First Wave Of Reviews For TOTAL RECALL

While it has a few nods to the 1990 film, this Total Recall brings nothing new to the table, no clever spin or unique take on the story's premise. Love it or hate it, the original movie at least had personality thanks to its absurd sense of humor. It was a truly excessive movie – not the least of all in its violence – but this Total Recall is like a declawed animal. Anything that could have made this version distinct simply isn’t present.

That’s a shame, too, given the vulnerability and much-needed humanity Farrell brings to the proceedings. He’s the best thing in the film besides the practical sets that keep it from being yet another genre film with an entirely CG environment. Beckinsale appears to be enjoying herself as the film’s villainess -- a role that essentially combines the Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside characters from the original film -- but she’s just mere eye candy and a cipher. Also lacking in dimension but blessed with beauty is Biel's Melina, while Cranston's Cohaagen doesn't possess the malevolent glee that made Ronny Cox’s villain fun.

The man can’t keep visual track of the action in an elevator. Literally. In this movie, there is a 4 person fight sequence in an elevator and you never know where anyone out of frame at any moment is or what they are doing. This is in spite of big martial arts moves and guns going off. It’s like Police Squad, with the shoot out between people who turn out to be 3 feet away from one another when you see a wide shot.

The central notion of the film – is Quaid really a spy or is it all a Rekall implanted dream – is answered in the opening sequence… removing any tension or interest in that theme. So the film, by the second act, is reduced to a fairly boring, uninventive chase film. The film is enveloped with a conceit about a world reduced to two countries (not a spoiler… in the opening credits) with the rich and powerful on one side and the rest on the other. But any nod to revolution is as shallow as a toddler pool. This movie, unlike the original bit of psychotic genius by Verhoeven, takes itself insanely seriously, which sucks nearly every ounce of fun out of the thing.

The new film is undeniably a remake of the 1990 film, and not a new adaptation of "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick. So much of what was invented for the film has made its way into the new version that trying to deny that it's a direct remake is a sucker's game. In many ways, Len Wiseman and screenwriters Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback seem to know that people will be playing the comparison game the whole time, so they play off of that. They pay things off as jokes that you'll only get if you know the original film, or they make choices that run directly counter to the original, as a way of keeping you off-balance. There's a lovely tribute to the work of Rob Bottin that I laughed at, doubly so once I saw how it played out in the end. This movie is a reaction to the original as much as it's a remake, and because of that, I think it manages to carve out its own identity.

Technically, the new "Total Recall" is handsomely made, and the cast does exactly what they were hired to do. I think Wiseman's gotten better and better at staging large scale high velocity action of a certain type, and younger audiences who go simply for an action film, who have no real expectations based on the older film, are probably going to walk away happiest. I thought Farrell did just enough at suggesting the Quaid that I am interested in for me to enjoy the film superficially. It doesn't stick, though, and a premise like this should stick. It's not enough just to be well-made and noisy… when you've got material this rich, you owe it to the audience to make the smartest possible version and to really have some fun with it.

As for anything fresh, don’t believe the rumors that the 2012 version of RECALL might be a drastic overhaul hewing closer to Dick’s short story. It ends up restaging almost all of the previous film’s story beats, although the Mars setting and mutants have been excised (along with any trace of the original’s playful humor). Farrell and Biel adopt the new film’s overserious approach in their straightforward and somewhat bland performances, although a blitheringly basic, point A-to-point-B script by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback offers them zero assistance.

As fun, muscular piffle, Verhoeven’s TOTAL RECALL won’t be enshrined in the Smithsonian anytime soon; still, most action fans look back upon the flick fondly, even with 22 years of dust on it. Sad to report, then, that this well-constructed yet stiff, safe and unnecessary RECALL remake is bound to fade from your memory in a considerably shorter period of time.

Those first 10 minutes firmly establish that Total Recall exists in the same stylistic realm as Wiseman's Underworld and Underworld: Evolution -- with a tight color palette, mostly confined to dark blues, greys, and inky blacks -- and shares the same lack of affinity for classic action traditions as Live Free or Die Hard. In other words, they are well-nigh incomprehensible, as far as being able to locate and/or recognize the characters within each scene. It's all a blur of motion and speed and bloodless PG-13 violence, which provides as much excitement as watching an electric blender in action. And as the chopped-up bits accumulate, any interest that might have been generated by the potential of the premise is steadily dissipated.

Beyond a sprinkling of homages to the 1990 version, the reboot's limited strengths are displayed in the highly-detailed special effects, the strong production design, and some of the futuristic ideas for products that are showcased. (Although even in these areas, the film's debts to Blade Runner and I, Robot are inescapable.) Again, those are things that Len Wiseman knows how to handle, and handle pretty well; but action and story and characters and acting, not so much.