Rating: 
Summary: Total Recall - One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best films!
Review: "Total Recall" is, quite simply, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's best action flicks and quite obviously, one of the ones that helped build his super star status at the time of its release. When this outstanding Sci-Fi action/thriller was released, it was right in the middle of Arnold Schwarzenegger's run of films where he could seemingly do no wrong. After watching the "Imagining Total Recall" documentary, it's even more surprising to find out that the original director wasn't Paul Verhoeven and the original Douglas Quaid wasn't to be Arny but Patrick Swayze; now that would've been an almost entirely different movie. Despite the exceptional script, I doubt Patrick Swayze would've garnered the attention that Arnold did for this memorable flick.One of the most interesting aspects behind the script of this film is the overall theme behind it, was it "real" or was it Douglas Quaid's Total Rekall experience? Another highly interesting aspect of this film is its supposed sequel which may have been scrapped for Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid for and election as the Governor of Kalifornia! If you pull up the Cast and Crew Information under the Special Features section and click on Arnold's screen, you'll see a listing for Total Recall 2 (2002), something that obviously hasn't happened but who knows what will happen in the future! Credit goes to Arnold for his performance in this film, which was an exceptional display in that his acting skills were only getting better and better; granted, he's not the best actor in the industry, but for his type of movies, he was at the top when this film was released. Sharon Stone puts on a wonderful performance in this film and this film can most certainly be directly attributed to being the one that led to her super stardom and being cast for some of her bigger roles. Ronny Cox also does another superior job of being the villain in this movie, a role he has always done well in. For Star Trek Voyager fans, it's interesting to note that Robert Picardo does the voiceover for the Johnny Cab. "Total Recall" is just another in a long list of outstanding and somewhat gory action flicks for director Paul Verhoeven. In this genre, he can most certainly be counted among the best directors to ever take up the mantle. Phillip K. Dick, the author of the short story "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale," the story that "Total Recall" is based upon, also wrote the story that "Blade Runner" was based upon and many more; just showing what a talent this writer has been. The Premise: Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) wakes up to find himself lying next to Lori (Sharon Stone), who he believes to have been his loving wife for the last eight years. Quaid expresses that he wishes to go to Mars but Lori doesn't want anything to do with it. As Quaid is coming home from work, he sees an advertisement for Total Rekall where he can take a virtual vacation and decides to try it. Not long after his virtual vacation begins, this action flick takes off on a breathtaking wild ride that doesn't slow down until the credits start rolling... I highly recommend this film to any and all who're interested in seeing one of the best Sci-Fi action movies ever made. One note of caution though, this film is not for the young, faint of heart or weak of stomach as is the norm with a Paul Verhoeven film. To achieve the film he's looking for, he doesn't spare the gore at all! {ssintrepid} Special Features: -Audio Commentary with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Director Paul Verhoeven
-"Imagining Total Recall" Documentary
-Rekall's Virtual Vacations
-"Visions of Mars" Featurette (This is especially interesting considering we have a rover on Mars right now)
-Visual Storyboard Comparisons
-Conceptual Art
-Photo Gallery
-Production Notes
-Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots
-Cast and Crew Information
Rating:
Summary: One of the all-time great science-fiction films.
Review: Total Recall is not only Arnold Schwarzenegger's best film; it is also one of the most complex cinematic statements ever made about reality, technology and totalitarianism. The script is cracklingly smart, with multiple setups and payoffs that require repeated viewing to fully comprehend. And the world of Total Recall is filled with little details that are now becoming closer and closer to reality: The "nature" wallpaper in Doug Quaid (Schwarzenegger)'s apartment; the "instant fingernail polish"; the "virtual space trip" that forms the core of the film's conceit; and the equation of government and corporation. As Doug Quaid, Schwarzenegger brings his trademark humour and one-liners. They fit the character well, making his quest for identity all that much more entertaining to watch; Sharon Stone has her breakthrough role as his insidious wife Lori; Rachel Ticotin is suitably heroic as sidekick Melina; and Ronny Cox offers up yet another terrific turn as villain Cohaagen, a much more complex and human character than his character in RoboCop, Dick Jones. Cox has a way of chewing up megalomaniacal lines yet also bringing moments of realness and vulnerability to his character, and as a result the film acquires a much richer psychological layer. All in all, this film's greatest power lies in its sociological concepts. "Blue sky on Mars"; "more freedom, more air"; "the walls of reality come crashing down"; "your whole life is just a dream"; "if I'm not me, who the hell am I?" Each little detail is worth days of pondering over if you're the kind of viewer who likes to analyze text, and if you're not, you can always revel in Verhoeven's effortless virtuosic filmmaking, the extremely brisk narrative, and the over-the-top action set pieces, where Verhoeven once again sets new standards for both bloodlust and kinetic energy.
