Paul Veerhoeven's Total Recall

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2007)

Total Recall is an action packed, bloody, surrealistic, and sometimes confusing sci-fi movie. Arnold stars as Quaid, a construction worker who is bored with his blue-collar life and decides to take part in a "virtual vacation", where he is able to pick the location he travels to. He picks Mars, in a different age where humans have begun to colonize and build a mining operation. Mars is ruled by an evil dictator (Ironside) and filled with freaks and mutants. Arnold's wife in his "trip" is Sharon Stone, who is offed early on and replaced by the slightly less attractive Rachel Ticotin. Of course he takes over his vacation and becomes a somewhat of a vigilante. His job is to destroy Ironside's evil empire and restore peace (and oxygen). Oxygen you say? Yes, Mars has no oxygen. Ergo, Ironside has placed everything in a protective shield a la Bio Dome which came out five years later. He controls the amount in the air inside the city. The movie is great. It, like most other Veerhoeven films (Robocop, Hollow Man, Flesh and Blood) never skimps on the blood and gore but at the same time emphasizes human pain and suffering so as not to make his movies mindless gorefests. There are always a lot of emotional moments on his films. The special effects range from hellish looking mutants with fetuses on their abdomens and women with three breasts, to cartoonish over-the-top violence. A perfect example is the ending scene where Arnold, Rachel, and a bad guy fall out of the volcanic fortress where Ironside resided. What happens to a person who is on a planet with no air pressure? Why, their heads inflate like balloons and their bodies explode! What else? I think the fact that the whole experience was simply a "dream" that Schwartzenegger took over allowed a little leeway to be pretty illogical and off the wall. Many people don't like this movie dismissing it as preposterous and unrealistic. Well in a way it's just as much a FANTASY as a sci-fi. If you watch it with an open mind and don't read too much into it like your lame critically acclaimed psycho-thrillers and highbrow comedy movies, you'll have an interesting trip.