Shades of the Matrix (Total Recall (DVD))

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Total Recall (DVD)
Date:	15/06/03 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent storyline, Lots of action, Imaginative

Disadvantages: Perhaps a little gory for some

It's bizarre really. Arnie 'I want to be President' Schwarzenegger does absolutely nothing for me. I don't like big muscley men, his acting ability is debatable yet somehow he just fits into the roles he's so commonly recognised for - particularly the Terminator and Total recall. I must have seen the latter at least 10 times. It's one of those comfort movies - you know you know the story, you know you like the story, you know it's not going to take too many brain cells rubbing together to get some enjoyment out of watching it. It's 'easy on the brain' film fodder and I love it!

Total Recall is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick entitled We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. This writer's stories have been the inspiration for many other movies such as Minority Report. Dutch Paul verhoeven directs with gusto and obviously had an affinity with Sharon Stone as he directed the titillating Basic Instinct one year before Total Recall. His is also the Director behind Starship Troopers and I believe there are shades of the Troopers humour seen in TR.

Arnie plays Douglas Quinn. Happily married to Lori (Sharon Stone), Quinn works the construction by day but by night is tormented by dreams of Mars and a beautiful women. But Arnie hasn't been to Mars - or so he thinks. Obsessed with the images he sees in his sleep Quinn decided to take a trip to Recall - a company who sell memories that your brain can't identify as being anything other than real. Take your holidays without the hassle of lost luggage and bad weather is their motto! Unfortunately the process of implanting the Mars holiday trip of a life-time trigger one almighty memory crisis for Quinn and from this point on he finds the world around him descending into Chaos. Everything he thought was real becomes a lie. Friends become enemies and suddenly he isn't even the man he thought he was. Scarier still there seem to be people all over the plac
e who just want to kill him!

Mars has been populated by a huge corporation run by the bad guy Vilos Cohaagen. Air comes at a price as everyone lives in glass domes to protect themselves from the inhospitable Martian environment. The first generation of settlers however weren't so lucky and as a result of inadequate protection those born on the planet are hideously deformed - known as the mutants. Soon we and Quinn discover that people on Mars aren't overly happy with the arrangements and there is a resistance bubbling away.

The players all portray their characters well. this isn't afterall an exercise in depth technique. Sharon Stone is much of a muchness as Lori but not a distraction. Ronny Cox is good as the control freak Cohaagen

Total Recall is a delightful gory romp through space. Be warned it is heavy on the gory though! There are many little touches to this movie that make it amusing and inventive - look out in particular for the automated taxi driver, the many coloured nail polish and the prostitute that has that little bit extra ;-) Despite probably being billed as an action sci-fi there's also a lot of black comedy happening here with some funny throwaway lines that you might miss on the first time watching. Notably is the end which I won't give away but it's a wonderful way to poke fun at your own film! Look out for the double bluff too that on first watching I thought was brilliant.

Another nice touch is the character Kuato which if you know your circus sideshow lore is very probably based on Jean Libbera and his parasitic twin who lived in the late 1800's. If you are curious then take a look at this link http://www.indonesia-sandi.co.id/freaks/twin/jean. html

Made in 1990 the special effects are somewhat dated now but that said they still work and can still make me cringe a little on occasional. Verhoeven wasn't afraid to show bullets through the skull and generally blow away as
many characters and passers by as he could. The humour however does take the edge off the sheer violence for violence sake making it watchable.

Personally watching this last night made me wonder whether the Wachowski brothers had taken some Matrix inspiration from this movie. There are many similarities in the themes raised and comparisons with the agents from the Matrix and the spies in Total Recall although the latter certainly cannot be said to be philosophical!

If you haven't seen this movie then I would recommend it. Not for it's gore, not for Arnie but for a cracking fast paced imaginative storyline that will keep you on the edge of your seat right until the last moment. Now all I have to hope for is that I live long enough to see Recall the company become a reality!

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