Why couldn't they just do a fresh interpretation of the actual short story? Why did it have to be Total Recall - The Remake: Without Mars?
Total Recall - Reviews, Grading, and duiscussions, SPOILERS
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Weren't people defending this remake saying how it was going to be more faithful to the short story?
Weren't people defending this remake saying how it was going to be more faithful to the short story?
Yep, that was the joke, but the only similarity between it and the original story was the lack of Mars.
And let's talk about that. In the actual story, aliens are pivotal to the ending, so actually, that's one more point for the Ah-nuld version!
Weren't people defending this remake saying how it was going to be more faithful to the short story?
At first, though, that's what it was thought it was going to be. More faithful to the source material. It turned out to just be an almost note-for-note remake of the Ahnold Governorator movie, minus Mars. Which, now, really seems like a silly thing to have dropped given the "problems" the new idea had and how it didn't add anything. At least with Mars it'd have an interesting location to visit to give the movie some special aspect.
I was telling a friend about this movie and I said that while it was good it doesn't hold up the the original. And the original, let us be honest, isn't that good. It corny and cheesy as hell and is a pretty darn typical 80s (yes it was released in 1990 but the movie is very much more indicative of the 1980s, the decade in which it was produced) Schwarzenegger action movie. But that's just it and what made it "good" because Arnold is 80s/90s action movie awesome.
Here we are 22 years after that movie came out and it can still be very much called something of a "classic" for its time. People remember and quote lines from it all of the time, remember the eye-bulging scene in the Martian atmosphere it has it all.
In 22 years people won't be quoting Colin Ferrel's rather pedestrian performance in this movie. Or thinking of Kate Beckinsale as just one of those "movie villains" you love to hate. (Like Ronny Cox and Michael Ironside manged to pull off in many of their more memorable roles.)
I thought the remake was a solid movie with excellent action sequences that managed to be more than just something you'd see in every other movie. I do wish they had gone to Mars, though 
I kinda regret watching the original the night before because the first 2/3 or so of the movie was a pretty step-by-step remake.
Speaking of the original, that really holds up well. It still looks pretty good effects wise, even though it's all clearly shot on sound stage, that kind of makes sense since Mars is underground tunnels. And there's just so many iconic scenes in it! It's probably my favorite Ahnuld non-Terminator movie.
I kinda regret watching the original the night before because the first 2/3 or so of the movie was a pretty step-by-step remake.Speaking of the original, that really holds up well. It still looks pretty good effects wise, even though it's all clearly shot on sound stage, that kind of makes sense since Mars is underground tunnels. And there's just so many iconic scenes in it! It's probably my favorite Ahnuld non-Terminator movie.
Paul Verhoeven doesn't think Total Recall 2012 was a good movie.
Speaking of the original, it's one of the two movies I have on BluRay.
Watching it again recently, I was surprised at how closely the newer movie follows it, beat for beat. Aside from a few aesthetic changes (no Mars, no mutants) it's basically the same movie.
So much for those of us who thought it was going to be a closer adaption of the book eh
And I agree with Roger Ebert's review, Arnold's version has much more heart in it.
Speaking of the original, it's one of the two movies I have on BluRay.
Watching it again recently, I was surprised at how closely the newer movie follows it, beat for beat. Aside from a few aesthetic changes (no Mars, no mutants) it's basically the same movie.
So much for those of us who thought it was going to be a closer adaption of the book eh
And I agree with Roger Ebert's review, Arnold's version has much more heart in it.
Yeah, originally it was thought this new one would more follow the short-story but in reality it turned out to be very much more a "remake" of the Arnold movie.
And, as you say, it's pretty much a beat-for-beat, note-for-note remake. But desperately lacks the charm and just "fun" of the Arnold movie. Not to mention the "nifty!" factor of it taking place on Mars.
Plus it has what is probably the best Arnold line ever:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5x9HXwlkBo[/yt]
As an aside, I've been curious about this. I have the first BluRay release of Total Recall, and I've read online that it's a horrible disc. Watching it I kept waiting for it to be horrible, but the picture looked just fine to me. So am I just blind or is the quality bad?
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5x9HXwlkBo[/yt]
As an aside, I've been curious about this. I have the first BluRay release of Total Recall, and I've read online that it's a horrible disc. Watching it I kept waiting for it to be horrible, but the picture looked just fine to me. So am I just blind or is the quality bad?
It's good quality but it's not Blu-Ray quality.
Nah, it's fine. The remastered "Mind Bending" edition they recently released is a bit sharper and has different color timing, but that's about it.
*edit: found some comparisons
US blu ray vs. German (?) blu ray
UK Ultimate Rekall/Mind Bending edition vs. German (?) blu ray
Finally watched the remake since it's out now on DVD, and ugh, what a dud. The effects looked great, and some of the action sequences were pretty inventive, but the movie just had no life to it whatsoever. And it had none of the mystery or sense of wonder of the original either.
Colin Farell can be fun to watch in some movies, but for some reason he just comes across incredibly dull playing the standard action hero. His Quaid didn't have even an ounce of the charisma or likeability that Arnold's had. And somehow Arnold was more convincing as the "normal, average Joe" type as well, which is even more bizarre.
I will say some of the new technology they came up with was pretty cool (like the palm phones and those magnetic restraint guns), but that's pretty much all the movie was-- a collection of gadgets and effects and action scenes.
Colin Farell can be fun to watch in some movies, but for some reason he just comes across incredibly dull playing the standard action hero. His Quaid didn't have even an ounce of the charisma or likeability that Arnold's had. And somehow Arnold was more convincing as the "normal, average Joe" type as well, which is even more bizarre.
