Fun-filled Verhoeven-Schwarzenegger pairing!

Rating: 10/10 (5 July 2008)

I've always been a HUGE Arnold Schwarzenegger fan, because in his prime in the 80s and early 90s, he made hugely profitable and entertaining movies. TOTAL RECALL (1990) is Arnie at his action (and perhaps even acting) peak. Total Recall may be the first movie of Schwarzenegger's that I realized, "Darn! This guy ain't a bad actor!". For you guys that think that Schwarzenegger can't act, watch this film. Actually, given the director, the great Paul Verhoeven, I should not have expected any less. He does an amazing job of taking larger-than-life beings, like Murphy in Robocop, and the superhuman Schwarzenegger in this film, and humanizing for all of us common folk. We actually relate to these powerful, yet sensitive, skewed, and damaged beings.
Set sometime in the 'future',Total Recall tells the tale of Douglas Quaid (the aforementioned Schwarzenegger in a totally convincing performance). Quaid has a hot wife (Sharon Stone in her trademark super-sexy, conniving, backstabbing vixen role that she would become famous for in pretty much all her later films) and a seemingly content existence. But he has dreams of another life on Mars with an alluring brunette (will talk about her later). The bored Quaid wants some excitement in his life and so he goes to the company Rekall where they implant memories and visions of a completely different personality and existence. Quaid requests to be a secret agent on Mars with a sexy girlfriend, a la James Bond. During implantation, something goes terribly wrong and it appears that Quaid already has implants that the Rekall procedure has messed with. Turns out that Quaid has been to Mars and is a secret agent named Hauser put on Earth for a special mission, or so we think.
When I first saw the film, I couldn't distinguish whether or not the stuff happening at Rekall was truly happening or were part of their implants to Quaid b/c he DID request to be a secret agent on Mars with a sexy girlfriend. Ironic that he already had all that! That's part of the fun of the film: it keeps you guessing. And along the way, you get treated the classic Arnold puns and one-liners (got to have those). But in this film, Arnold actually shows some acting chops while he's delivering those pun-liners! He's really good.
The film also boasts an impressive supporting cast: the aforementioned Stone, Ronny Cox (from Verhoeven's prior masterpiece Robocop), Michael Ironside as his #1 henchman (Ironside was also in Verhoeven's later Starship Troopers), and someone I've mentioned several times in this review, Rachel Ticotin as the dark-haired sexy girlfriend Melina, the one Quaid dreams about and requests at Rekall. Ticotin may just be the first (and last) Schwarzenegger female co-star that was his equal in terms of toughness and resourcefulness. Alluring is the word I used to describe her and that's what she is in this film: sexy without being overtly sexual, moderately attractive but still very desirable. It's easy to see what Quaid sees in her: she represents the excitement and danger that his humdrum daily existence lacks.
Being a 'futuristic' film that came out in 1990, the film just barely escapes the dated look of 80s futuristic films. The look and feel of the film is believable enough to make you believe its the future, although some of the set pieces are a little humorous to take seriously now (the Johnny car?). But, all that aside, Total Recall is a great, thought-provoking action film with a complex premise and an all-time hero that everyone can root for: Arnold Schwarzenegger!