TOTAL RECALL (Len Wiseman 2012)

[Chris Knipp]

Len Wiseman: TOTAL RECALL (2012)


JESSICA BIEL AND COLIN FARRELL IN TOTAL RECALL

'Total Recall' is totally forgettable

A story by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick is credited as the basis of this new movie, the same story that was the source of the eponymous 1990 effort directed by Paul Verhoeven. The earlier lacks the seeds of Dick-adaptation greatness that inhabit the likes of Blade Runner, Minority Report, or A Scanner Darkly, but it's better than this one. Thanks to the orotund delivery of Arnold Schwarzenegger it contains some memorable lines, and it has Sharon Stone as the female interest. This Total Recall in contrast has the power to wipe out all memory of itself from your mind before you exit the cinema.

We get the wife of the director, Kate Beckensale, as a treacherous female (the Sharon Stone role), along with a brawny Colin Farrell, whose only distinguishing features, since he's been stripped of his Irish accent, are his dark eyebrows and a pair of black button eyes wearing a justifiably wary look. The cast is rounded out in part by Jessica Biel, as the good-cop female, and Bryan Cranston, the star of the top rated US TV series, "Breaking Bad," as forgettable as everybody else here as Corrigan, the leader of an empire.

The empire, actually, since this planet Earth has been made uninhabitable by chemical warfare except for Britain and what used to be Australia, once settled by ex prisoners, now a kind of drone colony with some overlay of Asian cities and Asian population. Workers are shunted back and forth through a giant tunnel cut through the earth. Like any Dick story this one has resonant philosophical and political elements and contains the seeds of a dozen other fascinating stories. Total Recall vintage 2012 starts out suggestively with an intricate puzzle about the consciousness of the hero, Quaid (Farrell), a humble factory worker in The Colony. Is he just having bad dreams, or remembering traumas? When he goes to a "Total Rekall" salon to have new memories implanted, does he suddenly reveal he has hidden memories of being a secret agent, or is that just the "Total Rekall" illusion working? We get boxes within boxes of memory and illusion -- except there's no time to think about them. This movie is shot as an actioner without the charm of characterization or richness of setting you get in Blade Runner, or Spielberg's ability to inject moral and psychological meaning into a story. Wiseman's Total Recall is just a bright, shiny, noisy toy, with a big emphasis on the noisy part, and a great deal of running around through unreal spaces.

The Colony's grubby, rainy, semi-Asian street scenes seem like a watered-down copy of Blade Runner's, which at the time were as wonderfully original as the quirky sets of Terry Gilliam's satirical sci-fi classic, Brazil. And Wiseman and his multiple writers (which seem to include some of those who toiled on the Verhoemen-Schwarzenegger version) have not allowed their movie to stop for breath. Except maybe when Bill Nihy appears briefly as the leader of a rebellion in The Colony. Only he's been smoothed down and robbed of his jaunty movements, British accent, and flair so we can forget him too, even if it takes a few minutes longer. It's just barely possible to tell the two slim, shapely, black-clad babes from each other, the one who's the fake wife and the other who's the true. . .something: partner, cohort, lover?

It's a juggling act at which the movie fails: to manipulate an elaborate plot of mind-alteration, identity-questioning, and shifting political loyalties and keep non-stop action going all the while. The plot becomes even more confused than it's meant to be and the action makes less and less sense. There are echoes perhaps of Israel and the Occupied Territories (did anyone think of this though?) in the new Britain's decision to fake an insurrection in The Colony (though a real one is brewing, in which Nihy and Farrell may play key roles) in order to justify annihilating the servile population because they want to take over the land for themselves. Likewise there are echoes of the Bourne series in the dilemma of Quaid, now told he's Hauser, a master spy, with martial arts and lots of other skills that pop up and surprise him, and forced to use them while figuring out who he is.

The comparison is unfortunate for the present motion picture, because we remember the interesting use of real world settings, Goa, Berlin, Moscow, Langley, New York and realize Wiseman's CGI-generated citiscapes, far below the skills of H.R. Giger, are relatively colorless. Why even compare? If even Verhoeven's film is far superior, enough said.

