Total Recall

“The past is a construct of the mind. It blinds us. It fools us into believing it. But the heart wants to live in the present…”

Paul Verhoeven's 90's classic stands as one of the best sci-fi adaptations ever. The action, Arnie, Sharon Stone and the mind numbing storyline all combined for the quintessential 90's science fiction flick. Len Wiseman (Die Hard, Underworld) and Colin Farrell team up to give us their take on this classic.

Based on Philip K Dick's short story 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale', the plot has remained the same as the original with just a few differences creeping in. Instead of there being a conflict between Martian colonists and Earth’s powerful baddies, Wiseman tries for a fight between the good old United Federation of Britain (UFB) and a sleazy underworld known as the ‘Colony’ – formed by the remains of Australia. The rest of the world is uninhabitable as a result of global chemical warfare but the two habitable areas are at least connected by a huge travel shaft, known as The Fall, that runs through the core of the planet.

Farrell plays Doug Quaid, a humble Colony assembly line worker whose dreams see him as a super spy. To live his dreams he visits Rekall, a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led. The procedure goes haywire, though, and Quaid finds himself on the run, fighting the powers and trying to stop a full-scale invasion of the Colony, using the very robot policemen he’s been making for years in his day job.

The CGI is impressive as you'd expect from the director of Underworld. In fact, it is just all just too impressive and perfect. Somewhere, in this CGI jungle the film loses it's essence and becomes one of those blockbusters fuelled by special effects and machine like. Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale look good as Melina, a resistance fighter and Doug's wife respectively but that is almost all they do.

The action is good and the visuals would remind any movie fan of Blade Runner. However, that is pretty much the only 'classic' factor in the film. Chases and fights abound but all feel horribly repetitive. The director's effort seem to be directed toward giving us CGI thrills whilst forgetting the other components. Despite it's big budget and star studded cast,the movie feels like a soulless adaptation of the original. The dry humour of the original is lacking as well. However, a counter argument could be made in favour of the film as it does not lapse into a cerebral experience and hold it's own as just a sleek action thriller that gives what it promises. Farrell does as good a job as he could but his expressiveness works against him as Arnie's screen presence takes some beating and ditto for Kate Beckinsale who falls a bit short of Sharon Stone's allure.

So, go ahead and watch it if you like your special effects. But don't expect a classic like the original. Indeed, all this movie succeeded in, was reminding me how good the 90's one was.