Nearly A Good Movie

Rating: 5/10 (13 June 2010)

First thing I noticed, the overture them closely resemble the one from "Conan the Barbarian". From there. I knew there was to be too much Arnold in the movie.
Why was Arnold given the lead role? Well, simply because it seem a good idea at the time; Arnold was big, and this was, at his day, the most expensive movie ever made. So why not Arnold? The result is; Arnold looks out of place, that huge, muscular man that tries to pass off as an ordinary Joe, is ridiculously obvious and gives a cartoony image that I feel was was not needed for the role. For her part, Ticotin's appearance gives this movie a strong 80's feel, shared by nearly all the other females with their hideous hairdos. I must also regret the presence of a typically funny but submissive token black sidekick for a good while. Hey maybe we"re on Mars but we're sure not that far off from Hollywood.
The tone of the film, anyway, is also a problem: If Verhoven managed to include satire in his ultra-violence settings ("Total Recall" is needlessly gory, to the enjoyment of many), here is makes for an awkward mix, literally the worse of both worlds. The effects, advanced for the time, aged and are now grotesque. The "fat lady" bit at the customs, among others, was totally random.
As for the general plot, I didn't read the novel but the story was good, although I felt it was dumbed down a bit to fit into the format. The sets were fine (all that money ought to be spent elsewhere than on Arnold), but not well exploited by a vision that lacked grandeur.
Immersion here is difficult. "Total Recall", in this day and age, reveals itself as a mediocre sci-fi movie.