Rating:
Summary: Great Sci-Fi, but Not Like the Book
Review: The 1990 movie version of Total Recall starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone. In the movie version of the story, Douglas Quaid doesn't want a memory of being a spy on Mars. He just wants a memory of a trip to Mars. But of course when the people at Recall try to implant that, they realize he was a spy. Instead of the complex "let him believe we mistakenly implanted it - refund half his money" plotting of the story, the movie just has them dump him into a cab. Quaid goes home quite convinced he was on Mars, and the bad guys from the Mars Corporation show up to kill him, now that he's regaining his memory. He takes them out and a spy-friend of his gives him equipment to remove the head transmitter and get over to Mars. Once there, he tries to figure out who he was, running into Melina (Rachel Ticotin) - an underground rebel. Once again we have a very Metropolis-like setup (same as in Minority Report) where those with money have lovely homes and luxury while those without money are on death's door. Quaid gets in to see the head of the rebels, Kuato, and at this point it turns out that Quaid was actually a double agent. He had been working for the Corporation to find out who Kuato was, and ALL of this - including the memory override, his life with fake-wife Lori, etc - was part of a deliberate plot for Quaid to break the rebels. The "new" Quaid is a rebel-lover, though, and he breaks into the alien artifacts that the Corporation has been hiding. It turns out they are able to turn Mars into an air-rich world, so that the Corporation no longer has a power hold over all of the poor people. Quaid and Melina are happy together in a Hollywood Ending. My Notes -
First, the minor changes. They turned Quail into Quaid. They turned wife Kirsten into Lori, who in the movie was lovey-dovey instead of nasty. Instead of the government benignly being after Douglas, being willing to help him out, it is now the Mars Corporation after Douglas, both trying to kill him and trying to 'egg him on' to get to Kuato so Kuato can be killed. This Corporation was risking an AWFUL lot on the sequence of events that 1) Douglas' repressed desire to go to Mars would be so strong that he'd seek an overlay, that 2) The overlay would fail in such a way that he'd get a bunch of his memories back, that 3) he wouldn't be psychotic as a result but would merrily head over to Mars to research it, 4) in his bungling state, even though he was undoubtedly a spy, he'd be brought right into Kuato's presence, 6) Kuato would indeed be killed, and 6) at the end they'd be able to sort out Quaid's brain enough to return him back to his pre-memory-messing evil state. That's all very hard to believe. Next, as if all of that wasn't bad enough, the point of the original story was that this Mars thing was just a PRELUDE to the real story. In the book, Quaid didn't even go to Mars. The Recall trip was enough to reveal he was a spy, at which point he pretty much shrugs his shoulders and says "OK well hopefully you can fix me so I don't remember my spy days." At which point they realize there was something even MORE important than his spy days in his brain. But in the movie version, it's all about him being a spy and saving the underclass of Mars from an air monopoly. That whole Metropolis situation wasn't in the book at all. Since probably 99% of the movie wasn't in the original storyline at all, it's a good thing they didn't keep the same title to try to claim it was the same story. Of course I imagine if the original title HAD been Total Recall, they might have kept it for the same reason they kept the title on the other wildly altered story-to-movie transformations of Dick's tales. I imagine the only reason they changed it in this case was that We Can Remember It For You Wholesale was too long to fit on movie posters. They did have aliens at the end, but instead of the aliens planning on coming to kill all Earthlings, the aliens were a kind, benevolent race that conveniently left an entire, functional air-making machine in place but not running. Why would they build it but not turn it on? If they built it millions of years in the past, what's the chances that the aliens back then knew the exact mixture of oxygen/etc. that us Earthlings would need to breathe and have a machine to make it? Why not turn on the machine back then so that a great planet would be waiting for us, instead of leaving us a nasty planet that we had to turn on ourselves? I did like the bit where Douglas has to decide if he really IS on Mars, talking to the Recall agent, or if this is just some sort of hallucination he's having in his brain while his body is back on Earth. To judge by a sweat bead is silly though. If he WAS psychotic, and believed he was on Mars, then he could easily have projected that sweat bead on the Recall agent as part of his psychosis. It would match the mind-state he would be in. I also have to say that people's eyes wouldn't bulge like that on Mars even if there wasn't air. I like the movie a lot, and have seen it many times. But as a version of a Philip K Dick story, it misses the boat. It's a great standalone sci fi story, though, with fun twists and turns, and fun 'background technology'. A personal favorite of mine is the wall-screen in their kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: A Limited Special Edition DVD in a novel keepcase design!
