Len Wiseman's remake of the 1990 sci-fi classic starring Colin Farrell has been described as 'soulless', 'repetitive' and 'humourless'
The original film was one of the highest grossing movies of 1990 and a moderate hit with the critics. Twenty two years on it has only grown in stature and is seen as one of the best films in the careers of both director Paul Verhoeven and star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the newly released remake of Total Recall, which has been rubbished by US reviewers and looks set to open poorly this weekend at the box office.
Starring Colin Farrell in the role of Douglas Quaid made famous by Schwarzenegger, and with Underworld director Len Wiseman in the hot seat, the new version has been described as "bland, bloodless and humourless" and "another remake that didn't need to be made" by reviewers. Criticism was also directed at a perceived lack of logic in the storyline, which like the original is sourced from science fiction guru Philip K Dick's 1966 short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.
"Soulless, bombastic and numbingly repetitive, Total Recall is easy to forget within a few hours of watching," writes USA Today's Claudia Puig. "Verhoeven's R-rated original involved Martians facing off against those who held them in tyranny. It also engaged in more mystery surrounding what was reality and what was implanted memory. This humourless PG-13 remake, directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld), is less of a mindbender. It takes place on a bleakly stylised Earth, with a pair of mega-continents facing off. Mired in hectic, repetitive-looking special effects, it doesn't dazzle as much as look like a big-screen video game.
"Instead of drawing the audience in, the action scenes merely blur together. And the intriguing, thoughtful concepts at the story's core are glossed over. Total Recall is another remake that didn't need to be made."
"The original Total Recall was built from bottom to top as a vehicle for certified stars," writes the Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern. "Schwarzenegger filled the bill, and then some; so did Sharon Stone, in the role of the wife. Audiences cared about them going in, and the movie capitalised on their presence with sexy riffs, smart jokes (including some crude but shrewd ones about Arnold's physique), a few whiffs of silliness, a sprinkling of grace notes to punctuate the thundering action. The remake has no grace notes, or grace, no nuance, no humanity, no character quirks, no surprises in the dialogue and no humour."
"As directed by Len Wiseman from a screenplay and screen story credited to five different writers, this Total Recall plays more like a pop-culture mashup," complains the LA Times' Kenneth Turan. "It adds elements from Blade Runner and Inception (as well as a dash of The Bourne Identity) to the Recall cosmos and takes off like a shot. The fun is fun while it lasts, it just doesn't last long enough.
"Its relentless action and its 'is it live or is it Memorex' concerns about what is real and what is not eventually wear you out. After too many hard-to-follow chases out windows and doors and up and down ultramodern elevator shafts, after too many people saying things like 'this is going to sound crazy,' 'Jesus Christ, it's hard to believe' and 'you've got to be kidding me,' our systems end up on overload. And there is nothing very futuristic – or entertaining – about that."
The film currently maintains a 30% "rotten" rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, but does have the odd advocate. "As much as the inner fanboy in me wanted to say that they should have never remade Total Recall, the openminded critic in me found plenty to like here," admits Austin Kennedy of Sin Magazine. "It did take me about 15-20 minutes to get into it at first. But once Kate Beckinsale starts kicking Farrell's ass, the pace picks up at a relentless speed and barely slows down until the end. The best thing about this movie is that it has great action set pieces. There are three or four really awesome chases."
Perhaps even more gallingly for studio Columbia, which has put up a $125m budget for the remake, Total Recall 2012 looks set to open with a relatively meagre $25m to $30m at the US box office, behind superhero blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises despite the latter being in its third week in cinemas. The original film also made $25m on debut, but cost less than half of its successor's budget. Total Recall opens in the UK on 29 August.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/03/total-recall-remake-us-critics
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