Verhoeven bonkers adaptation of a P. K. Dick story.

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; tho 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

Writing: 5/10
Acting: 5/10
Tonal sanity/appeal: 5/10
Arnold Swartzeneggers: 5/10
Sharon Stones: 7/10
Aliens: 3/10
Rocks: 7/10
Michael Ironsides: Balsa Wood Sides/Iron Sides
That American Senator-looking guy: 8/10 Total Cunt :thumbsup:
~~There's this anime about some Mars people and they're being invaded for profit or something like that, and it's called Dailos or something like that. Anyway it's a hell of a lot better than this.~~


Terrible. Truly painful to watch for much of it due to incompetent character writing and execution, but it fails to be stupid fun due to how outrageously gory and indugently violent it is, tonally often feeling like some cheap 1980s violence porn movie where the protagonist is a Budweiser-guzzling rapist living alone in the desert. Paul Verhoven really perplexes me with how inconsistent he is. But since it is Paul Verhoven, some of the sci-fi elements and megacorp stuff are done competently, but Arnold and the bloody ham sandwich of a script ruin any chance to take that seriously.

The big plot reveal belongs to a much better film. Actually, it belongs to an episode of the Total Recall 2070 TV series made later, and is superior in every imaginable capacity. There's a horror episode about an alien artifact driving people insane, and it's fantastic. Watch the show instead. It can not be overemphasized how little it has in common, tonally, and regarding quality of production and characters.

**Part of my 2022 Sci-Fi Tuesdays**

Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall is a movie filled with practical effects, gory violence, mutants, and three breasted women (Well, not that many of the last one, but still worth mentioning), and...I love it. The perfect blend of sleaze, cartoony characters and violence, and sci-fi storytelling. Well worth spending some time with now and then.

I was a bit too young to watch this in the cinemas back in 1990, but I remember the guys got together at my house to watch it as soon as it got a VHS release here in Norway. It was the event of that year for many of us. We were, of course, familiar with both Verhoeven (Because of Robocop) and Schwarzenegger (Because of Commando, Terminator and Predator), and were told that Total Recall would be better than anything we have ever seen, and to us, at that specific time, I think it was. That might have changed somewhat, at least for me, but it still ranks up there as an important moment in my movie watching life.

This time I watched it in 4k with the 30th anniversary Blu-ray, and I have to say it has never looked as good, although...there are some moments that you can see that the actors have worked in front of a green screen. I can't say I can remember that from any other release, but it didn't really ruin much of my enjoyment, so who cares.

I recommend both the 4k version and the film itself. Go get it and watch it!!

"Total Recall" is a real winner as it features some thrilling Sci-Fi concepts, amazing action and very cool effects from Rob Bottin. Bottin is responsible for many effects wonders over the years including those in "The Thing", "Robocop", "The Howling" and "Legend". There are many memorable effects moments here like when Quaid's (Schwarzenegger) fat woman disguise goes haywire, Quaid pulling a tracking device from his nose and of course the mutant Kuoto. Who can watch this movie and forget the images of Quaid, Melina and Cohaggen choking, gagging and bulging in the toxic Martian atmosphere.

The story itself has been described as complicated but actually, it's relatively simple. It truly doesn't matter if Quaid is dreaming all of the events or not. If the viewer simply enjoys the twists and turns, it is an extremely fun ride.

Verhoeven creates some exciting images. His Martian landscapes and grungy Martian slums are a sight to behold. And this movie is violent. I don't know that it is as violent as a couple of other Verhoeven showcases, "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers", but it's brutal with numerous head shots, dismemberings and copious bloodshed.

Schwarzenegger does a better job acting at this point in his career than he ever had before. His trademark quips are present but despite that I was impressed with his crazed resistance while strapped into the memory chair at Rekall. He truly portrays it as a painful experience. The other performance I like was that of Sharon Stone. She is beautiful and sultry as the "wife" of Quaid. She was also one tough customer, battling, in fact, beating up Quaid on occasion.

If you're looking for a violent, Sci-Fi thriller that's a ton of fun, "Total Recall" is probably going to be just the ticket.

Aside from maybe "Predator" (1987) this is probably my favourite outing from Arnold Schwarzenegger. He ("Quaid") goes off to have an harmless implant of memories from an holiday on Mars (that he hasn't had) only to find that his life starts to unwind very quickly afterwards. Even his girlfriend "Lori" (Sharon Stone) becomes a would-be assassin and he is soon under attack from just about every other quarter too. Why? Well, that's what we now explore as he decides that he - helped by a video iteration of himself - must travel back to the red planet and get to the bottom of things. My flaw - well Ronny Cox is just dreadful as "Cohaagen" which does prove important towards the end of the film, but for the main part it is an action packed and well directed vehicle for a very much on-form star. It's one of the first films I recall that started messing about with timelines. We are not quite sure what happened when or if, indeed, at all - and Paul Verhoeven keeps that tempo running well right from the start of the film. Arnie has a chance to deliver some quite fun one-liners and the visual effects enhance, sparingly, the production rather than impose themselves on it. It has dated a little, some of the sets do look a bit static, but thirty-odd years on, it's still standing up well and is well worth seeing.