I will say some of the new technology they came up with was pretty cool (like the palm phones and those magnetic restraint guns), but that's pretty much all the movie was-- a collection of gadgets and effects and action scenes.
Arnold and his one-liners haven't kept me enthralled. Nonetheless, when I caught Total Recall on Redbox, I didn't enjoy it as much. But for me the moment I lost commitment was in the remake's version of the Roy Brocksmith scene. In the original, Brocksmith's character is sweating because he's in fear of his life if he fails to convince Schwarzenegger. In a stroke of poetic justice it gives him away. In the remake, Farrell somehow just knows.
When the hero's most vital decision, the one that cuts closest into his fears of being a spy in peril of his life versus being a man completely deceived and unmanned by his wife, just comes out of the script, my investment in the character really falls apart. Say what you will about Arnold, they at least wrote the scene where he too was really sweating it. Then Arnold resolved it on his own, in what was his biggest feat of the movie. All the rest were just hijinks, that was the one that really mattered. Or at least, that's the way I felt. When it came time for Quaid to decide he wanted to remain Quaid, the people who remade the movie couldn't care either.
Also, by the end the minuscule robot army invades through an easily destroyed beachhead. There hasn't been an on screen mob of military morons like this since the Founders tried to invade through a wormhole they didn't control. If you're going to short out the real drama then you need at least to have the melodramatic "conflict" between genuine foes. These clowns were pretty much doomed to fail. There's no big thrill in seeing a man beat up on losers.
When the hero's most vital decision, the one that cuts closest into his fears of being a spy in peril of his life versus being a man completely deceived and unmanned by his wife, just comes out of the script, my investment in the character really falls apart. Say what you will about Arnold, they at least wrote the scene where he too was really sweating it. Then Arnold resolved it on his own, in what was his biggest feat of the movie. All the rest were just hijinks, that was the one that really mattered. Or at least, that's the way I felt. When it came time for Quaid to decide he wanted to remain Quaid, the people who remade the movie couldn't care either.
Also, by the end the minuscule robot army invades through an easily destroyed beachhead. There hasn't been an on screen mob of military morons like this since the Founders tried to invade through a wormhole they didn't control. If you're going to short out the real drama then you need at least to have the melodramatic "conflict" between genuine foes. These clowns were pretty much doomed to fail. There's no big thrill in seeing a man beat up on losers.
Yeah, that was the most disappointing scene for me as well. No matter how many times I watch the original, I can still find myself actually believing that Brocksmith might be telling the truth-- that Arnold really IS still back at Rekall and dreaming the whole damn thing. Verhoeven's direction, the music, and the performances all do a great job selling you on that idea.
The scene in the remake, though, was just pathetic, and not convincing in the least. The fact it went on as long as it did, with Quaid taking forever to make a decision, only made it worse.
Just saw it, too. I knew how badly it was regarded, that there was no Mars (weird) so I figured I'd be happy just to see mindless blow-em-up popcorn, and that's exactly what I got. Waiting for movies to come out on streaming or DVD really solves a lot of the problem of being disappointed since I know exactly what I'm in for. 
The major issue was the lack of any dramatic tension in the "is it real" idea. There's no reason this iteration needed to follow the Ahnold movie or the PK Dick story, so they could have done better with that. I was halfway hoping it really was all a Rekall fantasy. Although that would have been an aggravating plot twist, at least it wouldn't have been 100% expected.
The Fall was one of the loopier sci fi ideas I've seen lately. So there's really no more cost-effective way to get from Australia to Europe other than by going through the planet's core? I also enjoyed the way Our Heroes were scrambling around on (apparently) the outside of the vehicle, with no regards to heat or the incredible speeds that sucker must have been travelling at. And for that matter, why have workers commute from Australia to build robots when you could build the robots in Australia and ship them to Europe in a more space-efficient manner than humans would tolerate? But such quibbles violate the principle of watching a movie like this, which is just a notch above a SyFy Saturday night monster movie.
Next up: Looper! I expect that one to be much better.
The major issue was the lack of any dramatic tension in the "is it real" idea. There's no reason this iteration needed to follow the Ahnold movie or the PK Dick story, so they could have done better with that. I was halfway hoping it really was all a Rekall fantasy. Although that would have been an aggravating plot twist, at least it wouldn't have been 100% expected.
The Fall was one of the loopier sci fi ideas I've seen lately. So there's really no more cost-effective way to get from Australia to Europe other than by going through the planet's core? I also enjoyed the way Our Heroes were scrambling around on (apparently) the outside of the vehicle, with no regards to heat or the incredible speeds that sucker must have been travelling at. And for that matter, why have workers commute from Australia to build robots when you could build the robots in Australia and ship them to Europe in a more space-efficient manner than humans would tolerate? But such quibbles violate the principle of watching a movie like this, which is just a notch above a SyFy Saturday night monster movie.
Next up: Looper! I expect that one to be much better.
Agreed about the underground tunnel. You mean to tell me they have technology to somehow suspend an entire block of apartments in the air, but they don't have planes or boats that can travel through the restricted area??
It's also hard to believe that Cohaagen would never think once to check the restricted area for the rebels. Especially since all it takes are some simple gas masks to survive in there.
It's also hard to believe that Cohaagen would never think once to check the restricted area for the rebels. Especially since all it takes are some simple gas masks to survive in there.
The entire Europe/Australia thing makes no sense whatsoever even more so the train that goes through the center of the Earth. And what of this "restricted area" thing. Does weather and wind not work on the planet anymore? I think in those cases the movie asks for so too much suspension of disbelief. At least from me. Why didn't they just keep the Mars angle? I mean it's really the only thing the first movie had going for it beyond the Ahnold factor and it'd certainly make a hell of a lot more sense than this stupid elevator that goes through the core of the planet!
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