Total Recall, the remake, opens Friday. However, just in time for that release, this new Blu-ray of the original Total Recall shows up. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Very little of this movie resembles the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” that the movie was supposed to be based on. But director Paul Verhoeven turns the question of identity into a satisfying thrill ride especially when Schwarzenegger gets to Mars. I don’t know much about the remake of Total Recall, but it will be hard to top this version.
I never read the story until long after I saw the movie and I was surprised at how little they had in common. If they are just making an updated CGI-fueled remake of the Arnold movie the only question is, why?
Exactly, Jeff. I may see the remake of TOTAL RECALL on Friday so I’ll try to answer that burning question.
Our tastes diverge here, George. Though Sharon Stone is easy to watch here, very little else about this film can be so described.
I have a weakness for mindless Summer action movies, Todd. It’s baked into my DNA. And, you’re right about Sharon Stone.
One of the few DVDs I bought back when I thought I was building a “movie library”. That process stopped when I realized I was never going to re-watch them, or most of them, so I signed up for Netflix and never looked back, but I have it on the shelf. I think I watched it twice, but don’t remember a lot about it. I have no plan to see the new one, in theater or at home.
I’m wondering why Hollywood is remaking TOTAL RECALL, Rick. For its time, TOTAL RECALL had some amazing CGI effects. And the questions of Identity and Reality (both big tropes in Philip K. Dick stories) come through in this movie.
Funny you mentioned that, as I’m reading his TIME OUT OF JOINT at the moment.
I have the Library of America volumes in my stack, Jeff. I read plenty of Philip K. Dick’s works in the Sixties and Seventies. I’m getting to the point where I want to reread several of PDK’s best books like MARTIAN TIME-SLIP and DR. BLOODMONEY.