The more I see this film, the worse it looks!!!

Rating: 2/10 (4 November 2004)

I must say that 'Total Recall' is without doubt one the most mindless, derivative pieces of Sci-Fi/action trash I've ever had the misfortune to watch.
The plot (if it can be described as such) concerns Douglas Quaid, an average, everyday construction worker on earth, circa 2084 who is plagued by recurring dreams of him visiting the planet Mars. It's not until he has problems while getting a memory transplant of a holiday on Mars that he starts to learn that he actually HAS been there. He travels out the the red planet to piece things together, and gets involved with Martian resistance fighters in their fight against the local dictator, Mies Coehagen.
What follows is a zero-brainpower orgy of unnecessarily gory violence, frequent shoot-outs, and tacky set pieces. Among the film's few redeeming features is a wide-sweeping Special effects shot of the underground atmosphere generator. The rest of the production design featured in this film looks like it had been made out of wood and cardboard, and been garnished like Christmas trees with a lot of rather tacky gaudy-coloured neon. The 'Venusville' slum/shanty town set looks like one big museum for 80's kitsch. With the exception of the scene wher that dummy head opens up, even the make-up and prosthetic effects aren't much up to scratch, considering the big budget that was lavished on this turkey of a movie.
Makes you wonder how this festering pile of garbage,'Total Recall' ever became such a huge box-office smash.
Ridley Scott did a much better job of predicting the future as one big filthy, rat-infested neon-lit red light district in his piece de resistance, 'BladeRunner' which 'Total Recall' steals a lot of its ideas from.
Throughout the film, Arnie spends most of the time cheerily blasting away hordes of gun-toting bad guys with a wise-ass remark and a smile on his face. The highlight out of all of these moments is when Quaid Kills his wife (playde by Sharon Stone) who is in fact an enemy agent, and just sarcastically says 'consider this a divorce'.
All in all, this film is a rather tragic waste of time and money. This is certainly a comedown for director Paul Voerhoven from his 1987 classic, 'Robocop', nor anywhere near as witty.