I've decided to use this BlogSpot as a way to write my thoughts on films I see at home that I personally wanted to see. These will be very random and go across different genres. With that said, let's take a look at the original Total Recall!
With the Total Recall remake out last weekend, I had two choices: 1. Spend $10 to see the remake in the theater or 2. Spend 25 cents at my library's book store on a VHS copy of the original. I chose the second choice, as I had not see the original before and was wondering why this Sci-Fi Schwarzenegger movie was getting the Remake treatment.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Quaid (or does he?), a regular man living in the not-so-regular world of 2084. Fed up with his life, he goes to a place called "Rekall", where for a fee, you can get implanted memories of vacations and exciting lives. Quaid chooses to go to Mars as a Secret Agent as he has multiple dreams of Mars. From this, it is discovered that he mind was all ready wiped and he used to be an agent of Mars, who found out a secret that would destroy the mastermind who sells air on Mars. Sound Confusing? Well, it kinda is, but only for a few minutes.
The plot had many twists and turns that I did not see coming and some great action to go with it. Seeing Arnold do his thing is always entertaining to watch, but what impressed me was the story was actually intelligent and sophisticated. Questions like "Is he him or is he someone else?" really kept me going throughout the film. This was written by the 2 guys who wrote Alien and based on a story by Phillip K. Dick, who wrote the basis for Blade Runner. That shows in the plot, yet it is a bit overshadowed by the fact that is is a Schwarzenegger action film.
The effects I thought were good-for the time. Seeing things like the mask he wears to disguise himself and "Kuato" are effective, yet dated. The whole world also made me smile for those reasons-it's cool to see what people thought the world was going to be like in the future, but due to recent things like IPod's and how our computers work, they are never going to happen. Still, I thought some of the mutant effects looked pretty good even compared to today and when they were on Mars, I bought it enough. Also, the three-boobed chick was......interesting. There were tons of things like that to make fun of and for the film to have breathers.
Sharon Stone did a fine job and Arnold's "wife" and Rachel Ticotin as Melina was a good supporting character. There was even a Black Guy sidekick who, let's be honest, you are only going to remember as the black guy. Still, he was a fun character and I laughed at some of the things he said.
Overall, this movie wasn't half bad. In fact, I can see why people like it. It was an interesting plot, cool world and it keeps you guessing. I feel I could watch this again and pick up on new things. I think filmmakers today may have watched this movie growing up, especially Christopher Nolan. Like Inception, there is an ending that is left open to interpretation and throughout the film, you don't know what is Fantasy and what is Real. But at the front of the movie before all this science-fiction stuff is an Arnold action film. If you like Arnold, you will like this movie. He is awesome at fighting and running around and things like that. This isn't the best Sci-Fi film I have seen, nor the best Schwarzenegger film I have seen (the best Schwarzenegger Sci-Fi film would be Terminator 2), but it was certainly good enough for me to recommend. Check it out if you can!
Grade: B+
PS Also, if anyone has seen the remake-how is it Colin Farrell doesn't go to Mars?
No comments:
Post a Comment