Total Recall, a film standing as one of the most reminiscent films in Science Fiction!

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2006)

Total Recall is undoubtedly a Science Fiction film that entices the best plausible action for any Sci-Fi lover, the story itself was originally thought up by Dan O' Bannon and Ronald Schusett who had just finished creating the story of Alien. Total Recall on the other hand was considered to be too expensive and it was not until the late 1980's that it went into production, many director's were considered to direct it but no one had the correct visualisations for the film's setting and since most of the film takes place on Mars, many director's could not take kindly to it, finally the applicable chance came when a young Dutch director known as Paul Verhoeven was enticed to direct it who later on came onto directing the grisly Science Fiction epic Starship Troopers and Basic Instinct 1 and 2 and he has ultimately made the film into something that is really outlandish in general.
In case you are wondering on what on earth Total Recall is about, well basically Arnold Schawzenegger plays the role of this construction worker known as Douglas Quaid who frequently keeps having nightmares about the planet Mars and a visit to an artificial vacation parlour unlocks erased memories in Quaid's mind and he soon find's himself being hunted by a group of Government officials who inevitably force Quaid to go to the Red Planet for real.
The storyline is very complex as are the film's freaky looking characters, as some of the Martians who you see in the film adopt the same visual looks as characters who you may have seen in Star Wars, the action is great and down right harrowing at times and there is also a good stellar cast, Sharon Stone delivers a chilling performance as Quaid's indisputable wife, Michael Ironside who gives a stunning action packed performance as the corrupt government official Richter, and ultimately there is the film's main villain being the malicious tyrant Vilas Cohaggen who is played brilliantly by Ronny Cox.
All in all Total Recall is a stunning Science Fiction film and it incorporates many action elements that are innovative and stunning, there is also some very good visual effects in the film which really give the film an impressive visual style to it, you also get to see some subsequent sequences of the planet Mars, it does looks slightly superficial and overdone but it does looks fairly realistic, the action is very stylistic but as mentioned it does become a bit mind numbing towards the end like in most Schwarzengger movies, as throughout most of the film you will see so many people getting blown away and shot to pieces that you will just grow numb to all the gore. So if you are a fan of Sci-Fi and you haven't had the chance to experience Total Recall, then you should definitely give it a look.