News Taffy

While some agree that Arnold Schwarzenegger stole the show in the 1990 cult classic, the remake of Total Recall is what I would consider a reimagining—same concept but with some key differences. With solid acting, cool sci-fi gadgets, and exciting fight scenes, Total Recall delivers a fun sci-fi thriller; still it might not live up to the original for some moviegoers.

Set in the later 21st century where nuclear war has left only two nations, the United Federation of Britain and The Colony (a.k.a. Australia) habitable, assembly line worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) keeps having odd dreams of him being a spy escaping police with a woman he doesn’t know. When out of curiosity, he stops by the Rekall Lounge, a place that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led. All of the sudden, guns are pulled, the police storm in, and Quaid soon finds himself on the run not knowing what everyone else knew—he was a spy and had his memories replaced with fake memories.

Acting-wise, Farrell did pretty good on keeping up with the fast-paced tempo of the storyline, even though he seemed too complacent and willing to accept that all that he had known was a fabricated lie. His female co-stars Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel did a fabulous job on the butt-kicking (but it never seemed to be a problem for Beckinsale due to her past work in the Underworld series). Still, it was a shame that bad guy Bryan Cranston (of which I was happy to see as I’m watching "Breaking Bad” now) didn’t get enough screen time for him to be truly sinister.

I enjoyed all of the little gizmos and gadgets being used throughout the movie. From your hand serving as your cell phone to magnetically levitating cars, it’s a nice touch and some may be reminded of Minority Report a little bit while watching. Makes me wonder when we get to actually mess around with these kinds of toys! They surely enhanced the fighting scenes for sure, such as multi-direction elevators and neat guns used as well.

Parents should probably reconsider taking their kids to see this movie  because the PG-13 rating might be pushing it if concerned about profanity and nudity. From a couple of F-bombs to lots of usage of the “s***” and anything else in between, it definitely made me raise my eyebrows during the movie. Also, a woman with three breasts (best remembered from the original movie) is exposed briefly.

Having never seen the original (I know; now I have to go watch it), I enjoyed the 2012 Total Recall more than I thought I would. It’s not a hit, but not totally awful either. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a CG-tastic movie with some interesting fight scenes and enjoys pondering the thought, “What is real?”

Until next time,
Rachel