Director: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox, Rachel Ticotin
Running Time: 113 minutes
Certificate: 18
Extras: Total Recall 20 years after interview with director Paul Verhoeven, Audio Commentary with Paul Verhoeven and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Total Recall: The Special Effects, Making Of, Imagining Total Recall featurette, Restoration Comparison, Photo Gallery, Trailer
Arnold Schwarzenegger is like a big old lump of Austrian marmite: you either love him or hate him. In 1990 he was on a roll, off the back of of TERMINATOR (1984), COMMANDO (1985), PREDATOR (1987), THE RUNNING MAN (1987) and TWINS (1988), none of which had made his numerous detractors question their stance. What Schwarzenegger needed was a film with a brain and a role that would offer him more than an excuse to flex his muscles, and TOTAL RECALL was exactly that. Based on Phillip K Dick’s short story ‘We Can Remember It For You Wholesale’ and adapted by Ronald Schusett and Dan O’Bannon (ALIEN) along with Gary Goldman (BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA), TOTAL RECALL follows Quaid (Schwarzenegger) who, wishing to escape his banal life, visits Rekall to have a memory implanted, in which he can play out a secret agent fantasy on on Mars. But the mind manipulation goes awry and he soon finds himself being chased by Richter (Michael Ironside) and Cohaagen (Ronny Cox) and searching for the truth of who he really is.
It’s very difficult to discuss h the plot of TOTAL RECALL as it’s not always abundantly clear what is actually going on and who is who. But this is not an issue – TOTAL RECALL is a brilliantly realised and fantastically told story. Director Paul Verhoeven was, before SHOWGIRLS, an exciting European presence in Hollywood – TOTAL RECALL came between ROBOCOP (1987) and BASIC INSTINCT (1992). His films were spectacular to look at and very violent; TOTAL RECALL was no different. In terms of special effects it was groundbreaking, pushing the technology used in ROBOCOP to another level. Indeed, his realisation of Mars and a future earth is still awe-inspiring 22 years on. With this new Blu-ray release the film has never looked, or sounded, better; the image restoration from the original print is incredible and all the action is cranked up to 11 with the tremendous new audio mix.
TOTAL RECALL is as near to perfect as sc-fi gets and, because of the almost constant paranoia and distrust, feels as fresh as anything made before or since; Verhoeven even gets ‘that’ performance from Schwarzenegger… didn’t shut the critics up though.
Extras: The brand new interview with Verhoeven is fascinating and gives a brilliant outline of the movie, how he came up with the style of the film, and how he found working with Schwarzenegger. Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger’s commentary is interesting but like most commentaries runs out of steam. The special effects featurette gives a great insight but isn’t that entertaining. The ‘Making Of’ has some nice Rekall adverts leading up to it, but is not particularly good. ‘Imagining Total Recall’ is a great retrospective look with all the main players including Arnie and is worth watching for co-screenwriter Ronald Shusett who seems a right laugh. The gallery and trailer are exactly that.
TOTAL RECALL: ULTIMATE REKALL EDITION is available on triple play now.
