So Much Fun

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2020)

This is one of my favorite Arnold films and one of my favorite Verhoeven films as well. As a kid I loved this movie in the same breath as "The 5th Element," and other space adventures. As I've grown older, my appreciation for the film has gotten both higher and lower when it comes to certain aspects of the execution of the film but overall, it is still a film I will watch over and over again.
People will often ask me why I end up watching so many arthouse and emotionally disturbing films. They are usually implying that I don't have a sense of fun or appreciation for pure entertainment. Now, I would take issue with the assumptions that drive that question but "Total Recall" is an answer all its own. This film is fun, has some of Arnold's ("Last Action Hero") best one liners, hints at some thematic concepts that could be taken up by an artistic film, (I'd love to see Cronenberg's version of this film), and wraps up in a nice little happy package.
The reason I love this film so much is that it does all of these things without compromising the storytelling, themes, humor, or sense of adventure or getting into spoon feeding the audience too hard or expecting more emotional involvement than a film like this can really expect.
"Total Recall" is a masterclass in how to reveal story in an interesting way. In fact, I would argue that this is the first reason this film works as well as it does. We start small with a work-a-day guy who seems dissatisfied with his life and is just aching to get away, even if he has to sneak it past his wife. As the film progresses, he finds out that he may not be who he thinks he is and most of the people in his life are not who he thinks they are. These revelations are the basis for grounding the character's arc. As he is thrown into crazier and more outlandish situations there is always this base assumption that he should be seeking to uncover the secret of who he is and take up the causes of that person he once was.
All of this ends up driving a thematic question which we all confront in our own lives, "Who am I down to my core?" The film doesn't probe this idea philosophically as a Mike Leigh or Terrence Malick would, but does it through action and excitement. There are probably people out there who have watched this movie and barely register the theme because they are caught up in the plot reveals, action sequences, special effects, and great Schwarzenegger moments.
When people ask me about whether I enjoy fun movies, I feel like carting this one, and several others, out for them and saying, "Yeah, I love a good fun movie. As long as the rest of it is good or unique or interesting as well."
Fun can't be the ONLY consideration even when it is the primary one. That is the sort of movie I see once and then never watch again because it has so little to offer. It becomes exhausted in its first watch through.
Films like "Total Recall" are fun but re-watchable for all the concepts that it brings up and they get brought up often because you keep watching the movie over and over again for the fun. It's a cycle I love to get caught in and hopefully "Total Recall" will catch you up in it too.