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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 5758
Released: May 31, 2005 |
| Our Price: $3.00 |
| Used Price: $1.78 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as Quaid, a 2084 construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars in this crowd-pleasing science fiction spectacle. Against the wishes of his sexy blonde wife (Sharon Stone), Quaid goes to Rekall, a company that implants artificial memories, so he can "remember" visiting the red planet that is now being settled by human inhabitants. However, Quaid is actually an amnesiac secret agent from Mars--or is he? Enemy agents led by a thug named Richter (Michael Ironside) start trying to kill him before Quaid remembers anything more. Bullets and bone-crunching mayhem follow in large doses as Quaid heads to Mars to deal with mutants, ancient alien races, and Cohagen (Ronny Cox), a greedy capitalist controlling the colonists' air supply, in an effort to remember his real identity. TOTAL RECALL is based on the story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick and was a big box-office hit, helping to firmly establish director Paul Verhoeven as a specialist in darkly satiric, blood-drenched genre films. His next stop: BASIC INSTINCT, also with Stone.
Total Recall Reviews:
One of my favorite all time movies! 
2009-08-25 - Paul Verhoeven pulls all stops in this non-stop action movie. TOTAL RECALL is a well produced and scripted story that takes you on a trip half way though our galaxy. The main characters memories have been wiped away and the viewer explores the fictional world and adventures of getting his memories back.
This film brings back memories of the late 80's in some of it's set designs and fashions. But all visual and special effects are very impressive and the making of is described in detail in the bonus feature section. The bonus features alone make this DVD a must own!
The soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith is very fitting and beautiful and can be considered one of cinemas greatest scores of all times!
This is one of those movies you can watch many times over- it actually gets better with age! It is fun to travel to the wonderfully strange world of Mars and relive a very breathless and exciting adventure!
Sort of entertaining 
2009-08-24 - I think the movie seemed a little dated and cliche to me. The premise was quite good and interesting but they did'nt focus much on the alien aspect and just made it typically a shoot em up movie. Of course with Arnold in it you can expect a good share of that but this movie seems more suited to teenagers etc. The one major plot flaw is revealed at the end, after poor Arnold suffers a schizoid embolism we find out from his ex boss Mr. Cohagen that he is actually still working for him and his memory erased so they can use him to find the rebel leader on Mars. Now if that is so, which we find out at the end, why were everybody trying to prevent him from getting to Mars in the fist place? I guess maybe to make his new role seem more real, I guess that's a possible explanation. Oh ya, almost forgot, my favorite part was when they got sucked out onto the surface of the planet with no oxygen and for 10 minutes their head was stretching and eye balls popping out and afterwards they were just fine. I was hooting and howling watching that part, it really was so silly that they could have survived it after suffering such physical distortions. I don't think anybody could have come out of that ordeal altogether normal, but for that alone the movie was worth it. Too funny.
Entertainment for all your senses 
2009-07-03 - There are certain films that aim to entertain and try their very hardest to keep the audience entertained, if not on the edge of their seat, but rarely are they also capable of making the audience think. This movie is fun from start to finish, but it also manages to keep you thinking about reality and the implications of the ideas presented in the movie.
Total Recall is certainly one of the better films to come from director Paul Verhoeven whose career I must say has its ups and down. He's has RoboCop, which I also thought was a fun action/satire, but then films such as Starship Troopers had me far less impressed. He is certainly better when adapting short stories in a satirical fashion than he is adapting professionally written stories and trying to satirize them like he did with Starship Troopers- Verhoeven's resulting film seeming more like an insult to its source material instead of an adaptation.
Total Recall movie is based on a short story by the late Philip K. Dick, who also wrote the stories behind Blade Runner, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. Unlike Blade Runner and Minority Report this is one of the more satirical approaches on sci-fi and it does have some good laughs among its fun sets and action, but like those two films it provides some of the best science-fiction imagery to date.
Of course, being released in 1990, what better male lead in an action film than Arnold Schwarzenegger? Now, the future California Governor has never been the best actor, but he manages to find one of his stand-out roles in Douglass Quaid, a man who is under constant danger and isn't even capable of knowing whether the dangers he faces are real or not!
Tired with his life as a construction worker Douglass Quaid is set on having a vacation to Mars. Only problem is he's a tad bit low on cash and his wife isn't very keen on taking a trip to the Martian surface- which is currently under a state of civil unrest and urban warfare between the mutants and the evil business leader, Vilos Cohaagon, who quite literally has an airtight grip over the citizens of Mars. Since going to Mars is out of the question Quaid goes for the next best thing: fake memories.
After a visit to Rekall he has it arranged for him to be given a vacation to Mars from the perspective of a secret agent on a crucial mission. This dream comes a bit too true as he is thrust into a fight for his life, never knowing whether or not what he is seeing is real or not. The audience can't tell for that matter for there is enough evidence to support either option.
Total Recall is good escapist entertainment and is often quite funny in a black sort of way. Arnold Schwarzenegger is charismatic in the lead and manages to deliver several good one-liners (other than the cheesy "Screw you!"). The art direction, special effects, costumes, make-up, and sets are all quite convincing and fun to look at and overall it is a film that always keeps your attention in some form or another. I give a strong recommendation to Total Recall, but the film does seem to stay in check and never take to initiative to go above and beyond like Blade Runner and Minority Report have.
Total Recall
2009-07-02 - Not a BIG favorite of mine, but is a movie that fills a time or need when there is absolutely nothing else to do and of course I am a Sciences Fiction fan. Also if you are a fan of Arnold Schwarzeneger then this maybe one to see.
Awesome 80-90's SciFi
2009-05-26 - One of the best SciFi from the 80s (Ok, 1990). You still don't know weather its virtual or not.
