Total Recall - Secret Agent Arnie

Feb

10

Total Recall - Secret Agent Arnie

≡ Category: Action, Essential, Movie Reviews By Country, Satire, Science Fiction, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Action/Satire/Science Fiction
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Year: 1990

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE

Total Recall may not be the slam dunk Trash Cinema masterpiece that director Paul Verhoeven’s previous film Robocop was, but it is still indecently entertaining.

First, let’s start with the flaws. Two words — Arnold Schwartzenegger. Sure, Arnold’s fine when you put his steroid-hardened facial expressions to good use, as in the Terminator films. But when you ask him to play the role of a spy, well…Arnold concealing his identity is about as likely as hiding a howitzer under your jacket. The man is not exactly inconspicuous, you know?

Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwartzenegger) is supposed to be an everyman type who finds out that he’s a superspy (unless it’s all a dream of course — more about that later). That means he has to be believable as a regular joe who gets frightened, feels vulnerable, and is horrified when he finds out he is capable of killing men with his bare hands. That means lots of dialog and emoting, which means trouble.

I understand that Paul Verhoeven needed to fund an expensive film, and that hiring a real actor wouldn’t have been as easy a sell, but Arnold Schwartzenegger is a joke as Douglas Quaid. So, Total Recall has to succeed in spite of it’s star.

Fortunately, the rest of the cast is terrific: Sharon Stone easily pulls off the caring wifey/stone cold beeatch role of Lori, Quaid’s better half; Ronny Cox makes a terrific dictator as Cohagen; and Michael Ironside excels as the murderous and none-too-bright Richter, a thug of Cohagen’s.

The second flaw, and this is somewhat minor, is that some of the special effects aren’t terribly convincing. Now, Paul Verhoeven knew this going in, and he gambled that people would be so astonished at what he was attempting, that they would forgive the imperfect execution. He was right.

So, even though the puppetry looks like puppetry, and a certain mechanical effect looks exactly like what it is, you don’t really care because you’ve been so thoroughly entertained, you’re willing to let it slide.

Okay, I suppose I should tell you a little more about the plot. Douglas Quaid is a little bored with his working class life (yeah, I would be too if I had a wife that looked like Sharon Stone — right). Anyway, after seeing an advertisement for Rekall, an outfit that gives it’s clients a vacation from reality via a temporary memory implant, Quaid chooses the Spy Goes To Mars package. Shortly thereafter, people start trying to kill him and he finds out that he’s a spy living under an assumed identity. Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Is Quaid really a spy or is he just experiencing a malfunction of the memory implant?

But the mind games implicit in the script take a back seat to the balls to the wall action and crazy visuals. Total Recall isn’t quite as explicitly violent as Robocop (what is?) but it comes close. And actually, that isn’t director Paul Verhoeven’s fault. In one scene that was shot, one of the bad guys gets gutted from groin to sternum with an enormous Bowie knife wielded by a midget. The ratings board wasn’t amused, so only a fraction of that scene survived.

But never mind. There is an abundance of violence which is quick, brutal and personal. Credit director Paul Verhoeven with maintaining an atmosphere of danger and sleaze throughout.

There are also some satirical elements to pass the time, especially concerning consumerism and the expendability of the underclass.

Total Recall is a complete blast, even considering Arnold. When Arnold was cast, obviously the movie became less about identity issues and more about cartoonish violence and blowing things up real good, but Total Recall still earns it’s stripes as a Trash Cinema classic.