Total Recall (1990)

Doug Quaid keeps getting recurring dreams about a visit to Mars. In spite of his friends warnings, he decides to have a memory implanted Mars holiday. But during the implantation he remembers being a secret agent who is fighting evil Mars boss Vilos Cohaagen. Things are about to go very intergalactic bonkers indeed.

Total Recall finds director Paul Verhoeven on particularly OTT form, with the often maligned director cranking up the action and violence to the max. So then, who better to play out the carnage than the big Austrian oak himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger? It was actually Schwarzenegger who brought Verhoeven into the picture. The idea for the film had been kicking around for years, a number of director's came and went, David Cronenberg famously worked on a screenplay for a year only to have it jettisoned for being too close to the P. K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". The makers wanted a high energy sci-fi blockbuster, a star vehicle for Schwarzenegger, and Verhoeven was only too happy to oblige.

Total Recall is a fascinating concept as we find ourselves wondering what in fact is reality? Quaid himself is never quite sure as the film takes a delicious twist at the midpoint to further compound the confusion, but in true Verhoeven style, it all comes crashing together in a giant ball of bangs, crashes and explosions. It should be noted that the film is far removed from the cerebral essence of Dick's story, and really when one saw that Schwarzenegger was to star in a Verhoeven directed adaptation, one really should be prepared for the high octane brain dumb down that Total Recall is. Something which was beyond some highbrow critics who are still baffled by the gargantuan financial success of the film (it made over $260 million worldwide).

Fleshing out the cast are a stoic reliable bunch. Rachael Ticotin, Ronny Cox, Sharon Stone & Michael Ironside deliver the expected tongue in cheek professionalism. While the effects prove to be a mixture of the poor and the decent - though it's nice to see the often lost art of model work being of a pretty high standard. All of which leaves me personally with a film that I find to be a hugely enjoyable piece of uber violent popcorn fodder. 8/10

Fmovies: One of the best mind trips ever, I could only wish this movies was made ten years later. Even for 1990, this film had some of the most imaginative make-up I've ever seen in a movie. While it had Paul Verhoeven's classic shallowness, the film really touched new ground not only with science fiction but also with special effects. Talk a good few years for a director, he not only changed sci-fi with Robocop, he did it again with Total Recall. Verhoeven will never, ever win an Oscar for best director, but his movies will at least be entertaining in most respects.

The year is 2084 , it is the future , technology has flourished, and humans have successfully colonized on the planet Mars . A factory worker (Arnold Schwarzenegger though Christopher Reeve was offered, but turned down ,Jeff Bridges, Matthew Broderick and Richard Dreyfuss were each considered and role posteriorly interpreted by Colin Farrell in recent remake) happily married to Lori (Sharon Stone , subsequently acted by Kate Beckinsale in remake directed by his husband Len Wiseman) , 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 . When Douglas Quaid 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? . They stole his mind, now he wants it back . Quaid finds himself thrust into the midst of a global conspiracy to find it out , as he goes to Mars where is helped by Melina (Rachel Ticotin , ulteriorly played by Jessica Biel) .

This exciting picture is based on a short story titled "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick that was inspiration to screen story by Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon , but director Verhooven replaced the satirical humor with extreme violence , in the original screenplay, dark humor was much more prevalent. The flick packs thrills , chills , plot twists and noisy action from start to finish . It's a roller-coaster ride until the massive final of the picture . It also displays lots of strong scenes , blood , gore and violence , the original cut of the movie was given an X-rating by the MPAA for excessive violence , some was trimmed and different camera angles were used in some of the more over the top scenes and the movie was then re-rated R . Acceptable acting by Schwarzenegger , he said that he felt this helped the story even more, giving a much stronger contrast to it by turning a character who is otherwise powerful physically into a character that becomes vulnerable after having his mind stolen . Good support cast such as Ronny Cox as Vilos Cohaagen , Michael Ironside as Richter , Marshall Bell as George/Kuato and Mel Johnson Jr. as Benny . Impressive production design , the subway scenes were filmed in the Mexico City subway system , the miniatures used for shots showing Martian geography were based on Martian photographs . Excellent special effects , it was one of the last major Hollywood blockbusters to make large-scale use of miniature effects as opposed to CGI, and at the same time, it was also one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters to use CGI , mainly for the scenes involving the X-Ray scanner , and have it look "photo-real". Paul Verhoeven and special effects supervisor Rob Bottin had had constant disagreements during the making of RoboCop, so it seemed unlikely that the two men would ever cooperate again. However, when they saw how good Robocop had turned out, they changed their minds, and Verhoeven gave Bottin full freedom to make his own Martian creature designs . Furthermore , rousing and thrilling musical score by the great composer Jerry Goldsmith , today become a classic soundtrack. However he had said that he had received some criticism about the movie's score that "the movie had no theme", to which he strongly disagreed, stating that the movie did in fact have a theme, but it wasn't the kind of theme that "people left the theaters whistling after". The

Total Recall fmovies. The action of this movie is colossal, always moving and nobody gets bored. Arnold is excellent as Douglas, a guy who works hard and has a beautiful blonde to go to bed. Sharon Stone is as good as Lori and Rachel Ticotin as Melina. I like both blondes and redheads, so I do not have to complain.

Villains are evil enough and they are killed in the end. Not like these stupid marvel movies, in which no villain dies, simply for we have pity of them. A good bad guy has to be hated.

Special effects are always great and the humor is correct, and is not forced, not like these stupid marvel movies. I love every minute of this movie. Amazing.

Total Recall is a fast paced sci-fi action movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way from beginning to end. For a movie released in the early 1990's, it has some very spectacular make-up effects, visual effects and special effects. This movie is sort of similar to Paul Verhoeven's other films. It is violent, bloody, it has some sexuality/nudity and some profanity. This movie has dark humour. Paul Verhoeven really knows how to use visual and special effects and dark humour whenever he is shooting a scene in his movies. This is one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best films, along with Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Predator. Total Recall is also one Verhoeven's best movies to date. This movie is worth a watch.

In 2020, Douglas feels he needs a break from the day to day life and goes to Total Recall – where memories are planted in your head to make you think you are someone else for a while – a holiday in your head if you will. However before he can be injected he begins to have flashbacks and suddenly finds that people are trying to kill him and that somehow he must get to Mars to uncover the reasons. However what is truth and what is fake and is the whole thing really happening or not?

Based on a Phillip K. Dick story this was always going to be intelligent – however it's surprising that Verhoeven manages to keep that core well. The plot allows his excessive violence but is also a great story that more than holds the interest with twists and turns and neither Douglas or us fully knowing what's going on. The action is great – even 10 or so years on, and the tension just stays solid throughout.

Schwarzenegger does his usual invincible muscles stuff and looks happy blasting crowds, but he is also OK in other areas too. Tictin is good but never repeated this success for herself. The baddies (or maybe not?) are the best roles – solid baddies like Ironside and Cox are just as good as they were in other similar roles and Sharon Stone is good as Douglas' wife.

Overall this continues Verhoeven's trend of making ultra-violence and clever plots and satire work well together (Robocop, Starship Troopers and this) as opposed to his trend of making trash! Everything about this film works well – whether it be the action or the acting or the plot – a surprisingly nice package for a violent action movie!