My Total Recall Review

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It's about $8 at most cinemas here too, unless you go for IMAX or 3D obviously.
I'm guessing you meant £'s and not $'s, Nausicaa? I don't know that you'll pay that little, even 'oop north.'

£8.25 is the cheapest adult ticket near me and that's the Super Saver, Mon-Thurs, before 5pm price. After that it's £9.75. Then it's an extra £2 for a 3D film, plus another £1 for the glasses and another £1.50 if you want the 'premier seats'.

For those in $US, that's $12.92, then $15.27. $3.13 for 3D and $1.56 for the glasses and another $2.34 for the premier seating.

No idea how much popcorn, drinks, etc cost, as I've not been in forever and I don't partake when I'm there. However, I'm guessing the cheapest popcorn will be at least a fiver ($7.82). Just one of the many, many reasons I don't go to the cinema.
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I've still got my reciept from seeing TDKR Honeykid...

Medium cola (not even proper branded cola) was £3.50 ($6)... £5 for a large ($9)
Movie would have cost £16 but I booked in advance so it only cost £10.50 ($17)

Movie and a drink cost me £14... about $25.

The popcorn was about £5 for a medium ($9). £8 for a large (over $10). I didn't have popcorn though. Too expensive.


If I went large on both drink and popcorn and bought the ticket on the day rather than booking in advance it would have come to £29.50... about $50... just for one person.
Disgusting.



Slimgee55's Avatar
Until we lose ourselves we have no hope of finding ourselves
Gosh now I don't even feel that jipped for this movie...
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I'm guessing you meant £'s and not $'s, Nausicaa? I don't know that you'll pay that little, even 'oop north.'
Nope, I meant $ for the $ users on here who were telling us their prices, $8 is about £5/£6 here in Britain, that's how much it costs me to go to the cinema anyway.



I went in to this movie with mixed feelings on it. I really enjoy the original movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and knew if I expected the same thing I would be disappointed, so tried to go in looking at it as being a completely new movie. I am glad I did, but there was just enojugh in here to remind you that it is a remake of the original.


The first major change is that it does not take place on Mars, this was a big surprise for me as Mars is central to the original, and where much of the action takes place. This movie is set between two places, The Colony, better known to us as Austrailia, and United Federation of Britain (UFB). Chemical warfare has killed off the rest of the planet and made it uninhabitable. Many workers from The Colony work at the UFB and travel to work on a giant gravity elevator that goes through the earth. During this process gravity in the lift changes, which produces some great effect, and this lift, is central to the story.


The special effects in the movie are brilliant, and come thick and fast, which are jaw dropping at times, and the environment in which they are in are brilliant. I love the settings of both UFB and The Colony. Both very different but both visually stunning. I was really impressed, specifically with The Colony, it was really believable.


The story was quite different. In this version Quaid is brainwashed and living with his wife, that has been placed there and is really a UFB agent. But alot of the dialogue between the two was very reminiscent of the original, while I was watching it, I thought it was exactly the same in places.


Quaid goes to Rekall, because he is having dreams that he is a secret agent, and the doctor at Rekall is none other than John Cho (Harold from Harold and Kumar). He doesn't even get his implat before the robot police storm in and he takes them all out having some sort of memory as his former life as a secret agent.


At this point I will just let you know that this is when it started to remind me of 'I, Robot', as opposed to Total Recall, and I had this feeliing throughout the movie, the modern technology and the designs, make it feel more like 'I, Robot'.


Qauid soon discovers that he is a double agent from UFB who goes undercover to infiltrate the Resistance and then discovers he is on the wrong side. The basic plot is that UFB want to invade and destory the Colony so they can repopulate it themselves as space is the most precious comodity. Quaid/Hauser is trying to stop the invasion from happening.


The plot is pretty thin to be fair, with plot holes left, right and centre. Some things just plain didn't make sense to me. Quaid's former wife is hell bent on stopping him, because people used to talk about him as being the best secret agent, and she is jealous?


The ending does give you some kind of a pay off with slightly more closure than the original, but you just don't have as much connection to the characters, and I didnt feel bought into the story.


I must point out my favourite bit is when Quaid is going throught security to UFB, and there is a woman infront of him, reminiscent of the woman who Arnie is dressed up as on Mars, who is asked how long she is staying for, in which she replies 'Two weeks'. This was a nice little touch from the original.
Colin Farrell plays a pretty decent part, but everyone was were pretty forgetable.


Overall, this movie was somewhat enjoyable, but I felt a little let down. If it wasn't for the original, this would just be another Sci-Fi movie, high on special effects, less attention to everything else. It is definately not the 1990 classic, but if you are a fan of the original it is worth watching.