Theatrical release of Total Recall was August 3, and in the UK August 20, 2012.

[Chris Knipp]

[tabuno]

This remake of the original Total Recall (1990) movie makes for some fascinating film theory contemplation here especially as some of Chris Knipp's commentary helped to raise.

The first fascinating dilemma arises with the very nature of remakes, especially those that depend, in part, on the psychological thriller twist and in this case Recall has several in both movies. Nevertheless, how could a remake of The Sixth Sense (1990) or even The A Planet of the Apes (1968) of which a remake was actually made in 2001 (which I rated 5 out of 10) replicate that first impression experience of the unpredictable unknown when it has already been "spoiled" by "the reveal" that has been uncovered by a previous viewing? Other remakes of movies which don't necessarily rely on a memorable twists for its basic premise offer better opportunities for refinement and improvement if done well such as Point of No Return (1993) a remake of La Femme Nikita (1990) though some may disagree with this example or perhaps Red Dragon (2002) though oddly enough I much preferred the original in this case Manhunter (1986), or The Thing (1982) based on the original supposedly sci fi classic made in 1951 or the television mini-series remake of Pride and Prejudice (1995) or the PBS version of Count Dracula (1997). What if this Total Recall (2012) had been released before the original and one could experience the plot fresh, unknowningly without comparison? If so, perhaps then this movie might have been experienced with more suspense and brain-twisting amazement leading to a much more exhilarating movie outcome.

Another, fascinating topic arises from the standard by which one judges a movie and in this case the distinction between hard core science fiction and a summer sci fi adventure action thriller. It's understandable as viewed through the prism of sci fi lens that this remake didn't have the intellectual heft of THX-1138 (1971) or the crisp authenticity of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or even the relative simplicity of Alien (1979), but such wasn't the intent nor need for this movie to establish itself as good entertainment like perhaps sci-fi comedy The Men in Black (1997) or sci-fi action blockbuster Independence Day (1996). But if one takes a look at this remake through the lens of a sci-fi action thriller, there is something to be considered in terms of set-design and action sequences. While I won't commit to saying that this movie was a top ten movie, but on the whole this movie didn't fail in any way in terms of having a decent plot, lively action, psychological twists (albeit already projected in advance), and an acceptable Inception (2010) and Blade Runner (1982) environment which grew on me after I was able to detach myself from the initial Blade Runner grittiness comparison.

Another fascinating topic is the demographic differences in terms of this movie's reception which suggests a gender bias. A major difference in this movie is the primary antagonist being a female who apparently in this Total Recall universe survived through most of the movie unlike her predecessor and thus it is interesting how high the female scores were in three of the four age groups who saw this movie compared to the men and with this movie having not been advertised with a strong female campaign, what would have the final results of this movie have been if more women had had tantalizing teasers to induce them to see the movie? It doesn't happen every often that the good male versus bad female occurs in an action movie, as opposed to the typical stereotypical seductive wiles of a female overcoming the poor weak male as such Fatal Attraction (1987), Disclosure (1994), or Basic Instinct 1992).

The remake spoiler effect taken together with the gender bias could easily explain the polar reception of this movie with its IMDb rating of 40.7% rated this movie a 10 while another 13.8% rated this movie a 1. Sometimes good movies are those that induce the greatest love/hate dichotomy.

I found the enhancement of the futurist chase scene the first significant breakthrough on the typical sci fi vehicular chase scenes in a decades as seen in The Fifth Element (1997) or Minority Report (2002). The scene in the office building lobby with its intense psychological confusion between reality and virtual reality was extended and made even more riveting than in the original Total Recall movie. And inclusion of the the classic James Bond ending sequences was much more satisfying than the original ending, though the omission of the sexual deviant element at the end where by the mind wipe of the Colin Ferrell's female colleague and intended transformation into a sex object was omitted as was included in the original and thus for me reduced the intensity of the titillating and nasty insinuation that the original movie captured. Overall, I found the remake of Total Recall a satisfying summer sci fi action adventure, though as I've alluded to earlier it wasn't a classic sci fi movie by any means. But I didn't find it as terrible or empty as Chris apparently did.

