Verdict
Summary
Total Recall remains utterly unnecessary and isn’t a patch on the classic original; I know it’s annoying to keep comparing it but considering the original isn’t even old then of course you’re going to compare them. Hopefully the financial failure of this movie will show Hollywood that the public aren’t looking for remakes of classic films. How about more new stuff instead?
Plot: A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall – a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led – goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.
Review: Well it’s bloody snowing outside so I don’t know if I’ll get to see Bullet to the Head today, so I thought I would finally give this a shot and see if it was any good.
Total Recall isn’t anywhere near as good as the Arnie original in any way but it’s still a fun diversion. The visuals and technical wizardry are the most impressive thing about the movie and I thought there was a lot to like. The storm trooper lookalikes were amazing looking but also the phones inbuilt to the hands was a nice touch as well.
Colin Farrell is a likable lead and Kate Beckinsale was awesome as Lori although she never quite matches the nastiness of Sharon Stone’s version; Jessica Biel was also sympathetic and genuinely appealing as Melina but once again she couldn’t compare with Rachel Ticotin.
I think the second half of the movie is arguably the better half because it’s utterly different from the 1990 classic; they really tried to do something different with the story so they deserve props for that.
So why only 2.5 stars? Well where the original had plenty of humour, great villains and a fun script, this is ultimately very forgettable. How do you top Ronny Cox and Michael Ironside? You don’t and Bryan Cranston doesn’t try to, but he’s so underused that you don’t care what happens. Ironside stole the original movie as Richter and remains one of the all time great action movie bad guys, but there is no one to match him in this. I don’t know if people just struggle to write good bad guys today, but it’s rare for me to name a recent villain who is truly great aside from The Joker.
Anyway, although the graphics are impressive in the movie, there is far too much lens flare, arguably more than Star Trek and for some reason it really bothers my eyes. I found it very distracting and annoying; it took me out of a few scenes in fact.
There is nothing memorable about the script which is very flat; there’s no “See you at the party, Richter” or any great lines to speak of. Because of that, I found it quite uninvolving and have no real desire to sit through it again.
Although the music was cool in places it also doesn’t come anywhere near to matching Jerry Goldsmith’s original masterpiece.
Overall, Total Recall remains utterly unnecessary and isn’t a patch on the classic original; I know it’s annoying to keep comparing it but considering the original isn’t even old then of course you’re going to compare them. Hopefully the financial failure of this movie will show Hollywood that the public aren’t looking for remakes of classic films. How about more new stuff instead?
