Get ready for the ride of your life! This Special Edition DVD allows you to experience TOTAL RECALL the way it was meant to be seen and heard. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as Quaid, a 2084 construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars in this crowd-pleasing science fiction spectacle. Against the wishes of his sexy blonde wife (Sharon Stone), Quaid goes to Rekall, a company that implants artificial memories, so he can “remember” visiting the red planet that is now being settled by human inhabitants. However, Quaid is actually an amnesiac secret agent from Mars – or is he?This science fiction blockbuster from 1990 began its production life as a very different movie than the one that was released. An adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” Total Recall was originally conceived of with Richard Dreyfuss starring as a Walter Mitty-like character who experiences a variety of artificially induced fantasies. The movie we know is a mega-budget action epic set on Mars. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a normal working man who discovers that his entire reality has been invented to conceal a plot of planetary domination. Oscar-winning special effects and violent action propel the twisting plot, in which Arnold manipulates his manipulators in a world of dazzling high technology. Director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) indulges his usual penchant for gratuitous bloodshed, but the movie has enough cleverness to rise above its excesses. –Jeff ShannonThis science fiction blockbuster from 1990 began its production life as a very different movie than the one that was released. An adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” Total Recall was originally conceived of with Richard Dreyfuss starring as a Walter Mitty-like character who experiences a variety of artificially induced fantasies. The movie we know is a mega-budget action epic set on Mars. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a normal working man who discovers that his entire reality has been invented to conceal a plot of planetary domination. Oscar-winning special effects and violent action propel the twisting plot, in which Arnold manipulates his manipulators in a world of dazzling high technology. Director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) indulges his usual penchant for gratuitous bloodshed, but the movie has enough cleverness to rise above its excesses. –Jeff Shannon
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April 27, 2008
#1
Paul Verhoeven started as a pornographer in Europe and he has not changed at all. Not surprisingly he has flourished in today’s Hollywood. Total Recall is a putrid mess that is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator on every possible level. To call this thing a Science Fiction film and therefore place it on the same level as Planet of the Apes or Destination Moon or even The Giant Claw is obscene as the thing itself. The thing completely embraces the nihilist philosophy of Communism. Humans are disposable trash. There is no good nor evil, just the right idealogy. Mass murder is only bad depending on whose side you’re on. Life is death. To be fair, verhoeven IS consistent. Everything that he has made, from FLesh and Blood, up to his blasphemy of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers has had the same stench of hell. To think that this is what American film has degenerated into.
April 27, 2008
#2
I’ve seen cheesy and I’ve seen wannabe with the difference between the two being the level pandering to a more intelligent audience. This movie is definitely for guys that like to get their Shakespeare from WWF. Schwarzenegger’s best movie will ever be Terminator. If he could have ended with the classic “I’ll be back” and not really come back to make any number of horrid films we might actually have some decent science fiction. Last good science fiction I saw was Gattaca. Total Recall definitely ain’t science fiction and isn’t even very good action as compared with say the mindless gore of predator. Now that was action you could taste and you knew there wasn’t much pretense of science fiction going on. I’d give Total Recall a 0 or less but they only let me enter a 1.
April 27, 2008
#3
Personally, I found that after watching “Total Recall” once on DVD, I could not watch it again. I am going to trade it in.
April 27, 2008
#4
The worst movie I have ever seen.
I absolutely hate this movie. It has no plot, poor character development, and an awful story line. If you have too much time on your hands and nothing to do with your life, I highly recommend this movie for you.
April 27, 2008
#5
First off, let me start by saying that I am not the biggest fan of true science fiction. True sci-fi is deeply rooted in science fact, with an eye toward where the leading edge of those fact may take us all. Science fantasy serves my tastes better. Contact, for example, was much more of a science fact film. When it opened next to Men In Black, however, there was no contest as to where I wanted to find my entertainment. And MIB was about as far out there as sci-fanstasy gets.
That said, this is one of the lowest browed science fantasy films ever produced. Thick with camp and cliché, it barely kept my attention in the theater. The ‘adventure’ was packed with unlikable characters quipping moronic lines, following unbelievable motivations, and ignoring some of the basic laws of physics with reckless abandon.
The ending was completely God awful, with Arnold getting sucked out of a climate controlled area (with air) into the Martian landscape (no air) and getting saved in 30 seconds (as he slowly and unrealistically starts to facially expand from the pressure difference) by a generator that he just turned on (which is kicking out enough air – from the hill right behind him – that in 30 or so seconds the entire planet has enough air to save him). If you don’t see the multitude of glaring problems here, it is back to 7th grade World Science for you.
All in all, this is just another movie that was written to be one thing, and then was mauled by Arnold Inc. into Just Another Easily Forgotten Arnold Action Vehicle. I like Arnold, but this tripe he should be ashamed of only second to his Mr. Freeze in Batman Forever (that one hurt, I was looking forward to a good Batman flick and I got lines like “everrry bod-dee cheel” from Ah-nold).
If you want to see Arnold do something with a lot more fun and/or excitement to them in the sci-fantasy department, check out the Terminator films, Predator, etc. This one was just awful.