Movie Reviews

You probably still recall Paul Verhoeven’s take on Philip K. Dick’s story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”. It was a solid nineties action flick starring Arnie and it came with lots of campy fun. 20+ Years later director Len Wiseman thought it was a good idea to do a remake. While the new movie has a couple of cute references to the original, both the plot and the tone of the movie have changed dramatically.

This time around Colin Farrell gets to play factory worker Doug Quaid who goes to Rekall to live out his dream of being a rebel spy. Of course everything goes wrong and in between a lot of running, chasing, shooting, ducking and diving, Farrell has to decide whether he wants to stay with Kate Beckinsale or whether he goes for Jessica Biel. I have to admit that it would take me more than two hours to figure that one out but Farrell figures it all out while saving the planet.

Ah yes, almost forgot that all this action comes with a story as well. There are no trips to Mars in the 2012 version of “Total Recall”. Instead our planet has been nearly destroyed and is now divided in two parts: we have the United Federation of Britain (UFB) and The Colony where people live in shitty conditions. The two are connected by a giant elevator called The Fall, which goes straight through the earth’s core. Chancellor Cohaagen of the UFB has some mean plans for The Colony but there is the resistance who’s trying to stop him.

As far as popcorn movies go, I thoroughly enjoyed this one… the action sequences are fast-paced and the whole thing looks amazing. Just remind yourself to check your brain at the door so the guys over at Rekall can’t fry it.