Film Review: Total Recall

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.

Film Review: The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy. Rated M (violence and mature themes). 135 minutes. Directed by Tony Gilroy. Screenplay by Tony Gilroy and Dan Gilroy.

Verdict: A nail-biting good time as the charismatic Jeremy Renner picks up where Matt Damon left off.

Like any good spy thriller, this fourth instalment of the celebrated Bourne film series that began with The Bourne Identity (2002), is laced with deception, endless double-crossing, spin-the-globe locations, lots of shooting and explosions, and the requisite big car chase scene at the end. Gilroy (who wrote the first three films in the series and co-wrote this one) obviously knows his way around the formula – and the end result is a nail-biting good time from start to finish.

When Jason Bourne (Matt Damon’s photo) turns up in New York and risks exposing the CIA’s entire covert ‘Outcome’ intelligence operation of which he is the key element, the decision is made to eliminate all the project’s ‘assets’ and shut the program down. What those responsible didn’t count on, was one of their assets – Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) – taking them on at their own game in an attempt to come in from the cold (both literally and metaphorically).

Film Review: The Sapphires

The Sapphires. Rated PG (mild violence, themes, coarse language and sexual references). 99 minutes. Directed by Wayne Blair. Screenplay by Tony Briggs and Keith Thompson.

Verdict: An incandescent little jewel of a film that is as equally entertaining as it is contemplative.

It is 1968, and when four talented young Aboriginal women audition for the chance to take their singing group to Vietnam to entertain the troops, they are blissfully unaware of the life-threatening dangers that will confront them. Their collective experiences of war, death and separation will change their lives forever.

Based on Briggs’s award-winning play of the same name, and inspired by the true story of his mother Laurel and aunt Lois, The Sapphires is a sparkling little jewel of a film that not only entertains, but also provides moments of powerful contemplation focussed on the true nature of soul, matriarchy, race and the comparatively threadbare connotations of privilege. One of the film’s many dramatic highpoints – a beautiful scene where the ‘stolen’ Kay (Shari Sebbens) is welcomed home to country – is as powerful and involving a scene as all the chaotic, Vietnam war-based sequences that have preceded it.

Film Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Rated MA 15+ (strong bloody violence). 105 minutes. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith (based on his graphic novel).

Verdict: An audacious re-imagining of Abraham Lincoln’s life story that boasts stunning attention to visual detail.

When, as a young boy, Abraham Lincoln witnesses his mother’s murder at the hands of a vampire, he vows to spend his life avenging her death. When he reaches adulthood, ‘Abe’ (Benjamin Walker, pictured) joins forces with another master vampire slayer Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper) to rid their small town of their vampire enemies – winning him enough fame and adoration to see him become the sixteenth President of the United States of America.