Total Recall 2012 version - Review

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So I finally got to see this on Friday, boy was i dissapointed.

Main reason I went to see this movie was because i was such a big fan of the 80's version. First of all I could see where they were going with it, the idea of basing the movie entirely on Earth was quite clever albeit some aspects of it were technically infeasible - 'The Fall' a bullet train running through the centre of the Earth between Australia and London. It would have been cheaper and more technically feasible to build a permanent base on Mars. But oh well, I digress.

The general plot synopsis is that the Earth, sometime in the 22nd century has undergone some sort of apocalyptic catastrophe involving chemical weapons and as a result has been divided into 3 areas: The United Federation of Britain, The Colony, and the Uninhabitable Zone (which as the name suggest is uninhabitable due to afforementioned chemicals). This premise is used in place of the Mars colony of the 1989 version of the movie. The Colony is one of the 2 habitable zones (essentially it is what used to be Australia) where the worlds disenfranchised, the poor have been relegated to to serve as lowly workers for the British federation. The rest of the plot, is more or less the same; our main protagonist is a lowly construction worker disillusioned with his life decides to visit Recall for the secret agent ego trip upon which a bunch of anti terrorist police burst through and the s**t hits the fan.

Speaking as a fan the script is horribly written, they have ripped large parts of dialogue from the original movie and it doesnt feel at all natural or organic. Whether this is an effect of having seen the original so many times, I'm not sure. The villains are horribly contrived and 2 dimensional. Quade's 'evil wife' is a British secret agent femme fatale that also works as Cohagen's sidekick. For some reason Michael Ironside's character from TR 1989 wasn't even written into the script. I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if I wasn't having it rammed down my throat all the time what evil bastards the United British Federation are (you can tell it was an American that wrote this) and a lot more creativity was shown in their diabolical plan to rule the Earth.

I give this remake 6/10 and thats being charitable. Wish i'd stayed at home and waited for the DVD.

I thought it was great, but I didn't see Total Recall, the first movie recently.

the original version [uncut] was delightfully rude

I had a 14 hours day at work before seeing this with friend of mine. I nodded off during a fight scene and woke not missing a second of the 'plot' to another fight scene that looked exactly the same. Meh, I thought the action would keep me on the edge of my seat, but no.

Is the three-breasted women in the remake?

The modern film is more like the book ("We can Remember It For You Wholesale"). I like the 80s film but view it as seperate from Philip K. Dick.

Yes, she was promoting at Comic-con or something

I thought it was for a massage parlor.

She actually does look better than the original judging by figure and appeal... however the role is key. (Haven't seen it yet and only saw short parts of the original.)
Plus I think the right one is the one that was made...

Most re-makes are pretty awful.
The worst to date are............

1. The Wicker Man.......................absolutely dismal.

2. Get Carter.......................dreadful.

3. The Thomas Crown Affair......................awful.

4. The Italian Job................utter rubbish.

5. The Flight of the Phoenix...................dire.

Here is a question for you: Which remakes were better than the original?

ruveyn

The Amazing Spider Man was better than the prior three spider man live action movies.

I did like the remake of total recall, but then again I can't stand arnold >,< I think he is a dreadful actor. And I was happy to see him melt in terminator 2.

The problem is that she is utterly pointless because she's the only "mutant" that appears in the remake script. Without the whole "mutant" story thread from the original script it's just
gratuitous.

Overall I enjoyed this movie when I saw it. It's not great sci-fi but, it's a decent action flick. IMO it was a more enjoyable then Bourne Legacy wich I saw the following week.