Brash, Bold, violent, Ironside

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2002)

This Philip K Dick adaptation is epic science fiction cinema. It's like a modern day 1950s sci-fi film with a huge budget and excessive violence. The film tells the story of Doug Quaid (Arnie) who has dreams about mars, and decides to go to Recall - implementer of fake memories - to get a two week memory of mars. Unfortunately Arnie's trip to recall triggers strange memories. Has Quaid really been to mars before? Is Quaid really a secret agent who is mixed up in an inter-planetary conspiracy? So, from the this point on the plot twists and turns as Arnie tries to work out what's going on. The story is quite engaging, but what really makes this film a classic is the over the top performances, the ridiculous violence and the dodgy special effects. Arnie was never going to win an oscar for this film, but on purely entertainment value he is awesome. Just check out the scene where Arnie is grabbed by Gary and his goons and Arnie screams 'what the f*** did I do wrong?'. This has to be seen to be believed. Truly an actor at the peak of his powers. But as good as Arnie is he cannot compare to the great supporting cast. Michael Ironside puts in the performance of a life time as henchman Richter. This b-movie actor is always immensely watchable in everything he does, but it seems that Verhoeven brings out the best in him. His style is impeccable as he sneers his way through the film. The final fight scene between Arnie and Ironside on the lift, is perhaps one of the all time great movie fight scenes. I recommend repeat viewing for this scene. The rest of the supporting cast is also thankfully truly awful, in a great way. Relative unknown Mel Johnson jnr positively sizzles as mutant cabby Benny, and other Verhoeven favourites, Marshall Bell and Ronny Cox prove their worth. Cox totally hams it up as bad guy Cohagen. As for the Special effects, this film won best special effects at the oscars, and I know it's over a decade old now, but I really don't now how that was possible. I love this film for all the wrong reasons. It is said that when Philip K Dick saw Blade Runner he said it was exactly as he had imagined it while writing the book. I'd love to know what his thoughts would have been on Recall.