#140RVW
So much better than the 1990 version – don’t let anyone tell you differently. Good not great. And yes, the three-breasted woman is here…
What’s more:
Remakes of movies based on novels usually follow a somewhat predictable path: despite tremendous success of the first adaptation, new team stresses their intention to go back to the original material, whereupon they import over 30% new stuff from the text (usually 10% of it any good) and then make an uninspired remake that everyone falls all over themselves condemning as unnecessary and not as good as the first film. Critics live to bash these things.
So it’s somewhat surprising that Total Recall (2012) eschews this formula and goes for a straight remake of the 1990 film, not the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” on which both movies are based. I actually applaud the unexpected choice. Firstly, there really isn’t much more to this short story that was neglected the first time around. Secondly, the biggest problem with the 1990 film was, well, the entire production. The script was fine. So it really was ripe for a remake, post Minority Report.
I reference Minority Report as it is clearly the blueprint for most sci-fi of the past ten years, including Total Recall. And that’s not a problem.
Really just about every single thing in this movie is better than its 1990 counterpart. Colin Farrell is entirely believable both as a working grunt and as a spy. Kate Beckinsale is just as out of Quaid’s league as Sharon Stone was, but the difference is that she handles the role so much better, and, as an added bonus, absorbs the Michael Ironside role, making for a leaner tale. Jessica Biel is her usual under-utilized self. (Got to find a real role for her at some point.)
Len Wiseman has been at best an adequate director up to this point. Total Recall doesn’t build much onto that foundation, but it’s a clean, well-made affair and the action sequences are particularly fine. Lot of moving pieces; he keeps it all spinning and that’s not easy.
Keeping the whole film on the decimated Earth was a good decision, and the political struggle created here has a nice resonance in the Occupy days. One of the interesting adds to the movie is “The Fall”, a method by which workers of “The Colony” (Australia) can travel quickly through the Earth’s core and arrive at The United Federation of Britain on the other side. It is a great effect, a neat story device and absolutely rubbish science. But that’s sci-fi filmmaking, and not a deal-breaker. Most of the movie is good fun and if it will never be a classic like Ahnold’s film was, it is still a far superior film.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: D (2 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Colin Farrell Douglas Quaid/Carl Hauser, Bokeem Woodbine Harry, Bryan Cranston Cohaagen, Kate Beckinsale Lori Quaid |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Fri 03 Aug 2012 UTC |
| Director | Len Wiseman |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller |
| Plot | A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, 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. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 118 |
| Tagline | What is real? |
| Writers | Kurt Wimmer (screenplay) and, Mark Bomback (screenplay) … |
| Year | 2012 |