Total Recall (1990)

This Special Edition DVD allows you to experience TOTAL RECALL the way it was meant to be seen & heard. 16:9 Newly remastered Widescreen Version will immerse you in the action. 5.1 Newly remastered Dolby Surround with Nearfield performance. Audio mix delivers optimum home theater audio performance. Arnold Schwarzenegger provides a rare audio commentary along with Director Paul Verhoeven. Product Description

 Arnold
This is a great movie with an interesting plot. I've seen it several times and each time I see something that I missed before. It's a must-have for any movie collection. I think it's one of Arnold's best. February 17, 2008

 In a Future Where...
What if you could have memories implanted? What if the implanted memories were so real that you could not tell the difference between the implanted memories and reality? What if you went to a place that implanted such memories and when you woke up, you discovered that you had lost your sense of reality and you no longer knew who you were?

Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a laborer living an apparent life of ease (and luxury - laborers must be paid really well in 2084) with his beautiful wife Lori (Sharon Stone). Life is good for Douglas and Lori, until Douglas gets it into his head that he wants to take a trip to Mars. Of course, Douglas is unable to go to Mars (Lori does not want to emigrate to Mars), so Douglas heads off to Rekall to get a brain implant.

Implanted memories are no big deal. You go in, they put you under, you get an implanted memory, and you go home thinking you had a great time on Mars. Douglas chose to be a spy and have a beautiful girlfriend. Unfortunately, the friendly folks at Rekall discover that Douglas had already had an implant and their attempt to implant a new memory was creating problems in Douglas's brain. However, the people at Rekall are able to cover up the problem and Douglas seems to walk away from Rekall without problems.

Unfortunately for Douglas, his wife is quite upset that Douglas went to Rekall. So upset that she works Douglas over. The next thing Douglas knows, a bunch of guys with really big guns are trying to blow him away and he is running for his life.

Douglas can only do one thing. He heads for Mars and the answers to his questions. Things on Mars get even more interesting. A man with a dictator's power, Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox, "Deliverance" and "Beverly Hills Cop"), controls Mars. Quaid seems caught between mutants, Cohaagen and Cohaagen's henchmen, led by Richter (Michael Ironside, "Scanners," "Watchers," and "Starship Troopers"). Of course, Quaid's murderous wife is still running around. Then there are the aliens. You will have to watch.

This movie is filled with action and allows you enough time to wonder what is real and what is fantasy, nearly to the end of the movie. I thought the special effects were quite good for 1990. There are places where you can easily see that a set is a miniature, but other miniatures are beautiful and wonderfully meshed with full-sized sets.

Director Paul Verhoeven and a team of writers did a wonderful job of building on a 1966 Philip K. Dick short story, "We Can Remember It for You." Even with some dated effects and styles, the movie still plays well, especially once the movie shifts to Mars. I absolutely loved the action-packed ending, wondering just how Quaid was going to survive. Fans of Philip K. Dick, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Rachel Ticotin and science fiction movies have to see this excellent movie, one of Arnold's best.

Enjoy!

February 14, 2008

 A philosophical review of Total Recall: varieties of skepticism
Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is uneasy. Things are not right in the world. Sure, he has a nice place to live, a decent job in construction, and a beautiful wife (Sharon Stone) -- but he has a feeling he is missing out on something, that there is something false about his life, and that his destiny is elsewhere, maybe on Mars. He watches the news, reports of terrorist attacks, and reassurances of the government that everything is under control. He dreams of walking the red soil with a woman who is not his wife. Then, he hears about the company Rekall and their promise to deliver memories on demand, and takes advantage of their "special agent" package that will give him true to life memories of having been a secret agent on Mars, attached to a woman just like the one in his dreams. The hijinks that ensue, when he apparently finds out that he really IS a secret agent from Mars, whose memories had been erased, are lots of fun. What elevates the film above similar features like Running Man is that the action (which can get pretty violent) and adventure is tied to philosophical questions about the nature of memory and knowledge, and on the power of skepticism.

You don't need to imagine high-tech corporations capable of implanting memories to realize that memory is a dubious source of knowledge. We remember selectively at best, and psychological experiments have shown that memories can be altered and manipulated. One of the basic questions the film poses is whether Quaid should trust his memory and instincts or his reason. He needs to consider which is more likely: that he is a secret agent whose memories have been erased to make him seem like a lowly construction worker or whether the memory implant he actually remembers having chosen and that would make him remember to have been a secret agent with a sleazy brunette girlfriend has simply kicked in and is malfunctioning. Reason favors the simplest explanation; but Quaid of course goes with his gut. Does he choose correctly?

The plot of the film, then centers around the basic philosophical question how can we know what we think we know. It poses this question by means of a bizarre but entertaining science fiction scenario (drawn loosely from a story by Phillip K. Dick). That the question is not merely academic for Paul Verhoeven, however, is suggested by how similar the news reports from Mars are to those that we hear (and were hearing even in 1990 when the film was released) from the middle East. On Verhoeven's Mars, a group of rebels is fighting the governmental controls of society that are intended to secure its access to "Tribinium ore" -- a tremendous source of energy. Because these rebels lack governmentally sanctioned legitimacy, their struggles to save their planet and way of life are labelled "terrorism." The parallels are obvious. The most significant brand of skepticism raised by this film is not the academic form that asks "how can I know whether I am not dreaming" but the very healthy and necessary political skepticism that asks "how far can we trust the media to present the facts about our world in an unbiased way?"' While Quaid may well be mistaken in his belief that he is really a secret agent, he is certainly right to be troubled about the distortions regarding the Middle East (um, Mars, that is) that are presented by the popular media. As with most of the best of his films (Starship Troopers, Robocop, Black Book), Paul Verhoeven presents a powerful critique of contemporary society under the guise of a lightweight entertaining popcorn flick. Definitely one to watch, both fun and enlightening. December 12, 2007

 Total Recall - Mini Review
When a man goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he? November 26, 2007

 Great Sci-fi, Best Movie
When Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzennegger) an average construction worker takes a virtual vacation, memories of Mars flood back. Forcing him to travel to the Red Planet to discover his past. Quaid has to help the Resistance to free Mars from the oppressive corporation. One of Arnie's BEST movie's, plenty of violence and great FX. Great with Pizza. November 5, 2007

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