Total Recall. Rated M (action violence, coarse language and nudity). 118 minutes. Directed by Len Wiseman. Screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback.
Verdict: A visually dazzling example of the very best the
sic-fi action genre has to offer.
Philip K Dick’s short
story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale was first adapted for the screen as Total Recall (1990). Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers) and featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as
construction worker Douglas Quaid who ends up defending the human population of
Mars from evil oppressors, Total Recall went on to become a classic of the science fiction action genre.
What is particularly
interesting about Wimmer (Salt)
and Bomback’s (Unstoppable, Die
Hard 4.0) new adaptation is how
successfully it manages to incorporate the mind-bending complexities of Dick’s
extraordinary story while adding sufficiently involving new geographic
challenges. Instead of impending hostilities on Mars, the invading forces are
now preparing to travel through the Earth’s core (courtesy of a ripper ride
called ‘The Fall’) from ‘The United Federation of Britain’ to exterminate the
population of ‘The Colony’ – Australia.