Review: "Total Recall" is set in the distant future after humans have colonized Mars. Vacation packages in this alternate reality are a couch potato's paradise. Now, all one has to do to take a "vacation" is to sit on a high-tech recliner while your chosen vacation program is downloaded, installed and ready to run right into your subconscious mind. The average consumer can also purchase "implanted memories." The main character, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is troubled by recurring dreams about a journey to Mars. To help figure out the meaning of his dreams, Quaid visits Rekall, Inc. where they sell implanted memories. While Quaid is undergoing the treatment he recalls a time in his life when he was a secret agent fighting against the evil Mars administrator (Rony Cox). Quaid finds himself in a nightmarish reality of a Martian mining colony controlled by a terrorizing dictator and rebellious Martians. Meanwhile, he is contacted by members from Rekall, Inc. who attempt to bring him back from an implanted program gone awry. Lori Quaid (Sharon Stone), his wife, is sent into the program ("The Lawnmower Man," and the more recent movie, "The Cell" come to mind) to bring him back from his coma-like state. Quaid is confronted with the difficulty in choosing which reality to accept as the true reality. Is Quaid really a secret agent or is he just imagining that he is due to the program? Which path does he choose? Does he run the course of the program until the secret agent saves everyone or does he choose to take a pill ("Matrix" style) so that Rekall, Inc. can recover him from the errors of the program? The first DVD release of "Total Recall" was a double-sided DVD with one side containing a 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen presentation, and the other side containing a "standard" presentation. The extras were average containing cast and crew histories, a teaser trailer, and a full trailer. This title has now been revisited with a new anamorphic widescreen presentation, plenty of special features, and packaged in a unique collectible tin "Mars" DVD case! Special features that appear on this new Limited Special Edition DVD include the "Imagine Total Recall" documentary that takes you behind-the-scenes with the film's stars, including a new rare interview with legendary actor Arnold Schwarzenegger! The DVD also features an audio commentary with director Paul Verhoeven and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a "Mars: Fact or Fiction" featurette, "Rekall's Virtual Vacation," and the "Visions of Mars" featurette! Artisan Entertainment is producing this new Limited Special Edition DVD of "Total Recall." Artisan is the same company that gave us the highly collectible "Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition" DVD! I expect similar results with this new reissue to be released on September 18, 2001!
Rating:
Summary: Not many people know this is "Minority Report's" prequel...
Review: (...)>Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, who is having a serious identity crisis. He lives in the future. In the future, people have the ability to live on Mars. Well, guess who wants to go to Mars? Unfortunately, Douglas' wife (Sharon Stone) is not too happy about that idea, and wants to stay on Earth. So, what's a guy to do if his wife doesn't want to move? Get a memory implant, of course! Using the latest technology, memories can be implanted in your brain in a matter of moments. You choose the destination, identity (spy, civilian, etc...) and Total Rekall (yes, Total Rekall) will install it for you. Warned by his friends not to get the implant, Quaid does so anyway. But something goes terribly wrong. Soon, his wife, friends and co-workers are all trying to kill him...but why? The answer may kill him. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfect for the role of Quaid. People can argue all they want about how bad an actor he is, but you can't say that after seeing this movie. He pulls the film's acting and stunts off with ease, all the while spitting out his catchy one-liners ("Consider this a divorce!"). Sharon Stone is probably at her best here, (...)This movie made her). Paul Verhoeven directs this film, and there are no arguments that this is his finest work - by far. He was the director who went on to make such "critically acclaimed" (...)films such as "Showgirls" and "Hollow Man." His only other film that was remotely good was "Basic Instinct," but this is still ten times better (...) The special effects in this movie are excellent; supposedly, they spent millions and millions on the fake Mars sets, and I bet they're glad it paid off. I recently bought the "Total Recall" Limited Edition DVD with a newly remastered digital makeover, Dolby Digital 5.1, behind-the-scenes documentary(s), a commentary by Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger, and much, much more. If you can find one now (it was limited edition so it might be off the market, now) I would recommend picking a copy up. (...)P>"Total Recall" stands as Arnold's most "thinkative" film and best conspiracy-type thriller. In fact, it is one of the best sci-fi/futuristic thrillers ever. (...) Anyway, I'm getting off the subject. "Total Recall" is a good movie, and a darn good one at that. It provides everything we want - and more - in a movie. 4.5/5 stars - maybe I'm overrating it. However, I feel it deserves that many stars...
Rating: 
Summary: "Come to Rekall!"
Review: Another Arnie flick? I've already lost count... Well anyway, this film, loosely based on Phillip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" is pretty much worth your while, especially since Arnie has one of his better roles here.
