Review: Total Recall
Total Recall is remake of the 1990 version that included Arnold Schwarzenegger. This remake took a little bit of a different spin on the story. Unfortunately, Hollywood has not made it easy for me this week with reviews. Another un-awesome movie that has you ready and hyped up when you walk into the theater, and expectations were high. Unfortunately, leaving the theater disappointed or unsatisfied has become all too often the experience. Total Recall was not a complete disappointment, and I wouldn’t want to leave that impression. It does have a lot of really good parts and a lot of really good things to look at, but it does not leave you with a feeling of satisfaction.
The core part of the story remains. A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is more than the boring life that he leads working in a factory. The company provides its clients with fake implanted memories, and just about as he’s to receive his new memories, the operator figures out that he is in fact not a factory worker and pulls the plug. This is timed with the police showing up and hell breaking loose as Doug instinctively reacts, kills the entire squad, and makes a quick escape.
Douglas Quaid (Hauser) played by Colin Farrell is well suited for this role. I believe that he is giving a very realistic view of the character. I also believe that his acting was strong. Lori Quade, played by Kate Beckinsale, also known as the wife, is one of the shining lights of the movie. She carried the strong evil desire to achieve complete and utter victory. When it is explained to her who Doug Quaid is, she immediately issues the order to shoot on sight in spite of leadership giving her the order to take him alive. Melina, played by Jessica Biel, is Doug’s girlfriend in his original, unaltered memory, as we’re led to believe anyhow. She also played her part well, but was left standing around as an observer many times when she just didn’t seem to fit in.
Now it’s worth mentioning that Doug Quaid is living in what appears to be two worlds with Kate Beckinsale in one world and Jessica Biel in the other. This conflict alone left me questioning which side of the battle that I would be on, and with the lack of him actually retrieving or recovering any of his memories as time went on, it might seem that this was on his mind also, and he just needed a little bit more time to do a comparison and make a choice.
The story goes on to paint a picture, that his history has been altered, as he begins to understand his dreams are actually memories. He’s put through many twists and turns, and never is it quite clear that he is living or acting on the life that he really wants to be acting for. This part of the story was done very well in my opinion. It was left to the point where even the audience didn’t know who he was fighting for, which side he was on, or which side he should be on. At one point towards the end of the movie, when he was asked why did he continue fighting when he didn’t know who he was, he had the perfect answer: “I may not know who I was, but I know who I am now.”
There were only two remaining cities after the distruction from war, they are referred to as the United Federation of Britain (UFB) and the Colony. they are connected by a transport that goes through the core of the Earth. The cities are building up instead of out, and it very much reminded me of Star Wars Coruscant. As a matter of fact there was many times during the movie when I caught myself thinking this reminds me of something or other from Star Wars. However, I didn’t get the enjoyment from this that I received from any of the Sta
r Wars movies. I’m unable to put my finger on exactly what it is that makes the movie lackluster. It would seem to have a decent enough story, a rather good cast, awesome special effects, and nothing that stood out as being particularly bad. As a matter of fact is a particular point in the movie when Doug is on his way to go to the Rekall business that he’s walking through the red light district and runs into a very interesting business woman. I won’t go into details, but I can confirm the studio reported that all three are fake, and I attached a picture for your enjoyment.
As Hollywood has handed me my second difficult review of the week, I would give Total Recall a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. Mostly counting off for just general predictability and disinterest as the story unfolds. Like I mentioned, I can’t put my finger on any single problem, but when I left the theater, I did not have the feeling of satisfaction that comes with a great or even a really good movie. Now with that said, I also wasn’t disappointed. I wasn’t left with regret for going after seeing the movie. Overall the movie was okay, it just wasn’t great.
