Total Recall (2012)

[vonlance]

kate could wear a binbag and still look smokin!

[midian]

the original arnie film from 1990 is going to be shown on itv2 on wed 29th aug at 10pm.

back in the day a gang of us used to go to all arnie films to just have a right laugh and look out for the killer one liners. during the running man we timed the spaces between the (bad) jokes :)

looking forward to see if this matches my memory as haven't seen it in years.

[raj101]

hang on, theres no mention of Mars on the wiki page precis. Whats going on?

[soonforgotten]

hang on, theres no mention of Mars on the wiki page precis. Whats going on?

There is no Mars in this version beyond a passing mention.

Here's my review, which I waited to write until after I re-watched the original, because I hadn't seen it in a long, long time. My opinion hasn't changed of the remake, though. It's decent for what it is, but it's very different from Verhoeven's.

http://londonfilmfanatiq.com/2012/08/18/total-recall/

[raj101]

och, TR without Mars is like Brave without Scotland, I feel. Will dutifully see the movie though.

[RickyRaj]

Saw this yesterday. Visually stunning, story pretty good I thought, good action. 7/10

Couldn't help noticing vague similarities to The Matrix (when Neo is first taken to see Morpheus) and The Terminator (John Connor being the leader of the resistance).

[weliveandbreathewords]

I didn't see this as a remake, more a readaptation of the same short story, I loved the fact that the action just never stopped, the visuals were amazing, although I said to my mate they've got the countries mixed up.
The colony I.e Australia was always raining, yet the ufb was always sunny
Enjoyed it a lot although the whiney Doug mcquade did slightly annoy me till he booked his ideas up! 7/10

[Cortone]

Had an Odeon voucher which expired at the end of August, but the choice of films at the local Odeon was limited. Decided against the Watch, and went to Total Recall. Had not seen the earlier version - but quite enjoyed this,once I worked out what was going on! It started slowly (especially for someone who did not know what to expect), but built to a tense conclusion, although there was never really any doubt as to what was going to happen at the end.

Colin Farrell was easy on the eye and once I got over flashbacks to his boy band audition, found him a strong lead. I got confused between Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel on a couple of occasions (when you just see the hair,and then wondered who would appear when the face appeared from under the hair), and both characters had limited 'depth', but otherwise were good, unlike the Bill Nighy role.... oh dear me, surely that could have been better?

The CGI and action scenes were impressive, and liked the mixing between the two worlds. I think about 7/10 for me, but my expectations were very low.

[Jayman]

Holy shit! Len Wiseman sure loves his lens flares, doesn't he? And here I thought JJ Abrahams was a total nutter!

Anyway, I watched this and The Expendables 2 tonight as part of a double feature (my Tesco vouchers were expiring today). I noted that Rotten Tomatoes had Expendables 2 at 65% and Total Recall at 30%. Personally, I would reverse these 2 ratings.

Total Recall is by no means a spectacular movie but it does have many plus points. It is beautifully atmospheric (if geographically bemused), the visual effects are brilliant and the action sequences pretty darn impressive. It's flawed only in the sense of its lazy, humourless storytelling and super dull characterizations. While it has an extremely strong start and a hyper-kinetic first hour, the second hour is a bit of a drag. I kept thinking throughout that this didn't need to have been classed as a reboot - it had plenty of appealing elements to hold it's own as a sci-fi action extravaganza, with a little help in the writing department, of course.

Performance-wise, Bryan Cranston surprisingly managed to churn out the weakest of the performances. Granted, he did have a lot to live up to as Ronny Cox was a consistently scummy villain in the Verhoeven universe. Oh yes, a bit of 'Breaking Bad' trivia - Dean Norris (Hank in BB) had a bit role in the original 1990 Total Recall as the facially-charred mutant Tony and over here we had the notorious Heisenberg playing the villain. Fingers Aaron Paul makes an appearance in the inevitable 2034 remake.

Overall, not bad...not bad at all.

PS. Interesting article below from http://thearnoldfans.squarespace.com/ne ... emake.html

Exclusive: Verhoeven Spits on Total Recall Remake!

A few days ago I ran into Paul Verhoeven at a cafe in Venice and I could not help but to interrupt his breakfast to express my disgust in the new Total Recall film and proclaim my love for the 1989 original. The whole way through the new film, I wished the projector would break and that they'd substitute that damaged film with the original Arnold Schwarzenegger/Verhoeven masterpiece.

Paul Verhoeven: Thank you for your enthusiasm (about our movie!). Yes, I saw the remake and it wasn't good, you did not care about anybody and thus all the chases and shootings an jumping became boring. Also: they took themselves very seriously and decided to leave all humor out. And the theme reality vs dream (by purpose not solved in our movie) was completely 'castrated'.

On the positive side of the new Total Recall disaster, it's making fans appreciate the original film all the more!

"Nice thing, Arnold (and me too) got the best reviews of his career for the original! If you see him: give him my warmest regards, I hope he enjoys the retro-active praise as much as I do," Verhoeven concluded.

[soonforgotten]

I didn't see this as a remake, more a readaptation of the same short story, I loved the fact that the action just never stopped, the visuals were amazing, although I said to my mate they've got the countries mixed up.
The colony I.e Australia was always raining, yet the ufb was always sunny
Enjoyed it a lot although the whiney Doug mcquade did slightly annoy me till he booked his ideas up! 7/10

It's definitely not a different adaptation of the short story. It's a different take on the original film.