Doug Quaid (Arnie) has dreamed continuously of going to Mars. He talks with his wife Lori (Sharon Stone) about it, but she does not like the idea. One day, Quaid hears about a company named Rekall that can take you on a virtual vacation. Arnie tries it out, only to find that nothing is what it seems... and that he may not really be who he thinks he is. He travels to Mars, and discovers that he is a rebel leader fighting against the ruthless Cohagen (Ronnie Cox) and his man Richter (Michael Ironside).
Arnie acts well in this flick, Sharon Stone is good as his wife, and Cox and Ironside act as if they are truly evil. The story is somewhat complex, and will have you hooked.
BUT: Don't forget that this is a Paul Verhoeven film, and Paul Verhoeven=Lots of shooting and gore. This is definately not for the squeamish, but if you can stomach it, you be on for a wild ride.
Rating:
Summary: One of the great recent SF thrillers
Review: Paul Verhoeven took it on the chin from fans of Philip K. Dick for this film (just as he did from Heinlein fans for his odd take on _Starship Troopers_). But this nonstop SF action-thriller -- besides being, as its legion of fans will attest, a helluva lot of fun to watch -- is actually a fair translation to the screen of Dick's 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale'. I won't give away any spoilers here, but watch it carefully: are you _sure_ that by the end of the movie you know what's real and what isn't? Readers of Dick's brilliant short story probably wouldn't have cast Arnold in the lead role, either. But all that proves is that we aren't Paul Verhoeven. The movie works. Arnold is in terrific form here as Douglas Quaid, a guy who wants to go to Mars so badly that the subject has become an obsession. He nips off to Rekal, Incorporated, to get a set of false memories implanted, and the rest is SF film history. The special effects are extremely good and the Martian landscape is pretty well realized (although some portions of the 'science' part of the science fiction are decidedly lacking). The supporting cast is magnificent, from Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin to Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox. As we expect from Verhoeven, the dialogue includes quite a bit of profanity and the action includes a lot of gory violence. But if you weren't okay with that, you wouldn't be looking for an Arnold movie, would you? I have the Special Limited Edition (the one with the Mars-shaped metal box). The 'special' features are nice; Schwarzenegger and Verhoeven provide some good commentary and the 'making-of' documentary is worth watching once. But the real star is the movie itself, which (despite some cliches) manages to stay fresh after numerous repeated viewings. Pop it in and crank it up.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF ARNOLD'S BEST
Review: A MAN TAKES A DREAM VACATION TO MARS. SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY, HE LOSES HIS MEMORY. AND WITH SADISTIC VILLAINS AFTER HIM, HE MUST FIGHT TO STSAY ALIVE. THIS VIOLENCE-FILLED ACTION/SCI-FI MOVIE IS ONE OF ARNOLD'S BEST. FILLED WITH EXPLOSIVE ACTION, THIS IS A MUST-SEE MOVIE. IT'S TOO BAD THAT A LOT OF SCHWARZENEGGER'S RECENT MOVIES FAIL TO BE THIS GOOD. FOLLOWED BY A CABLE TV SERIES.
Rating:
Summary: Sci Fi Classic
Review: This is a true science fiction film directed by master filmmaker Paul Verhoeven. Arnold does some of his best acting and Sharon Stone delivers in a pivotal supporting role. Right on par with Robocop and Starship Troopers.
Rating:
Summary: One of Arnie's finest
Review: He may be governor of California now, but Arnold's past is studded with high points, and this is one of them. The storyline, everybody knows by now; it's a tale of faulty memory and as Arnold finds out more about his past, so does the audience. The climax of the film is suitably epic, and this may be one of the last great films to use miniatures instead of CGI. In any event, the effects look fantastic, even to this day. But the acting and casting is on par with the FX, thankfully. Ronny Cox continues his association with director Paul Verhoeven (from "Robocop" fame) to play the villain once more, and we've got Sharon Stone RIGHT before she broke big. Rachel Ticotin is capable, and thankfully, we've got veteran Canadian character actor Michael Ironside as Cohagen's chief henchman, Rictor. Arnold would go on to replicate elements of this story in "The Sixth Day", but to less impressive effect. 15 years of advancement in CGI graphics can't replace a good story, and here's the proof. As far as the DVD treatment goes, this one is almost as good as the "Conan The Barbarian" set; one of the finest on the market. I can't believe that in a film like this there aren't any deleted scenes, but in any event, the sound and picture quality are excellent. One of my favourite movies to watch every now-and-then. A classic action/sci-fi movie that's aged pretty well.
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