Rent Total Recall (1990)

Conspiracy Blockbuster - Total Recall review by Steve

This is the release that completed the transformation of Arnold Schwarzenegger from a crash test dummy in action pictures for genre fans- into 'Arnie', the improbable multiplex superstar. All those terse one-liners were scripted because he could hardly deliver speech, but still looked larger than life holding a big gun in a fight scene.

This might seem like a sci-fi comic strip with all the speech bubble dialogue, implausible shootouts and the comic asides. Only it's a cartoon with a body count in the  thousands. And a heck of a lot of swearing. And it was a huge box office smash, even though logic becomes less of a factor as the conspiracy plot unspools.

There's a decent premise taken from Philip K. Dick's wonderfully titled We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. And this gives all the wiz-bang some thematic content and most of the interest for those who didn't just buy a ticket for the stunts and state of the art effects. And the mayhem. The rest is like an Alfred Hitchcock wrong-man scenario.

Today, the art design of a futuristic Mars colony in 2084 feels like an old idea of the future. There's no internet! Everything is bulky... But that's the charm of long ago sci-fi. And now, in an age of ersatz CGI, the mechanical visual effects look even more fantastic. Personally, I like it for the concept... but the blockbuster production is a blast too!

It's Bonkers But Very Interesting Vision Of The Future - Total Recall review by GI

This is the second of three science fiction films that Dutch director Paul Verhoeven made in Hollywood starting with Robocop (1987) and culminating with Starship Troopers (1997). Taken together some style and thematic similarities leap out. The most obvious is their over-the-top violence, almost cartoonish in presentation which adds to the subtle humour that Verhoeven injects into these films. Another is the sheer weirdness of his vision for mankind's future, where some humans have increased psychic abilities and in Total Recall the appearance of extreme mutations. Loosely adapted from a Philip K. Dick novel this is set in the late 21st Century and follows humble construction worker Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is married to the beautiful Lori (Sharon Stone) but is plagued by repeated dreams involving Mars, now colonised, and a brunette woman. On a whim he decides to buy a memory implant that will recreate an adventure in his mind as if it really happened and he chooses an adventure as a secret agent on Mars. But it all goes wrong when it appears he has a hidden past that the implant reignites in his memory and soon he finds he's being hunted by assassins. This is a full on action film, very bloody shoot outs litter the film and the story has some neat effects (for it's time they were v advanced) and it twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing. It's been much debated as to what is actually going on as the story is based around memory and dreams but there are plenty of clues for the attentive viewer, not least the visit by Dr Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith) who basically reveals the final third of the film and Quaid's visit to ReKall for the implant has some big reveals too. Although the film is essentially studio bound it's still an enthralling vision of Mars and the future and it has a strong cast that includes Ronny Cox and Michael Ironside. It's certainly weird at times bordering on the perverse but that's what you expect from Verhoeven. It remains hugely entertaining so well worth a revisit and definitely one to see if you've never done so.