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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For the memory of a lifetime, Rekall Rekall Rekall., 1 July 2007
Arnie is Doug Quaid, a simple construction worker who is bored with his uneventful life and wishes to be more and to do something meaningful. He's fascinated with going to Mars and meeting the mysterious woman of his dreams (that would be Melina) despite the civil war brewing withing the colonies. His wife Lori (Sharon Stone, looking gorgeous) is appalled with all things Martian and quickly nixes that idea. The only way Quaid is going to come close to the red planet is if he takes a Rekall vacation, a company that literally offers you a 'dream' vacation memory implant. Quaid wishes to go as a secret agent and all seems well until they send him to sleep.
As soon as he's unconscious Quaid seems to wake up in a rage, claiming his name is not Quaid but Hauser. And it's not just the dream going wrong since the Rekall technicians have not even implanted the dream yet. Blacking out again and waking up in a cab, Quaid has totally no recollection of anything that has happened and is confused to find his life turned upside down. His wife and colleagues are trying to kill him, dozens of armed henchmen are after him, he seems to have acquired lethal killing skills from nowhere and he apparently has some unfinished business back on Mars, despite the fact that he's never been there. Or has he?
Once on Mars for real (or is it?) he finds himself involved with the beautiful Melina (Rachel Ticotin, even prettier than Sharon Stone), the underground resistance and battling their arch-nemesis Vilos Cohaagen, a bureaucrat who has the entire planet under his control. It seems that Hauser was Cohaagen's right hand man and left clues for the fabricated Quaid persona to topple Cohaagen's regime.
Total Recall is certainly one of Arnie's and Verhoeven's most imaginative and creative movies. The Mars town of Venusville is basically Amsterdam's Red Light District with booze, drugs and sex everywhere, the violence is so ridiculously over-the-top that one cannot help but laugh at it (despite a lot of the gorier bits being censored by the evil MPAA), the vision of the future is incongruously bleak but colorful and fanciful yet primitive. The contrasts between Earth and Mars are similar to Western and Third World comparisons.
The visual effects, if slightly dated, are simply amazing. Jerry Goldsmith's awesome score is, at once, atmospheric and action-packed. The set-pieces, especially Quaids vision of the alien furnaces, are just ludicrously entertaining and the 'is it a dream or is it real' premise puts such a wonderfully surreal twist on the whole thing. Sci-Fi has never been so outrageous. What do you expect with mad genius Dutchman directing? And I do believe that it IS real.
The HD-DVD may be missing any extras but the film looks absolutely gorgeous in 1080p and is surely one of the best-looking HD-DVDs I have seen so far. Very, very impressed indeed. Highly recommended.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally Brilliant, 28 Nov 2008
Apart from the terminator this is big Arnie at his baddy bashing best. This film, Black Book and Basic Instinct also remind us that Showgirls was a temporary blip in Paul Verhoevens impressive directorial c.v. The thundering introduction theme the violence,the special effects,crazy Michael Ironside running about trying to waste the big man. Added to which we have a high kicking Sharon Stone and Ronny Cox as the slimeball villain. Great Sci Fi movi. Eat your heart out Sylvestor Stallone. Buy this DVD.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All Time Classic Sci-Fi Action Film, 11 July 2005
Although the film is 15 years old ... the subject matter is so contemporary it has all the ingredients to be a classic. First, it is about a colony of inhabitants on Mars, a planet which has been inhabited for at least 1/2 million years. Next, there is suspense, action and drama associated with a cover-up by an earth-based government agency which is tied to the secret identity of Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwartzenegger). On the surface he is an ordinairy construction worker on earth ... yet his dreams and possible flash-backs of events and activities on Mars hint at something more deep and covert. Eventually he explores a fantasy vacation trip to Mars in a mind-altering program called Rekall ... to develop insight into his dreams. From this point forward the film explodes in a myriad of action-packed and creative directions ... all of which help unravel the implanted identity of Doug Quaid/Hauser. The film gains momentum and is nonstop action. It depicts Arnold Schwartzenegger as the super-charged hero who nearly single-handedly brings about justice ... on a distant planet. The casting in this film is superb: his earthly wife, Lori is played by Sharon Stone and his lover and partner on Mars, Melina, is played by Rachel Ticton. There is a cast of "Star-Trek"-like aliens that work in harmony with the earth colony to fight oppression. In the end Quaid discovers the suppressed technology which saves the climate of Mars for future generations. It is one outstanding film.
Erika Borsos (bakonyvilla)
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