I’m actually quite surprised the recent reboot of Total Recall didn’t receive better reviews.
Then again, there still is a lot of nostalgia for the original, and I personally remember how much I enjoyed seeing the Recall the first time around on opening weekend. The movie even has two of my favorite Ah-nold moments, namely “Get your ass to Mars,” and “You think this is the real Quaid? IT IS!”
The reviews that didn’t dig the film thought, like many blockbusters, thought it was big, loud and empty, and the reviews that dug it, including here on TG, were hoping for a little more out of it. (Guess we’re getting spoiled in that we expect our event films to have depth now…)
Roger Ebert called it “well-crafted, high energy sci-fi…It never touched me emotionally, though, the way the 1990 film did, and strictly speaking, isn’t necessary.” The Arizona Republic also wrote, “It’s only evident passion is for excessive lens flares.” (Damn you JJ Abrams! What have you wrought?!)
It’s interesting to see how many still like the original, because the spin the film’s producers were trying to put out there was the original was “so cheesy.” At least that’s what producer Neal Moritz told the L.A. Times. “The majority of people under 35 don’t even know about the original,” he continued. “The tone of it was so much different from what I wanted to do.”
The new Total Recall also lost points with critics for not being as funny as the original, and clearly some miss Ah-nold when his one liners weren’t totally played out. Still, it’s also interesting to note that like Christopher Nolan with The Dark Knight Rises, director Len Wiseman resisted the effort to make the film in 3D. “I didn’t want it to feel like a video game,” he told the Times.
FoxNews also ran a story on the hooker with three boobs, and you knew this was going to get a lot of press. Yet the Fox story is about an alien hooker with three boobs being in a PG-13 movie, where the original Total Recall was rated R. The ratings board is weird, although it wasn’t just the three boobs that got Total Recall its R, and they’ll probably say it’s make-up, it’s not real nudity, etc. It’s obviously not the sole reason to go see Total Recall, but you knew this would be a focal point…
