Total Recall Movie Reviews

And you thought it's time to recall... rewind... reboot... the 1990 movie by the same name. Well, the plot is almost same, but rest assured, Total Recall 2012 is understandably more hi-tech, racy and edge-of-the-seat kind of sci-fi thriller. But first, time for a little self-recall: Enter Circa 1990. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quail has a dream to live on Mars. Getting him back to reality each time is his wife Lori, till realities clash with memories

Total Recall has a Minority Report hangover. The reason could be that both trace their origin to the works of the same writer, Philip K Dick. But more than that, it is director Len Wiseman's treatment and handling that recalls Minority Report (and a bit of Blade Runner, if you will). Set in a futuristic time when the world is ravaged by warfare, Total Recall begins at a dystopian moment when much of the population has crammed into United Federation of Britain

Did we even need a remake of Total Recall? The 1990 original was something we'd never seen before. It had a heady mix of intriguing ideas, cutting-edge special effects and overblown action set pieces. Director Paul Verhoeven had given us more than we could've imagined. But now we have a bland new version courtesy Len Wiseman. And this one offers nothing novel, except a few changes in the storyline and an orgy of action sequences

In the future according to Total Recall — the new version, not the 1990 movie with the same name and the same alleged source in a Philip K Dick story — Earth has been devastated by chemical warfare, leaving only two populated areas connected by a tunnel through the planet’s core. On one end is a sleek successor to Britain, an imperial metropole that exploits the teeming, watery Colony (Australia with elements of futuristic Hong Kong and Bangkok) down below

We’re informed, at the opening of Total Recall, that it’s a time when living space is earth’s most valuable resource. Wait a minute. This isn’t science fiction. Go to Mumbai or Manhattan and they’ll tell you this is present-day reality. If filmmakers are going to set their films far in the future — the end of the 21st century, in this case — shouldn’t they be dreaming up scenarios that are worlds removed from today? But the director, Len Wiseman

How ironic that a film whose key conceit involves wiped-out memories is so easily forgettable itself… The new Total Recall, adapted from a Phillip K Dick short story, and remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarznegger starrer, is a joyless bore of a film that possesses none of the campy charm of its predecessor. Set somewhere in an unspecified future where all of Earth has been destroyed, save for an elite United Federation of Britain and The Colony

What made Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 movie so memorable were the twists and turns, which were way ahead of their time back then. And at Arnold Schwarzenegger at his best, it was a great blend of pulp, cutting edge special effects and sci fi action. This time around, writer Kurt Wimmer merely rearranges the furniture of the original film by adding some chase scenes and completely sucking out the humour

Ambitious doesn't begin to describe a venture that puts a fretting Farrell in the shoes of the unflappable Schwarzenegger, and that has a "United Federation of Britain" controlling the entire "Eastern Hemisphere (think Chinatown)" as a "colony" sometime in the not-too-distant future. What comes next shouldn't surprise then. Total Recall isn't a recall of the 1990 Schwarzenegger film, and it definitely bears no resemblance to the Philip K Dick short story

We’re informed, at the opening of Total Recall, that it’s a time when living space is earth’s most valuable resource. Wait a minute. This isn’t science fiction. Go to Mumbai or Manhattan and they’ll tell you this is present-day reality. If filmmakers are going to set their films far in the future — the end of the 21st century, in this case — shouldn’t they be dreaming up scenarios that are worlds removed from today?

Ambitious doesn't begin to describe a venture that puts a fretting Farrell in the shoes of the unflappable Schwarzenegger, and that has a "United Federation of Britain" controlling the entire "Eastern Hemisphere (think Chinatown)" as a "colony" sometime in the not-too-distant future. What comes next shouldn't surprise then. Total Recall isn't a recall of the 1990 Schwarzenegger film, and it definitely bears no resemblance to the Philip K Dick short story