Wife really doesn’t like science fiction, made her watch it anyway. “Trust me, it’s great!” She was engrossed! The plot and acting really has the viewer questioning what’s going on. We all know what happened, but it would be interesting to experience it again for the first time.
One of Schwarzenegger’s better acting roles. You can feel his desperation and confusion, his second guessing himself.
Thoughts on the new one? Only saw it once, liked it at the time, haven’t felt the urge to spin it again.
Now go watch Conan the Barbarian. On paper it should be terrible. Sword and sorcery nonsense set in some undefined past, starring a body builder with a very loose command of English. But it’s fucking amazing. It’s cinema. It spawned a hundred imitators, and you could count on one hand the number of those that were worth a tinker’s dam. Schwarzenegger, when he’s cast and utilized correctly, is actually fantastic, and he deserves more praise for his acting, when he’s given an opportunity to do it.
The practical effects in that film are mad science tier
I’ve seen it once, but I need to revisit it.
The practical effects from that era were incredible. I don’t know how Verhoeven can be completely deadpan and over-the-top at the same time, but it’s great.
Paul V makes classics that are timeless while still being very much from their time. RoboCop and Starship Troopers also capture something of their time that still resonates. He’s a top-tier director who chose to make big budget B-style-movies.
That’s one of my favorite movies. I saw it in the theater when it came out. I own the 4K blu ray steelbook (which looks amazing).
The new one was so boring and long that it was emotionally painful to get through. I’m not sure why I watched the whole thing. I remember virtually zero details about it.
I forgot I saw the new one so I ended up watching it again. I still don’t remember anything about it except that I was bored and disappointed.
I judge movies by how well I remember bits, how much I thought about it later, if I woke up thinking about it. The new one left me empty. Fun in the moment, don’t remember a thing.
The original film is an absolute classic, one of Arnies best. I picked up the remake on Blu-ray in a charity shop for a couple of quid because it was a nice steel book. I hadn’t seen it in years, it’s a just a mediocre sci-fi adventure.
I remember back in the day, the film caused a bit of controversy in the news for being so violent. It was being compared to Die Hard 2 and which film had the most on screen deaths.
Watching the 2013 one made me appreciate the 1990 one even more.
E.g. everything in the first one makes sense. But a half-ruined/poisoned city having the resources to build a tunnel through the planet? And a pisspoor sneak invasion plan instead of simply using that wealth to cement their dominance over the other region??
There were other points as well that made me feel the plot, motivations etc were all well constructed with the first one and a mess with the second one but I can’t remember them now, not having seen the remake since it came out in the cinema, and no plan to see it again.
Weird to see no mention of the original book. It was very good. I read it before the movie came out and still enjoyed the movie.
Reading it again right now! So far it’s word for word, scene for scene. Keep expecting it to go off the rails vs. the movie. Nope. It’s almost like a screenplay.
Twoooo Weeeeks
Haven’t seen the new one, but the original is fantastic. Even though it feels 80s (in an awesome way), I still really feel like I’m on Mars watching it today. And the acting was all on point.
Don’t see the new one. The sort of philosophical heart of the movie is cut right out.
Total Recall was great, but I’d really like to see how the Cronenberg version would’ve turned out. No idea about the remake.
I like that the OG doesn’t seem to lesve it ambiguous as to whether or not it’s real or just in his head. The scene where the dude tries to talk him out of the “simulation” is a major key element here. Quaid sees him sweat. Why is he sweating if it’s not real?
It doesn’t leave it ambiguous? The original??
I mean it even fades to white, there a lot of ambiguous clues…
I’m torn between “it’s obvious” and “it’s not obvious”. Mostly leaning on obvious, but there are niggling questions. :)
And if anyone can’t tell where I lean, well, that’s ambiguity for ya.
Lol alright then. I haven’t watched the remake, nor do I plan to, sexy as Kate Beckinsale is.
I remember reading an interview with Verhoeven at the time. He says that Arnie dies in the chair at Rekall at the end, it’s all in his head. That’s why the film fades to white at the end.
It’s been a while since I watched it but taking the pill was supposed to be a symbol that Arnie was rejecting the fantasy and allow him to return to reality. Assuming everything was really in his head, the drop of sweat was Arnie’s subconscious rejecting reality in favor of the fantasy.
Visually even at the time i thought a lot of the effects looked bad, so I’m sure those parts only look worse to a modern eye
To me it can be like watching A Muppet Christmas Carol with certain older movies.
Michael Caine’s acting skill with muppets make the magic. He’s not playing pretend against a green screen and a tennis ball on a string. He’s playing against fantastical creatures and killing it. Making us believe it, even though we can see the glue holding it together sometimes in 4K.
The original Total Recall is like this too. Everyone is knocking it out of the park, especially when the Mars scenes starts and every frame is filled with fantastical practical (mostly, I believe) creations.
Yep, effects were kinda over-the-top and silly, but the movie doesn’t rely on them to tell the story.
The redeaux with Sharon Stone was good too - I own both and circle back to them every couple of years.
Sharon Stone was in the original.
