Colin Farrell stars in this remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film of the same name. Farrell plays Doug, which may or may not be his real name. Doug lives in a futuristic world with his wife (played by Kate Beckinsale), who may or may not be his wife. Doug isn’t happy with his life and temptation leads him to REKALL, a business that provides fake memories so a person’s boring life can seem a lot more exciting. Doug chooses to become a secret agent. But once he gets strapped into the chair things start to go very wrong, and his real life soon becomes a lot more exciting, or it may not be his real life.
I can’t go much deeper into the plot of “Total Recall” without giving too much away. The story does get intentionally complicated, but the problem is the film isn’t good enough to make you care enough to want to follow along. You simply sit back and take-in all the sci-fi scenery, predictable dialogue and endless action sequences.
There may be more weapons fired in this film than any so far this year (and yet all of the main characters barely get a scratch). And the visual effects are unspectacular and unappealing. It’s not easy to make hover cars unappealing, but this movie does.
The rest of the cast includes Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston and Bill Nighy. None of them will be putting this on their resumes.
“Total Recall” does deserve one award: for the most times the same, single swear word is exclaimed in a movie. Every time something goes wrong a character responds with the word “sh–“. I bet a lot of people in the audience used the same word to describe what they had just seen on their way out the theater.
“Total Recall” is rated PG-13 for the sci-fi action/violence, brief nudity and the before mentioned adult language. It’s appropriate for teens and up, but in a year of some solid action movies, “Total Recall” is pretty forgetable.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Total Recall” gets a D.