After the first ten minutes, I remembered why I never saw this when it first came out and why I have stayed far away from it for so long. Violence, noise, blood, guns and foul language. All the things I hate in a movie. I only watched it now because it's on so many top lists.
This is actually a far better movie than I expected. Paul Verhoeven is one of Holland's best when it comes to big budget cinema, but the true credits go to Philip K. Dick, one of the most interesting sci-fi writers of the 20th century, whose short story "We Can Remember It for Your Wholesale" inspired this movie. The special effects are excellent (no CGI's yet, hooray!) and the body horror is absolutely fantastic. But alas, when I see Arnold Schwarzenegger's face on my screen, I just want to rip my eyes and ears out. He's such an awful, unbearable actor and turns every movie he shows up in to shit. While I am able to enjoy The Terminator and Predator it is a very hard task to separate the qualities of the movie from the fact Arnie is messing the whole thing up. If I want to see bad acting, I'll watch a b-movie where it feels more authentic and not a big budget one where I expect overpaid actors to (try to) work for their money and not be a fucking gimmick. So, to conclude, Total Recall would've been so much better without Arnie in it. And no, I'm not going to watch the remake where Colin Farrell took his place. A 2012 Hollywood movie will never have those groovy special effects and awesome body horror that made the 1990 version so good, so why bother?
Oddly, and ironically, I seem to have memories of scenes that aren't actually in the picture. My guess is that I've taken on board misleading copy from the trailers and tv ads and made it part of the film. Watching it today, it has all the Paul Verhoeven trademarks that make me squirm as a modern audience member: Extreme violence, gratuitous foul language, and borderline misogyny. In Robocop and the flawed Starship Troopers, it's obvious that it's satire, but here, such elements can often be in bad taste. Don't get me wrong, it's still an exciting action film, with plenty of iconic scenes and animatronic effects, but the 80s-ness of it does rankle. Another problem I caught is that to work, there shouldn't be any scenes where Quaid isn't present, and yet there are. Oops.
Cheesier than I 'recall' but still a fun Action/SciFi - quotable lines, retro effects and a great premise with lots of twists. It does perhaps stray in to 'so-bad-it's-good' territory on occasion though. 8/10.
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Comments 1 - 15 of 27
ClassicLady
After the first ten minutes, I remembered why I never saw this when it first came out and why I have stayed far away from it for so long. Violence, noise, blood, guns and foul language. All the things I hate in a movie. I only watched it now because it's on so many top lists.Nightwalker
This is actually a far better movie than I expected. Paul Verhoeven is one of Holland's best when it comes to big budget cinema, but the true credits go to Philip K. Dick, one of the most interesting sci-fi writers of the 20th century, whose short story "We Can Remember It for Your Wholesale" inspired this movie. The special effects are excellent (no CGI's yet, hooray!) and the body horror is absolutely fantastic. But alas, when I see Arnold Schwarzenegger's face on my screen, I just want to rip my eyes and ears out. He's such an awful, unbearable actor and turns every movie he shows up in to shit. While I am able to enjoy The Terminator and Predator it is a very hard task to separate the qualities of the movie from the fact Arnie is messing the whole thing up. If I want to see bad acting, I'll watch a b-movie where it feels more authentic and not a big budget one where I expect overpaid actors to (try to) work for their money and not be a fucking gimmick. So, to conclude, Total Recall would've been so much better without Arnie in it. And no, I'm not going to watch the remake where Colin Farrell took his place. A 2012 Hollywood movie will never have those groovy special effects and awesome body horror that made the 1990 version so good, so why bother?Skyscore
http://www.afisha.ru/movie/168033/review/145489/nicolaskrizan
another uneven Philip K Dick adaptationhttps://beyond1001movies.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/backtrack-total-recall-1990/
modelno1
cant's stand schwarzenegger. after watching pablo francisco ...buc86
I like to think it was all real because otherwise nothing after the first 15 minutes actually happened. Kind of makes the whole story a bit trivial.Siskoid
Oddly, and ironically, I seem to have memories of scenes that aren't actually in the picture. My guess is that I've taken on board misleading copy from the trailers and tv ads and made it part of the film. Watching it today, it has all the Paul Verhoeven trademarks that make me squirm as a modern audience member: Extreme violence, gratuitous foul language, and borderline misogyny. In Robocop and the flawed Starship Troopers, it's obvious that it's satire, but here, such elements can often be in bad taste. Don't get me wrong, it's still an exciting action film, with plenty of iconic scenes and animatronic effects, but the 80s-ness of it does rankle. Another problem I caught is that to work, there shouldn't be any scenes where Quaid isn't present, and yet there are. Oops.Sephiroth
Perfect.Phil2000
Mildly entertaining, but hardly one of the greatest movies ever made.jerichoholic
AWESOME MOVIE! YOU MUST WATCH IT SIMPLY FOR THE ENDING!!!great
awesomemook
Cheesier than I 'recall' but still a fun Action/SciFi - quotable lines, retro effects and a great premise with lots of twists. It does perhaps stray in to 'so-bad-it's-good' territory on occasion though. 8/10.Follow me on Twitter @LastFilmSeen
JCS
Decent for what it is."I got FIVE kids to feed!"
Earring72
Watched it again on Blu Ray. It's been a while since i saw it, but still fun, action packed, viollent and totally over the top. Very entertaining :-)Alias
This film is fucking funnyShowing items 1 – 15 of 27