Review: Total Recall

Set in the 22^nd Century, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as construction worker Douglas Quaid, who has always been fascinated by Mars. Doug hears about a company called Rekall, which provides ‘synthetic’ vacations, memory implants that offer you what is considered to be the next best thing to actually travelling. Doug visits Rekall, and before you know it he’s signed himself up for an ‘Adventure Package’ where on his synthetic holiday he’ll be a secret agent on a dangerous mission where he’ll kill the bad guys and get the brunette (Rachel Ticotin) to boot. Because this is a movie, something goes screwy during the procedure and Doug wakes up and is convinced he really is the secret agent and that his other life was actually fake and based on artificially implanted memories. Now all of a sudden, bad guys (led by Michael Ironside and Michael Champion) are trying to kill him, and Doug ends up joining a band of Mars revolutionaries in their attempt to overthrow the evil Cohaagen (Ronny Cox). Sharon Stone plays Doug’s wife on Earth who tries to dissuade him from going to Rekall, Robert Costanzo plays Doug’s co-worker, Ray Baker and Roy Brocksmith play Rekall employees, Mel Johnson Jr. plays a fast-talking cab driver on Mars, Dean Norris plays a Mars mutant, and Marshall Bell turns up as the mysterious Kuato.

 

I’ve always liked this 1990 Paul Verhoeven (“RoboCop”, “Basic Instinct”, “Starship Troopers”) film from a 20-page Philip K. Dick short story. In fact, I like it very much, it’s just that I like Verhoeven’s “RoboCop” and some of Schwarzenegger’s other vehicles even more, so my enthusiasm for this one might seem a little mild. It’s a very, very good film, even if one feels an even better film could’ve been made out of Dick’s story than the cold-blooded action movie approach Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger take with it. It’s a short enough story that you could take all kinds of different approaches to the same central idea, surely. I’ve heard some suggest that David Cronenberg (“Scanners”, “The Fly”) would’ve been a better fit for the material, but I’m not sure he’d give us much of a different film than Verhoeven, especially with Schwarzenegger in the lead. They’re quite similar filmmakers in terms of vision and violence, for one thing. I do think it could’ve been a film more concerned with the ideas in Dick’s original story than in copious violence and Schwarzenegger action heroics. However, we’ve got what we’ve got, and what we’ve got is pretty terrific. Since this happens to be a very fine example of what it is (A Schwarzenegger vehicle directed by Paul Verhoeven), I shall try to spend most of the review focusing on what it is, instead of wishing it were something else. This film might not be quite top-level Schwarzenegger, but it’s far and away at the head of the next group of Schwarzenegger’s best films (Which would be in no particular order: “True Lies”, “Twins”, “Kindergarten Cop”, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”, and “Terminator: Dark Fate”). It’s also a film with a genuine, interesting vision from Verhoeven. A cold, violent, grotesque vision, but a unique vision nonetheless.

 

We start with a terrific music score by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith (“The Omen”, “Planet of the Apes”) doing his best Basil Poledouris (“Conan the Barbarian”, “RoboCop”) impersonation. Meanwhile, it’s a clever idea for a film, and although it’s at the service of the usual blockbuster action and violence from both Schwarzenegger and Verhoeven, it’s clearly a step up in ambition for Schwarzenegger. For starters, he’s mostly playing an average guy, albeit one whose alter ego is kind of a spy hero. Although the red, sandy exteriors are dull and rather unimaginative, the depiction of Mars here is an interesting and bizarre one. It’s like a grotesque “Star Trek: DS9”, but violent and sexualised…’coz Paul Verhoeven is the director. The makeup FX by Rob Bottin (“The Howling”, “The Thing”) have dated slightly, but not as much as you might expect for a film from 1990. They’re good, grotesque fun and among the highlights of the film. As for the non-practical FX, this is one of the earliest uses of CGI, which we all know dates quicker than practical FX did. I’ve seen a heck of a lot worse and a heck of a lot more dated FX than what the FX team have come up with here, but I won’t argue that the film hasn’t aged terribly well on the CGI/blue-screen front (The fact that I’m referring to blue-screen instead of green-screen tells you something already, I suppose). As you’d expect from uber-violent Dutch bad boy filmmaker Verhoeven it’s quite a violent film, not just in terms of blood but also a lot of bone-cracking violence. If that’s your thing (and I’ll admit I’m certainly partial to that sort of thing from time to time) you’ll enjoy what the film has to offer throughout. Yes, one thinks the film could’ve taken a loftier, non-Arnold action movie blockbuster approach to it, but it’s bloody enjoyable for what it is.

 

The cast is mostly terrific, with Schwarzenegger giving one of his better performances up to that point. Far and away the best performances though, come from veteran character villains Ronny Cox and Michael Ironside, as the lead villain and lead henchman, respectively. Cox, who was terrific in Verhoeven’s “RoboCop” is a bit like Dan O’Herlihy’s character in that film, but different enough not to be a re-tread. The cold-blooded Ironside (one of my favourite actors – watch “Scanners” and the underrated “Visiting Hours” for his best efforts) couldn’t be more perfectly cast as Cox’s equally cold-blooded henchman. Michael Champion (who I believe eventually left Hollywood for God) is also solid as another henchman. Rachel Ticotin, another person who doesn’t get talked about nearly enough, is effectively cast as Schwarzenegger’s tough leading lady. There’s also fun sleazy work by Ray Baker and Mel Johnson Jr., and solid character work by Robert Costanzo, Roy Brocksmith, and the unmistakable voice of Bob Picardo as the voice of Johnnycab, one of the film’s funniest jokes. I normally like hard-arse Marshall Bell in most things (“Elm Street 2” wasn’t his fault), but I’m not sure he’s cast to his best advantage as the mysterious mutant rebel/spiritual leader Kuato. I wouldn’t have cast such a macho, normally villainous actor in the role. Your mileage may differ on that, though. The only real dud in the cast is Sharon Stone. I suppose it’s one of her better performances, but since all of her other performances outside of “Basic Instinct” are varying degrees of terrible, it’s not really saying much. She’s still pretty poor. I think she reveals way too much about her character far too early, which is a real shame.

 

Although the film could’ve been even better and more ambitious, this is a damn fine film for what it is, given its star and filmmaker. Lots of Schwarzenegger action, lots of dark humour, and Verhoeven’s trademark bleak, violent vision. It’s a shame about Sharon Stone, otherwise this one’s another winner from the inimitable Verhoeven. Dick’s short story (‘We Can Remember it for You Wholesale’) has been adapted by the trio of Dan O’Bannon (“Dark Star”, “Alien”, “Heavy Metal”, Tobe Hooper’s “Lifeforce”), Ronald Shusett (“Alien”, “Above the Law”, “Freejack”), and Gary Goldman (one of my all-time favourites, “Big Trouble in Little China”), with input from Jon Povill (who produced and wrote several episodes of TV’s OK “Sliders”).

 

Rating: B+