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Total Recall, 1990
In the near-ish future, Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is living a mundane life with his gorgeous wife, Lori (Sharon Stone). But when Doug goes to have a Mars vacation implanted in his mind, something goes very much awry, and Doug realizes that his life isn't really his life. Suddenly on the run from a host of baddies led by a man named Richter (Michael Ironside), Doug seeks answers by going to Mars. Once there, he connects with a woman named Melina (Rachel Ticotin) who Doug had previously encountered in a dream.
This movie was a big old mixed bag for me, with some real highs and some frustrating lows.
To begin with, the film has some great visuals and some really stellar practical effects and makeup. There are fun character designs and a really neat setpiece (pictured at the top of this review) in which Doug hides inside a robotic woman in order to pass through customs on Mars. Something that bugged me a bit, though, was that once the film was good at an effect, it was used over and over and over. Did someone involved in production have stocks invested in the glass they use for stunts? In all seriousness, I'm not sure I ever watched a film with so much shattered glass: people jumping through plate glass, bullets shattering windows, people punching out windows, etc. Likewise, the film was in love with the main character getting kicked in the groin, like, why?
Storywise, my favorite part of the film was the middle third, where the question is raised as to whether these events are really happening, or if they are a part of Doug's fantasy. The question lingers over the whole film in a neat way. Because Doug doesn't know who he really is (and by extension what he has done in the past), there is a ton of uncertainty that permeates the film in terms of who Doug can trust or whose side he should be on.
Acting wise, everything is really over the top, and since that's consistent, it didn't bother me too much. I did get a bit tired of the one-liners, despite understanding why many people love them or find them quotable.
Unfortunately, though, this was one of those sci-fi films that betrays a weird lack of imagination in certain respects when it comes to the future. I remember computers from the late 80s/early 90s. And the computers in this film . . . look a lot like them. This future is super clunky and a lot of things are analog that just don't make sense. And this lack of imagination extends to the story and characters. All of the really key players are men. All of the female characters (um, all two of them) are someone's girlfriend or wife. The film acknowledges the existence of gay people, but naturally every prostitute we see is a woman and all the customers of note are men.
I can see why this film is beloved. I felt like its magic only half worked for me. It was fine and I really enjoyed certain parts (the customs sequence with the robot woman and the part in the hotel where Doug is being "talked down" from his dream), but it kind of dragged in parts and the quippiness got on my nerves at times.
Total Recall, 1990
In the near-ish future, Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is living a mundane life with his gorgeous wife, Lori (Sharon Stone). But when Doug goes to have a Mars vacation implanted in his mind, something goes very much awry, and Doug realizes that his life isn't really his life. Suddenly on the run from a host of baddies led by a man named Richter (Michael Ironside), Doug seeks answers by going to Mars. Once there, he connects with a woman named Melina (Rachel Ticotin) who Doug had previously encountered in a dream.
This movie was a big old mixed bag for me, with some real highs and some frustrating lows.
To begin with, the film has some great visuals and some really stellar practical effects and makeup. There are fun character designs and a really neat setpiece (pictured at the top of this review) in which Doug hides inside a robotic woman in order to pass through customs on Mars. Something that bugged me a bit, though, was that once the film was good at an effect, it was used over and over and over. Did someone involved in production have stocks invested in the glass they use for stunts? In all seriousness, I'm not sure I ever watched a film with so much shattered glass: people jumping through plate glass, bullets shattering windows, people punching out windows, etc. Likewise, the film was in love with the main character getting kicked in the groin, like, why?
Storywise, my favorite part of the film was the middle third, where the question is raised as to whether these events are really happening, or if they are a part of Doug's fantasy. The question lingers over the whole film in a neat way. Because Doug doesn't know who he really is (and by extension what he has done in the past), there is a ton of uncertainty that permeates the film in terms of who Doug can trust or whose side he should be on.
Acting wise, everything is really over the top, and since that's consistent, it didn't bother me too much. I did get a bit tired of the one-liners, despite understanding why many people love them or find them quotable.
Unfortunately, though, this was one of those sci-fi films that betrays a weird lack of imagination in certain respects when it comes to the future. I remember computers from the late 80s/early 90s. And the computers in this film . . . look a lot like them. This future is super clunky and a lot of things are analog that just don't make sense. And this lack of imagination extends to the story and characters. All of the really key players are men. All of the female characters (um, all two of them) are someone's girlfriend or wife. The film acknowledges the existence of gay people, but naturally every prostitute we see is a woman and all the customers of note are men.
I can see why this film is beloved. I felt like its magic only half worked for me. It was fine and I really enjoyed certain parts (the customs sequence with the robot woman and the part in the hotel where Doug is being "talked down" from his dream), but it kind of dragged in parts and the quippiness got on my nerves at times.