Total Recall |
  • USA • 1990 • 113m •   • Directed by: Paul Verhoeven. • Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson Jr., Michael Champion, Roy Brocksmith, Ray Baker, Rosemary Dunsmore, David Knell, Alexia Robinson. • Music by: Jerry Goldsmith.      What is reality when you can't trust your memory? Quaid is an Earthbound construction worker who keeps having dreams about Mars. A trip to a false memory transplant service for an imaginary trip to Mars goes terribly wrong and another personality surfaces. When his old self returns, he finds groups of his friends and several strangers seem to have orders to kill him. He finds records his other self left him that tell him to get to Mars to join up with the underground. The reality of the situation is constantly in question. Who is he? Which personality is correct? Which version of reality is true?
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This is additionally unfortunate because the story is more than provocative enough. Based on a nifty Phillip K. Dick story, Total Recall is about construction worker Donald Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a man haunted by bad dreams about Mars that even his hottie wife (Sharon Stone) can't get rid of. When Quaid goes to a company that manufactures vacation memories for people without the time or money to take the vacations, it becomes clear that something is very wrong with him. Quaid is not Quaid at all. He is a secret agent and his whole life is sham. And off to Mars goes Quaid to try to sort out what's real and what's illusion.
Whereas the set designs for Verhoven's Robocop were perfectly in fitting with the society on the brink of martial law being depicted, Total Recall's world just looks like it's the late 1980s translated to the far future. The costumes? Pretty much late 80s. The hair? Again. The production design owes more to Miami Vice than to any creativity on the producers part.
As a director, Paul Verhoven is the master of a kind of hilariously sadistic ultraviolence. He's proven that he can handle this trademark violence both straightfaced (Basic Instinct) and with a satiric smirk (Starship Troopers). On Total Recall he handles the special effects, especially the make-upgore effects, wonderfully. However, he's undone by the aforementioned production design. Every metal door looks plastic. Every Martian cave wall looks like styrofoam. There's never any sense that the movie takes place in any location besides a studio's backlot. Ace cinematographer Jost Vocano is actually undone by his skill. A DP less effective might have produced images that didn't so completely emphasize the artifice.
Another Verhoven trait is horrible casting. The guy doesn't really look for actors, he places faces on a landscape. Basic Instinct is such an effective film (say whatever you want about its quality) because he was actually working with a cast of talented professionals. But in most of his films, especially Total Recall, the casting is just painful. Ah-nold is Ah-nold. He can't act, but his physical presence is what people go to see. Or at least went to see. Stone is also a hoot in her limited part, but if she's the only person in your movie actually acting... Well, that's not good news. Verhoven regular baddie Michael Ironside is typically hammy, but from there the cast just goes downhill. Why were Rachael Ticotin, Ronny Cox, Marshall Bell, and Mel Johnson Jr. doing with large roles in a major motion picture? Destroying it. The supporting performances are laughable, and this is the kind of movie where even the one-line roles are badly done. Basically, with a huge budget, Verhoven didn't feel the need to work with professional actors. And he pays the price.
As appealing as it is when the characters are running around in circles, there's very little point. The wonderful premise is basically wasted and most of Ah-nold's witty comeback lines fall short.
Review by Daniel J. Fienberg from the Internet Movie Database.
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