Subject: Review: Total Recall 2070 (1999)

From: [email-masked] (Susan Granger)
Date: 28 Feb 1999 20:47:52 GMT

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Susan Granger's Preview of Upcoming SHOWTIME TV movie: "Total Recall 2070"
         On Sunday night, March 7, at 8 p.m. SHOWTIME launches its
stylish new sci-fi thriller series, "Total Recall 2070," with a
two-hour premiere movie, entitled "Machine Dreams." Michael Easton
("Ally McBeal") is moody and intense as police detective David Hume
with Karl Pruner as his benign android partner, Ian Farve. As members
of the Citizens Protection Bureau, their mission is to defend innocent
people from corporate domination while exploring the android/human
dynamic. Think "Alien Nation." Michael Anthony Rawlins ("NYPD Blue")
plays Hume's boss with Cynthia Preston as Hume's wife, Judith Krant as
a forensics expert who's heavily into gadgets, Matthew Bennett as the
head of a special internal affairs unit, and Nick Mancuso as the
villainous Richard Collector. The concept is inspired by the work of
writer Philip K. Dick, whose original short stories were the basis for
the films "Total Recall" and "Blade Runner." Indeed, the best part of
this new series is its futuristic "Blade Runner" setting, a dreary
cityscape which encompasses a cacophony of cultures. Plus there's the
machine that can create temporal vacations, induced dreams that are
indistinguishable from the real things. The weakness, however, lies in
the flimsy characters who are not fully developed before the seemingly
obligatory sex scenes and confusing plot kick in. Like "Strange Days,"
the characters seem subordinate to the bizarre special effects and the
rapid MTV editing adds to the confusion and emotional detachment. A
staggering $1.7 million was spent on each episode, obviously on the
post-apocalyptic atmosphere rather than actors or writers, and
SHOWTIME has committed to run 20 additional one-hour episodes.