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.

As expertly as Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0, Underworld: Evolution, Underworld) guides us through it all, the film belongs to production designer Patrick Tatopoulos (Die Hard 4.0, Underworld: Evolution, I, Robot, Dark City, Independence Day) whose visually-arresting environments and the roles that they play in the story are nothing short of spectacular. Not since Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (that was also adapted from a Philip K Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), have futuristic worlds been superbly imagined and flawlessly created for the screen.

The cast, constantly upstaged by the production design and art direction as they are, do a great job of keeping up with the breath-draining pace. Colin Farrell is great as the bewildered hero, while Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) proves herself to be yet another fearless foe and Jessica Biel (New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day) easily accounts for her equally-fearless duties as a member of The Colony’s organised resistance fighters.

While it certainly doesn’t belong in the same company as the classics of the genre it lovingly and respectfully references, there are enough outstanding, gravity-defying action set pieces (the black cube elevator escape sequence is a stunner) to keep even the most restless and impatient film-goer pinned to their seat for every minute of its near-perfect running time.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.