Verhoeven+Schwarzenegger= All-time Classic !

Rating: 10/10 (5 December 2005)

This is one action adventure that will never lose its appeal,and is worth repeat viewings,not only for movie-goers but also movie-makers,who think that great CGI alone can compensate for their inability to come up with story lines more novel than a bunch of ugly monsters trying to have humans for lunch,sometimes above ground or sometimes below water,and sometimes even in far away galaxies.This is a film by the Dutch master Paul Verhoeven,and the storyline is unlike any I have ever seen in a sci-fi movie.The redoubtable Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a construction worker in the future who is haunted by horrible dreams of another life on the planet Mars.He then decides to go on a "virtual" vacation to Mars, courtesy the cybergeeks at a company called Recall who sell such illusions .The trouble begins when they try to implant this" vacation" as a memory into Quaid's brain,triggering the onset of "total recall",that is,Quaid's complete recalling of his actual memory and identity.He now realizes that his nightmares were actually echoes of a real life he had,and journeys to Mars to find out more .What follows is an adventure of epic proportions, and not for one moment do you feel bored or get the feeling of" hey,I've seen this before !"Paul Verhoeven gives you no room for that. The action is great,the humor is great,and the special effects are breath-taking,if you consider the fact that this was 1990. Schwarzenegger does full justice to the lead role,and frankly,I think his performance here outshines that in "Terminator 2",where he had to be as rigid and unemotional as possible. Sharon Stone has a brief appearance as his supposed wife,and she is gorgeous in those few moments,though evil. Ronny Cox as villain Cohaagen looks too,feeble ,while Michael Ironside as his henchman does a lot better.All in all,a classic that is a must-watch not only for die-hard Schwarzenegger fans,but for all fans of the sci-fi genre itself.