[Chris Knipp]

Is it so hard to do a remake? But what is a remake, exactly? Yes, the Metacritic ratings of the two Total Recalls are 1990: 57; 2012: 44. Part of that is that a remake has to try harder because it's already been done, and the '12 doesn't blow away the '90. But it's also objectively true I think that the new film isn't as good as the old one, even though the old one isn't really first rate either. You could argue that Wiseman really didn't have that hard a job to outdo Verhoeven but he failed in the attempt, if that is what he was trying to do. However I'm not sure the '12 is to be considered a "remake" of the '90 movie or rather simply another version of the Philip K. Dick story,"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," with slight reference to the '90. This is definitely true of the wonderful new film by Joachim Trier, Oslo: August 31, in relation to Louis Malle's The Fire Within. Both are adapted from the 1931 short novel Le feu follet by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, but Oslo: August 31 is not a remake of Louis Malle's film. In fact I don't think Trier refers to Malle's version in any way that I noticed. Though knowing how clever he and his writer are, he may have done. Still he seems to have been basically starting fresh from the book.

An important difference between traditional and modern culture is the craving for something imagined to be wholly new, as technology and the idea of progress call for -- but the arts really do not permit. The craving for new ideas in literature has led to what John Barth called "a literature of exhaustion," a time when writers, artists, and probably filmmakers too are gradually realizing that all the themes and forms and stories have been tried, there's nothing new left, "nothing new under the sun," "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

In earlier times the audience knew all the stories they were told -- Ulysses or Achilles or Beowulf, and were not expecting a new one. They were only expecting their "Singer of Tales" to weave the old spell adding some pleasing new details. The cult of "originality" characteristic of modern times may ultimately be reductive and destructive. If we realize that all the stories have already been told and we are only making modern variations we might appreciate the way writers and directors weave their own spell.

Surely a folklorist or historian of traditional literature could find old stories in which a storyteller imagines the woman of his dreams and she appears to him. That is what happens in the new movie by the makers of Little Miss Sunshine -- Ruby Sparks, which I just saw. There are also lots of stories, I'm sure, about intellectuals or artists who struggle with their creations so long they lose touch with the boundary between reality and illusion. Anyway I often quote something Vladimir Nabokov liked to repeat, that "reality" is a word that must always be in quotation marks. Ruby Sparks is an entertaining contemporary variation on these themes. I loved this movie and thought it something as clever as Charlie Kaufman might have written -- like Spike Jonze's Adaptation.

Having a background in literature as I've said here before makes me question the notion of "spoilers." It never spoiled things for the audience of The Odyssey that they knew what happens at the end. The important thing wasn't the "what" of the story but the "how".

"Pure" sci-fi films certainly are one category and summer blockbusters with a sci-fi basis are another. But so what? I would take issue with you when you say "if one takes a look at this remake through the lens of a sci-fi action thriller, there is something to be considered in terms of set-design and action sequences. " Well, okay, but what is to be considered? Sure, this new Total Recall wan'st made in somebody's backyard. It's an elaborate production, and some of the action sequences are cool. Walter Chaw comnmented on that in his review. But this Total Recall, however slick, is not original or memorable. I think maybe we're going to see more good male vs. bad female stories in action film, especially after Angelina Jolie pictures like Salt with real zing. But the idea that man is good and woman is evil is as old as Adam and Eve. She did tempt Adam to eat the apple, didn't she? And in the Middle Ages woman was always cast in the role of evil temptress.

I would agree with you that the scene in the building lobby is one of the best moments. It harkens back to the intellectual freshness of the earliest scenes of the film up to and including when the hero sits in the chair to have his memory altered and an alarm sounds. The basic weakness of the '12 Total Recall is the familiar one of allowing the action to overwhelm other content.