rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1990
Directed by Paul Verhoeven; produced by Buzz Feitshans, Ronald Shusett; screenplay by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Gary Goldman
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Rachel Ticotin, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Ray Baker
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Total Recall' is one of the sci-fi movies where you are not sure what is
real and what is not. Later we saw these kind of things in 'eXistenZ', 'The
Thirteenth Floor', 'The Matrix' and 'Vanilla Sky'. 'Total Recall' is the
most violent I know but also one of the better ones. Even in the end you
still can guess whether it was all a dream, or just parts, or not a dream at
all.
In the future it is possible to take real vacations to planets like Mars,
but you can also let memories implanted of one of those vacation. You are
not really going but it feels you have been there. Douglas Quaid (Arnold
Schwarzenegger) does this because he keeps having dreams about Mars. He can
add a couple of options to his vacation but during the implant things go
wrong. Or don't they? You are never sure because the events that follow fit
the options he has chosen for his vacation, but there are also clues that it
is really happening.
With a lot of bloody action, some nice humor and great special effects in
almost every shot this is one of those sci-fi adventures that is never
boring. With great plot twists, pretty believable in a movie like this, and
an interesting story this is probably the best American movie done by Dutch
director Paul Verhoeven.