Review of Total Recall (1990) by Aaron D — 25 Jul 2012

I thought that with the release of a re-make imminent that now would be a good time to revisit the original and cast my reviewers mind over it.

Based on the short story by Phillip K. Dick (We Can Remember it for You Wholesale), Total Recall tells the story of lowly construction worker Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) and his obsession with the Mars colony. He goes to a memory implantation company in order to give himself the memory of going there, during the procedure it becomes clear that he has already been there...

As with many Philip K. Dick stories the concept is fairly unique and fits the science fiction film model really well, the original story took place almost entirely in the offices of the Rekall corporation and so the screenwriters had to be pretty creative with a lot of the story. This being said I think they did a fantastic job adapting the screenplay and I think that Dick would've been very happy with how it turned out and it may have alleviated some of his well documented mis-trust in Hollywood. It's twists and turns, while not always surprises, always keep the pace of the film quite fast. Filled with satirical and exagerrated graphic violence, for which Verhoeven became synonymous with during the late 80's and early 90's, Total Recall can at times flood your eyes with a grimy and sleazy vision of future civilisation.

The casting of Schwarzenegger as Quaid will have surprised nobody at this time period and it's fair to say that he does admirably well in trying to bring the surprise of a character suddenly discovering his talent for killing to the big screen. Much of the dialogue in Total Recall is delivered by it's cast with verve and conviction and Arnie's customary one liners are still entertaining today, if a little cheesy. Returning into a conscience-less, greedy, villainous role is Ronny Cox who's fantastic performance in Robocop is repeated in pretty much the same role. Michael Ironside plays Cox's bumbling yet aggressively unbalanced right hand man in a fairly convincing way, although he does little different than he does in most other roles.

The film overall is a very solid and enjoyable science fiction classic which can't be ruined by it's sometimes dated special effects, and is always posing the question of how much of what you're seeing is actually happening and how much is part of the memory implanted. The film never does reveal if its plot is actual events or just in Quaids mind but it does leave it ambiguous enough that you can interpret either way.

This film gets - THUMBS UP.