Total Recall (1990)

About million years ago, (ten years, actually) I saw this movie and thought of it simply as `Hey, another Arnold shoot-em-up, bash-em-up' stuff. I was much younger and had less use of my brain. The latter was what I supposed to do for Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Leave 'em out and enjoy the guilty pleasure.

But wait! Ten years forward and I got to see it again. And I was in for a surprise! The movie worked way better than it did. What better, I got to do thinking these days, and applied it in this movie with good results. This movie is certainly a thinking man's sci-fi action flick. No offence to non-thinking man, since it can still entertain too, as it did for me ten years back.

There is enough plot twist and turn in this Paul Verhoeven directed feature to make The Matrix look like an episode of Tom and Jerry. No offence to Tom and Jerry, of course. The story, based on Philip K. Dick's short story, never seem to have dated, and it gave Arnold a lot of excuse to actually er...act. You got me right. He actually did some serious acting in this movie. I'm serious. But what is an Arnold movie without Arnold being...Arnold. The violence is still pretty gory, but acceptable when it is okay with the story. Arnold usually doesn't punch bad guys. He THUMPS them. And here, he got to do more than that.

There are the usual special effects that made us go WHOA!!! with capital letters those days. It still looks okay, but with a pair of eye trained to spot even the CGI scenes in Lord of the Ring, I felt a trifle uncomfortable with them. Just consider the time it was made and you'll be fine. One thing for sure, this movie is heaven sent for Arnold fan, and definitely worth checking out for non-Arnold fans. I think this is easily Verhoeven's best work. Yes, the violence, the campy dialogues and the one-liners are all there, but all in the name of fun and some serious thinking. Unravelling the plot, for a slow feller like me, takes time, but it was worth the ride.

By the way, did I mention Sharon Stone is in this picture? Great huh? Well, don't get excited, she never strips.


				*Rakesh's movie talk* *Total Recall (1990)*



	Home \| Movie Reviews \| Movie talk \| Film Personalities \| Misc Articles \| Contact Me \| Tamil Time


		Directed by Paul Verhoeven Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Ironside and Sharon Stone



		About million years ago, (ten years, actually) I saw this movie and thought of it simply as `Hey, another Arnold shoot-em-up, bash-em-up' stuff. I was much younger and had less use of my brain. The latter was what I supposed to do for Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Leave 'em out and enjoy the guilty pleasure. But wait! Ten years forward and I got to see it again. And I was in for a surprise! The movie worked way better than it did. What better, I got to do thinking these days, and applied it in this movie with good results. This movie is certainly a thinking man's sci-fi action flick. No offence to non-thinking man, since it can still entertain too, as it did for me ten years back. There is enough plot twist and turn in this Paul Verhoeven directed feature to make The Matrix look like an episode of Tom and Jerry. No offence to Tom and Jerry, of course. The story, based on Philip K. Dick's short story, never seem to have dated, and it gave Arnold a lot of excuse to actually er...act. You got me right. He actually did some serious acting in this movie. I'm serious. But what is an Arnold movie without Arnold being...Arnold. The violence is still pretty gory, but acceptable when it is okay with the story. Arnold usually doesn't punch bad guys. He THUMPS them. And here, he got to do more than that. There are the usual special effects that made us go WHOA!!! with capital letters those days. It still looks okay, but with a pair of eye trained to spot even the CGI scenes in Lord of the Ring, I felt a trifle uncomfortable with them. Just consider the time it was made and you'll be fine. One thing for sure, this movie is heaven sent for Arnold fan, and definitely worth checking out for non-Arnold fans. I think this is easily Verhoeven's best work. Yes, the violence, the campy dialogues and the one-liners are all there, but all in the name of fun and some serious thinking. Unravelling the plot, for a slow feller like me, takes time, but it was worth the ride. By the way, did I mention Sharon Stone is in this picture? Great huh? Well, don't get excited, she never strips.