Subject: Retrospective: Total Recall (1990)

From: Christopher Null <[email-masked]>
Date: 7 Jul 2001 03:48:49 GMT

TOTAL RECALL
A film review by Jeremiah Kipp
Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com

Arnold Schwarzenegger made a smart bet with Paul Verhoeven's futuristic
splatter-pic Total Recall.  Unlike most of the hulking killers from his
body of work (The Terminator, Conan the Barbarian), befuddled
construction worker Douglas Quaid is at a loss over how to proceed with
his memory-bending dilemma.  No amount of physical brawn will crack the
central question: Who am I?  Am I who I think I am, and if I'm someone
different, does that mean I can move beyond my former crimes?  The sleek
band of assassins are chasing him through the Orwellian streets, and
poor Quaid may be kicking the hell out of them, but Arnie is as
terrified as he's ever been.  Inside of this mountain is a mousy
everyman -- he never asked to become a superspy.

Quaid should be A-OK.  He seems satisfied with his job as a construction
worker and is married to a seemingly docile wife (Sharon Stone).  He
gets on well with his fellow employees, though his head is often in the
clouds as he dreams of Mars.  How to solve the problem?  A handy-dandy
trip to the false memory transplant center will make all his dreams come
true, asking the technogeeks to make him believe he's a top secret agent
en route to Mars on a mission (with the woman of his fantasies being a
sassy brunette, as opposed to his demure blonde wife).  No sooner has he
received the implanted memory than he starts to freak out, beating
people up, claiming that he is not Quaid.  When he wakes up, he's
himself again but unexplained killers are out to destroy him, his wife
cheerfully tries to knife him in the kitchen, and videotapes of "Quaid"
appear, telling him he's an indispensable part of the underground
resistance fighting corrupt political figure Copenhagen (Ronny Cox,
perfectly smarmy).

For the first 45 minutes, we're playing catch-up.  Is Schwarzenegger
really a spy whose trip to the false memory center triggered a series of
disturbing flashbacks, or is he just stuck in a psychotic dream world
where he gets to become the hero in his own life?  This audience
mind-bender was based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner),
whose fiction often dealt with different levels of perceived reality. 
Read into it what you will, it's basically The Twilight Zone with guns
and ample bloodshed.  When Rachel Ticotin shows up as the dark haired
woman of Arnie's dreams, it brings to bear the fantasy world as
escapism.  (The fact that Total Recall turns out to be a cop-out in the
Philosophical Discourse Department shouldn't surprise anyone -- it's a
popcorn movie, for cryin' out loud!)

Total Recall begins on a futuristic earth which bears more than a
passing resemblance to the financial districts of most major cities. 
Paul Verhoeven continues the mordant humor and plastic-sheen aesthetics
of his superior Robocop (and none of the Total Recall villains are as
memorable as Kurtwood Smith's nerdish superfreak, Clarence "You Burnt
the Fuckin' Money" Boddiker, who was half the size of Robocop and thrice
as deadly).  It's fast paced and surprisingly inventive with the gadgets
Quaid employs to get himself out of danger -- these include the
obligatory tracking equipment, but also a memorably eccentric "masking"
device that almost gets him through the airport terminal unharmed (as an
overweight female tourist in a bright sunflower dress.  Trippy, man. 
Phil Dick might've dug it.)

Verhoeven is unable to keep a good thing going, though.  The entire
philosophical premise and sleek look both corrode when Quaid arrives in
Mars.  Sitcom antics involving various goofball aliens in a bar give way
to endless shoot-outs.  When you can't think of anything else to do,
bring out the big guns and start splattering villains in memorably
gruesome ways.  There seems to be a desperate need to fill the audience
entertainment gap: We can't figure out how to end this flick, so let's
bring out the fireworks!  Faster, Pussycat!  Kill!  Kill!  On top of
that, the bright red textures of Mars are gauche and tacky.  Red Planet,
for all its flaws, managed to find a unique color scheme of exotic
shades (finding room for lush greens and radioactive purples).  Total
Recall is not half as ambitious, bathing everything in an unflattering
lava lamp red.  Yuck.

One more thing:  Arnold Schwarzenegger is a fool to think he'll make it
as the Johnny Carson of action films.  Sometimes it's fun, but more
often than not his reflex gag one-liners remind me of the empty Reagan
years.  On the surface, we're supposed to be amused, but there's not
much going on underneath besides heaps of bullshit-bathed swine, rotting
in the kennel.  This actually ties in with the nihilistic violence
Verhoeven relishes in.  A bullet in the head is easier to take if the
hero makes a joke after the fact.  Who's gonna cry over spilled milk or
broken bones if we're "lighthearted" about it?  Honey, I don't want to
marry you.  Excuse me while I bury the hatchet in your forehead.  Got
it, baby?  Consider that a divorce.

RATING:  ***

|------------------------------|
 \ ***** Perfection             \
  \ **** Good, memorable film    \
   \ *** Average, hits and misses \
    \ ** Sub-par on many levels    \
     \ * Unquestionably awful       \
      |------------------------------|

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Producer: Buzz Feitshans, Ronald Shusett 
Writer: Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Jon Povill
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny
Cox, Michael Ironside

---
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=filmcriticcom&path=subst/video/sellers/amazon-top-100-dvd.html
Movie Fiends: Check out Amazon.com's Top 100 Hot DVDs!

Visit filmcritic.com on the Web at http://www.filmcritic.com

--