Total Recall

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source: Total Recall

Total Recall

Arnold is huge in this film. His poop has muscles. The man just does not frig. Arnold has his mind erased and must find out why everyone is trying to kill him and the key lies on the planet Mars. The special effects are still great, we see Arnold take an ax to a few people, rip off Michael Ironside's iron arms, shoot people, bangs Sharon Stone, eats apple pie, and many other actions such as walking and talking. Paul Verybigchoda directs this sci-fi masterpiece. This could be better than his Robocop. How can you go wrong when you see a woman with three breasts? THREE! Living in Chicago I wish we could have Johnny Cabs. Instead we have Jumbalia Cabs where the cab driver smells like curry and his prices are higher than Christopher Lloyd's character from "Taxi". Sorry Bob!

Okay, this isn't exactly Shakespeare. And, some parts of the movie just need you to suspend disbelief (especially the ending as Arnold and his main squeeze are rolling around the surface of Mars gasping for air and the part when Arnold pulls that HUGE thing out of his nose). However, sometimes I just like to watch a movie for entertainment value and don't mind if it's not the greatest or most uplifting film ever made. Yup,...this film is just plain cool. The extremely special effects-laden script is pretty interesting and the stunts are amazing for its time. Plus, sure it's low-brow, but Arnold's line "consider this a divorce" is really neat on a purely emotional level.

I saw Total Recall while I was in high school and since a friend of mine owns it and was talking about it the other day I thought I'd check it out again. I love Dick's novels and for that reason alone thought this would be worth watching. So sadly wrong. It was evident that the original idea was a good one, but a whole lot of garbage had been tacked on to make this into a Hollywood scifi bomb. I do not understand why some fans of science fiction and action movies think it necessary to have their intelligence insulted in order for a film to be enjoyable. Action and intelligence, sorry to say, are not mutually exclusive. The plot was by no means as complex as I remember it being, and Mars seemed even more contrived than in my first viewing. Very simple plot points could have been corrected to make Total Recall a bit more respectable. The most glaring: why is that the vague "aliens" who built the reactor made the indentation in the panel which starts it up in the shape of a human hand? Puhleaze.

"Predator" and "Terminator" are good. "Commando" is funny and cool. "RoboCop" is great. But this one is a turkey, neither cool nor funny, neither good nor ultimately bad. It pretends to be something valuable. But such elements as the fighting between the main hero and his "wife" with "picturesque" martial arts moves, stupid taxi service with that cheap talking driver-doll that tries to joke, bits of action without proper "set piece" as a big macho is running, jumping, and killing some mutants and security guards, while trying to save the planet (is it a video-game? then where is the joystick?), pretentious performance and dialogues backed up by violence (remember the evil character shooting a lady in the bar just to show them who's the boss and his face expressions), too many trash-talking characters - especially mutants - making it all look hectic like some crowd scenes of "Star Wars" are ruining it, at least to me. Even a greatly executed (visually) scene with the talking female cyber-mask, which blows the whole place off, cannot save it all. When I witness such things, I am not interested in the plot. It is just another eye-candy from Hollywood - it can be mind-blowing (and perhaps it really is) but I don't care what happens next. If you can appreciate all those super-entertaining details, then it is possibly a movie for you. I cannot. "What a waste of everything" is the only phrase that comes to my mind. Just one parallel to mention here. Does anybody remember the PD shoot-out scene in "Terminator" or any shooting scene in "RoboCop"? The backgrounds for those scenes were overwhelming. The shootouts looked real and serious. They were kind of "fortissimo". And even after repeated viewing I watch them with some sort of awe. And what do we have here? It all looks like a cheap "catch-me-if-you-can" game that just goes on and on till the finale. Cannot call any separate action scene even "mezzo-forte". Maybe I'm completely wrong and it is just the choice of effects, actors, and one-liners, which are to blame. Anyhow, I do not want to recall this "Total Recall" because it does not worth it. The only reason I type this comment is that I disagree with the film's high rating. It is to be 5 out of 10 at most. "RoboCop" (1987) is worth a thousandth buy (great job, Mr Paul Verhoeven) while "Total Recall" is not worth even a second look (can't believe it is the same Mr Paul Verhoeven behind this production). 3 out of 10 (to watch once is more than enough). Thanks for attention.

When a man (Arnold Schwarzenegger) goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he? One could consider "Total Recall" part of a Philip K. Dick trilogy: Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. With A Scanner Darkly and Paycheck (among others) creating an extended trilogy (you know, like Douglas Adams did). Total Recall is easily worthy of standing beside Blade Runner. And even as a stand-alone sci-fi film, it ranks as one of the better ones of the 1990s, if not all time. One of the great things about Total Recall is the ambiguous nature of the story. Is it a dream? A brain embolism? Reality? Any of these has evidence to support it and also to contradict it. And this is a strength for the movie. There is a certain absurdity with the special effects -- eyes bulging and whatnot when the people lose oxygen. In real life you would simply die in space, not explode. But at the same time this was somewhat amusing and a bit comical so it can be overlooked. Besides, coming from Rob Bottin ("The Thing"), the focus should be on the strengths of the makeup and effects and not the possible shortfalls. The casting was great. Arnold was a great choice, and no one else could be Quaid. Kurt Russell, Stallone, Swayze... these guys are great but not right for this part. And Sharon Stone was looking her best for this movie, and since her role seemed to be the sexpot wife who does little more than exercise and seduce her husband, that is a big endorsement. Clearly the best character was Benny the Cab Driver, played by Mel Johnson, Jr in his only notable role. He stole the scenes he was in with great comic timing and an interesting back-story. I was quite interested by how he went from being what could have been a minor background role to a primary figure in the overall plot. Exquisite. I guess I simply must recommend you see this movie. If you have not seen Blade Runner, watch that first. If you have not seen Minority Report, watch this first. But either way, be sure that you put this movie somewhere high on your to-do list.

The red pill and how's a dream comes reality.... I rewatched this movie after almost 30 years and definitely is a classic. The script and action is so much better than today's full CGI movies.