Recently watched movie review:
*Total Recall (2012)- 3.5/5



I never saw the original 'Total Recall' (1990), but the 2012 'Total Recall' I saw looked great! This time around 'Colin Farrell' plays as Douglas Quaid, a factory worker who has violent nightmares and is dissatisfied with his life. Douglas decides to visit 'Rekall' so he can be implanted with artificial memories of a life he would like to have. Things go wrong at 'Rekall' and Douglas finds himself being shot at by an armed SWAT team. Douglas finds out his wife, Lori (Kate Beckinsale), isn't really his wife and that she's a secret agent. Now he is on the run as he joins forces with agent, Melina (Jessica Biel), while he tries to figure out who he is and why his wife wants him dead.

Total Recall is filled with inventive special effects and awesome visuals. The actors do a nice job with the script and the 'storm trooper' like robots are kind of neat. There's plenty of action, but at times the action sequences felt like a grind to sit through. The film keeps you guessing throughout, but with so much action and not enough story or 'mind games', you stop caring about the characters. On a small note, some audiences may get annoyed with the 'lens flares' (usually a noticeable blue light), but I don't mind them as they give the film its own visual style. If you want to see Total Recall in theaters, it's definitely a theater movie as the sound is top-notch and you'll want to see the beautiful visuals on the big screen. Overall, Total Recall gets a recommended 'rent.'




Hello all,

This new Total Recall was a waste of time. All the funky martian characters were missing and Colin Farrell was actually kind of lame.
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I was considering going to see it, but not sure if I should bother now!



This new Total Recall was a waste of time. All the funky martian characters were missing and Colin Farrell was actually kind of lame.
they took all the cool quirky creativity out of the original and replaced it with michael bay stock footage.

the movie jumped the shark the moment when colin took out 10 agents. They took out all the play between reality and fantasy, and the parts he changed made it worse. EG when the friend tries to convince colin that he's having a delusional breakdown, the original made sense and was so much better. The bead of sweat on the guys skull vs the tear of her face. The changes they made ot hte resistance leader, changing from mars to "colony", the tracking sensor through the nose vs the hand. all awful. I think one big reason was turning an R movie in to pg13. This pg13-ification of movies has gone too far, now even destroying remakes.


this new movie really made me appreciate arnold. Say what you want about his acting, but he's magnetic and full of charisma compared the dead fish colin in this movie.



I have to agree with Graham Blake 1984,the film is visually mesmerizing. I regret I didn't watch it at the movie theatres because we want to see visual SPECTACLE and then you can discuss later the things afford or against. This setting was inspired in a Canadian architecture:





The chair was the same almost



The architecture of the film was not Martian red terrain but a combo of Minority Report with Robocops included and Blade Runner:



They imitated the scene with a fat woman at customs and you can compare with the original here in case you failed to notice (even the dialogue):







I agree you get tired of the roller coaster unstoppable action and character's "wife" is a female Terminator and only that. The story is weak and Collin Farrell can't fill the screen like Arnold does in spite his efforts to grow muscles.
The elevator through the center of the earth is wonderful to see though will never be achieved in real future.
This is not Philip Dick but I enjoyed it very much despite its flaws. It was a bold move though.



A system of cells interlinked
changing from mars to "colony"...

this new movie really made me appreciate arnold. Say what you want about his acting, but he's magnetic and full of charisma compared the dead fish colin in this movie.
The 90s script added the Mars stuff, as it was never a part of the source material.

That said, the Arnold comment is spot on here. We know Arnold is limited in range and all that, but there are several films where the guy just completely owns the roll he is playing, acting be damned. Total Recall is one of those films, in my opinion. Even knowing this, Arnold STILL dials in a better performance when to comes to acting lost and confused. Arnold careens through events like a pinball, carried along by the momentum of events and the mystery at hand, while Farrell sleepwalks through a bunch of video game sequences and overblown action sequences, each indistinguishable from the last.

On to All Knowing's comments... I think he has a fair point. There ARE some compelling visual sequences in the flick, like stuff concerning The Fall, and the cityscape views, and Vampy McUnderworld is always pleasing to look at as far as I am concerned.

I must agree with the empty package comparisons above though, in that this is a nice shiny box that isn't filled with anything of note.

I liked this more than I thought I would, but it's still inferior to the first film. If I saw this again, I have a feeling I wouldn't like it as much. I also still wonder why they had to wipe this guy's memory in this version, since there was no psychic involved this time around...
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What is your opinion on this remake?
I think Total Recall 2012 is the best remake ever made - beating remakes like Scarface, The Thing and King Kong (2005).




The reason why I feel this way is because of the film's sharp balance of elements - action, social commentary, great visuals, set designs, storytelling balance, pacing and tone.