SCI. Even BABYLON 5 only three years later on television would use crude CGI for most of its special effects visuals. In this way TOTAL RECALL is the end of an era. Only a year later TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY would be released. Many of its greatest special effects were CGI. So in two straight films Schwarzenegger helped close one chapter of SF history and opened another.
The problem with TOTAL RECALL is that there are just too many moments that don't quite work. The inhabitants in the mutant section of underground Mars are just too comical self-indulgently mannered to contribute much to the film. And the animatronic rebel leader Kuato, who is inextricably attached to the body of another person, is easily one of th emost ludicrous SF creations since the original THE FLY, where at the end of the film we see a fly with the head of a screaming David Hedison, as it is about to be eaten by a spider. There are a host of terrible little lapses in judgment like this. The most unfortunate might be the climax of the film, as Quaid has turned on generators that will oxygenate the atmosphere of Mars. The ludicrousness comes not from the amazingly rapid creation of a breathable atmosphere for the planet, but from their completely ignoring the fact that the surface temperature of Mars is roughing that of Antarctica in the middle of winter. The visuals of Arnold and his female friend as they roll on the surface of Mars has to be one of the silliest sights in the history of big budget films. In real life they wouldn't have had to worry about air pressure; they would have frozen solid in only a few seconds.
All in all, this is both a truly rewarding and an immensely frustrating film to watch. It contains both a host of truly remarkable and utterly horrid moments. For me the good outweighs the bad and what we see in the end is a fascinating if undeniably flawed film.
Movie Review: Entertainment for all your senses
Summary: 4 Stars
There are certain films that aim to entertain and try their very hardest to keep the audience entertained, if not on the edge of their seat, but rarely are they also capable of making the audience think. This movie is fun from start to finish, but it also manages to keep you thinking about reality and the implications of the ideas presented in the movie.
Total Recall is certainly one of the better films to come from director Paul Verhoeven whose career I must say has its ups and down. He's has RoboCop, which I also thought was a fun action/satire, but then films such as Starship Troopers had me far less impressed. He is certainly better when adapting short stories in a satirical fashion than he is adapting professionally written stories and trying to satirize them like he did with Starship Troopers- Verhoeven's resulting film seeming more like an insult to its source material instead of an adaptation.
Total Recall movie is based on a short story by the late Philip K. Dick, who also wrote the stories behind Blade Runner, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. Unlike Blade Runner and Minority Report this is one of the more satirical approaches on sci-fi and it does have some good laughs among its fun sets and action, but like those two films it provides some of the best science-fiction imagery to date.
Of course, being released in 1990, what better male lead in an action film than Arnold Schwarzenegger? Now, the future California Governor has never been the best actor, but he manages to find one of his stand-out roles in Douglass Quaid, a man who is under constant danger and isn't even capable of knowing whether the dangers he faces are real or not!
Tired with his life as a construction worker Douglass Quaid is set on having a vacation to Mars. Only problem is he's a tad bit low on cash and his wife isn't very keen on taking a trip to the Martian surface- which is currently under a state of civil unrest and urban warfare between the mutants and the evil business leader, Vilos Cohaagon, who quite literally has an airtight grip over the citizens of Mars. Since going to Mars is out of the question Quaid goes for the next best thing: fake memories.
After a visit to Rekall he has it arranged for him to be given a vacation to Mars from the perspective of a secret agent on a crucial mission. This dream comes a bit too true as he is thrust into a fight for his life, never knowing whether or not what he is seeing is real or not. The audience can't tell for that matter for there is enough evidence to support either option.
Total Recall is good escapist entertainment and is often quite funny in a black sort of way. Arnold Schwarzenegger is charismatic in the lead and manages to deliver several good one-liners (other than the cheesy "Screw you!"). The art direction, special effects, costumes, make-up, and sets are all quite convincing and fun to look at and overall it is a film that always keeps your attention in some form or another. I give a strong recommendation to Total Recall, but the film does seem to stay in check and never take to initiative to go above and beyond like Blade Runner and Minority Report have.