Director: Len Wiseman
Talent: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston,
John Cho and Bill Nighy
Release Date: 29 August 2012
The director John Waters once remarked that it would make more sense if filmmakers remade bad films since they weren’t done correctly. Whether Len Wiseman had this idea in mind when remade Paul Verhoeven’s enjoyable but hokey 1990 sci-fi Total Recall is unknown. Nevertheless, it’s a film that certainly has more potential than a remake of something like Oldboy (which is unfortunately coming soon, courtesy of Spike Lee).
In this Recall we have Schwarzenegger replaced by the slightly more cerebral Colin Farrell, as Doug Quaid, a future factory worker who is bored with his assembly-line existence. Ignoring repeated warnings, he decides to head over to Rekall, a company that implants artificial memories, and buys their exciting-looking “secret agent” package. Nearly instantaneously, Doug is thrust into beating up SWAT teams and flying car pursuits – then he discovers that his longing to be a pretend spy is actually just masking his former life as a real spy. With his memory totally recalled, Doug sets his sights on mysterious politician Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston) while being chased through an impressively Dickian cyber-city by his evil double-agent wife (Kate Beckinsale).
Philip K. Dick’s stories have always proved a little too alluring, with their jetpacks and robots, for Hollywood to ignore while their tone and conclusions are too dejecting to accurately adapt into a film. Total Recall suffers from this imbalance; although occasionally evoking the style and atmosphere of Blade Runner or Minority Report, its tendency towards bullets and bangs means it just becomes Bourne…In Space!
Even the original had Arnold scratch his head with paranoia occasionally, whereas aside from some top-notch eyebrow-furrowing from Farrell, this remake sticks to the explosions. Combining this with a cavalcade of dreary supporting performances and conventional sci-fi clichés ensures Total Recall is ironically unmemorable, although this might mean we can hope for a superior remake circa 2030.
Words: Alex Towers
