Total Recall (1990)

Good concept, poorly executed.

good back-story, and good acting

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Arnie started the 90s with a bang with Total Recall- an awesome science fiction action film from Dutch Paul Verhoevan. Arnie plays a man who has his memory implanted with an adventure on Mars but soon he realizes that he may actually be on the planet and not just in his memories. Confused? Well, you should see this film to truly understand the plot. Although much like every Arnold vehicle this one has its fair share of action and explosion, there is also an underlying theme and deep meaning in there. Also, Sharon Stone looks stunning

This movie is a masterpiece of both action and science fiction and is another one of my favorites. in the film Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a bored construction worker Douglass Quaid who wants more in life and wants to go to Mars. an idea that his wife Laurie hates. But when he watches an advertisement for a program called rekall, he immediately gains interest. So he visits rekall and asks for a memory of being a secret agent on Mars but something goes wrong because he really was a secret agent on Mars. some people have speculated that the whole film is in Quaid's head and he's at rekall being treated but there are so many problems with that. for one thing if Quaid were dreaming then the whole movie would be told from his point of view and there are scenes without Quaid in them. Also there is a scene where the villain Vilos Cohaagen hires a rekall representative Dr Edgemar to try and capture Quaid. If Edgemar was telling the truth and Quaid's procedure went wrong, why would he bring in Laurie who tried to kill him earlier? if he were being honest he would have brought in someone Quaid could trust like Bob McClane who is the guy who Quaid spoke to at rekall about getting the memory. he has no reason to lie to him about his procedure. This movie only has one CGI effect in it: the x-ray machine the rest of the effects are done with prosthesis and makeup. i like this idea because 1990's CGI dates faster than milk back then. The prosthesis effects look great even today because they actually did them. there are some plot holes here and there but i don't care because the plot, characters, humor, and the action scenes are so great that they overshadow the few flaws (which are more like nitpicks). The ending of the film has some of the greatest gun play i have ever seen. Quaid uses a hologram to trick the henchmen so he can shoot the crap out of them and start the reactor to give Mars an atmosphere. However the villain shows up and tries to warn him that it could destroy the planet (even though he probably is lying to keep himself in power since he's the dictator of Mars). To sum it up Cohaagen sets off a bomb that starts sucking them into the poisonous atmosphere of Mars but Quaid starts the reactor just in time to save him and his girlfriend Melina and kill Cohaagen in a hilariously over-the-top fashion where his face explodes. So Mars has an atmosphere and Quaid is a hero who saved the planet. Earlier i said that there is a possibility that Quaid is dreaming and it's part of his rekall procedure. but he asked to be a secret agent on mars not a rebel working against the corrupt government run by a terrorist dictator. and while his former self Carl Hauser was a secret agent working for Cohaagen pretending to be part of the rebellion, that isn't what Quaid really asked for. he asked to be secret agent who saved the planet as in for the government. but in the end who cares? the movie is so awesome that i can't get enough of it. It is one of Schwarzenegger's best films and you really should check it out.

If this film had been billed as comedy instead of science fiction I would have given it a higher rating. But, alas, it seems that the director was only trying to appeal to the most unsophisticated audiences possible; and in that regard I guess he succeeded. The acting was terrible throughout. Arnold was his usual wooden self with some of the worst dialogue imaginable. Even his patented tough guy one-liners were predictable and lame (he says "consider that a divorce" after shooting Sharon Stone, his pretend wife, in the head). And most of his actions scenes, which comprised most of the movie, were simply laughable. It seems to me that Arnold's best acting work is as a robot.Sharon Stone wasn't much better unless her goal was to portray a cartoonish, sleazy bitch that no one could take seriously. If that was the case she pulled it off pretty well.It actually scares me to see so many reviewers rate this piece of trash 10 stars. What were they watching! How low are their standards! I suppose if all it takes are a bunch of loud explosions, lots of breaking glass, and completely implausible chase scenes to make one happy, then this film delivers on all counts. But is that what it has come to?After viewing this gigantic failure I Googled Philip K Dick to see if he was still around to witness this atrocious portrayal of his work. He wasn't. It was sad to see that he died so young (53), but at least he didn't have to witness this insult to his talent and imagination. Oh well, we'll always have Blade Runner!

Acting: 10/10: Arnie, Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside, all in one movie!Plot: 10/10: Excellent quest for discovery of past secrets. The protagonist doesn't know why he's being hunted and as the movie advances we discover the complexity of the world he lives in and his past. There are many plot twists and they're all plausible. It's just so much more complex and better than contemporary movies. I watched it when I was pretty young and loved it, and after a few years I watched it again and found out many things I didn't understand or didn't notice, so I enjoyed it even more.Action: 10/10: Gunfights, chases, fist-fights, Arnie.This movie is so much better than the remake on all parameters, except maybe the special effects. I'd love to see a sequel with comparably good plot.