What a pleasant, action filled surprise the 2012 remake of TOTAL RECALL delivers! I went in expecting nothing and as a big fan of Verhoeven/Schwarzenegger's original, so that probably helped me enjoy it, but I have to say its a non-stop roller coaster ride, very well executed. The story is no more than a tribute to the original, with barely a glancing blow against the original version and just a few (tri-breasted) references to it.
Colin Ferrell stars as factory worker Doug Quaid, who is bored in his job/everyday life and seeks to have excitement injected into his veins with the false memories offered by REKALL. As soon as he decides to be a spy and those memories are injected into him, all hell breaks loose. Is this his real life, or the Rekall experience, what is real?
The dynamic male viewer duo of Kate Beckinsdale and Jessica Biel play the two women in Doug's lives and you have never seen two women kick more butt in one movie.
The action is brisk and the special effects are truly state of the art. Two sequences stand out as some of the year's best, a stunning car chase on freeways of the future featuring many levels of hovercars and a long chase sequence through a tangled series of elevators that move horizontally and perpindicular to the action.
This is one EXPENSIVE film that only grossed $58 million, a massive misfire. I think if there hadn't been the great original, this one would not have failed so miserably, as its fast, intriguing and fun. It's also total B-movie cheese dressed up in VERY fancy clothes, but you'd be hard pressed to not say its a fun 2 hour action flick! We'll recall it as a solid B.
Comments