Review of Total Recall (2012) by Justin F — 23 Sep 2013

I have two major criticisms of this film. Firstly, its too long (never a good sign) and secondly, its title. If it had no connection to the original then as a film in its own right it really isnt that bad. The irony here is that I do think that it is significantly different enough from Arnies version to have been able to do this.

The world as we know it is basically knackered and uninhabitable. Only two regions remain populated in The Federation of Britain (basically Western Europe) and The Colony (aka The Colony.........errm I mean Australia). These are connected via a gravity lift that goes through the earth and allows the Convicts to commute to affluent Blighty to work their butts off and sell their souls. There are tensions between the two regions with a resistance growing within the convicts against their oppressors leading to multiple terrorist attacks.

Douglas (Farrell) and Lori (Beckinsale) are childhood sweethearts who live in The Colony and have been married for 7 years. Douglas has a mundane job on a production line assembling robots and is striving to better himself. He is also suffering from nightmares and is for some unknown reason beginning to question the direction of not only his life but everybodys role in the world. In an effort to take his mind off this he decides to visit Rekall which advertises itself as a seller of pre-determined memories that can be implanted at will. There are rules to this procedure and Douglas falls foul of them and chaos ensues.

Visually the film is very good (big Blade Runner influence with the visuals) and Farrell and Biel are decent enough from a totty perspective although Beckinsale really did get up my (admittedly big) nose although in fairness to her she is arguably fulfilling her role by provoking this reaction? The action scenes are also well done (but also a little too long at times) but I cannot stop myself from comparing it to the classic of the same name and this ultimately damages it irreparably.

The underlying message of this film? Regardless of your past its always possible to redeem yourself and always be true to yourself. Now why hasn't anyone else though of the later before? A life lesson there I guess.....NOT!!