1. I don't think anyone can complain that it's "not the original." I believe that if you want to see the original, watch the original. It's not the same movie, and if it were, then there's no point in making it.
2. We can't get around calling it a "remake." Therefore, your expectations should be guided by this notion: it's a "remake" of a Schwarzenegger film.
For these above reasons, I can't complain about glaring plot holes. I thought it was (mostly) fun to watch. Kate Beckinsale looked like she was having a good time filming it. I was surprised to see Bryan Cranston as Cohaagen, and I would have liked more of the film's primary antagonist.
Colin Farrell was, in my opinion, Colin Farrell. Jessica Biel didn't need to be there, but then again, Melina didn't need to be there either.
I would have liked to see the film play more with the concept of "is this real or is this recall," but I had a good time anyway.
While you seem to be pushing that this film be based on its own merits, it's extremely difficult (for me) to do so for a few reasons:
1) The film name is the same. If they really wanted to distance themselves from the original, they could have named it something like "Wholesale Memories", but they clearly wanted to people to go BECAUSE it's going to be like the first one.
2) The film clearly makes references to the original. Aside from the characters (Hauser/Quaid, Lori, Melina, Cohaagen, Harry), we also have the multi-breasted woman, the large woman in yellow passing through security, and the similar sweat on the brow/tear in the eye.
3) There have been a number of remakes/reboots and I compared Nolan's Batman with its predecessors, Star Trek (Abrams) to the older versions, and Rise Planet of the Apes to Planet of the Apes, and other movies, and it's natural to do it here.
But, even if I ignore comparisons to the original, I feel the newer version as a generic sci-fi flick was rather weak.
- Although Star Wars: Episode I showed us that politics in the context of a sci-fi film can be done poorly, establishing a political conflict that plays off of class warfare and a first-world/third-world opposition seems like they should play this aspect up and give a better motivation for Cohaagen. I understand that I was supposed to see that he's a power-hungry guy who wants to literally be ruler of the world, being Chancellor of the UFB, which once they rid the Colony of humans will be all under UFB control. I can't decide whether the allegory is done poorly, or done in an overhanded way that beats us over the head with the message that it's wrong for a nation to decimate a population because of fear of terrorism.
- I understand why Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel were respectively cast in their roles, but Kate's underwear scene was ridiculously catered to young males aged 14-34, who are likely the key demographic for the film, and Jessica Biel being "Melina" makes me cringe. She hardly looks like a Melina (sorry for the comparison, but I buy Rachel Ticotin as a "Melina" more than Jessica Biel). I supposed they were between a rock and a hard place as Jessica Biel attracts more viewers and changing her to "Melissa" would not go over well.
- I found the "key" payoff not proportional to the number of times the word "key" was said and the yelling Colin did to say "key". It's a different kind of key that unlocks a secret message. That's it. Oh. Okay. I felt ripped off that I was expecting more and didn't get much more than if he was never told a word about the key and simply sat down at the piano and played and suddenly a message appeared without him needing to replace the black key. Nolan made the piano a secret combination to get into the secret room in Wayne Manor to separate Batman from the rest of the mansion, but didn't present it as this mystery to figure out.
- The secondary characters were largely forgettable. I get that Harry is his best friend, but I guess I just didn't connect with him emotionally and when he died, Quaid was sad for about 0.5 seconds, then had to run away. Hammond was secretly a member of the UFB, but the big reveal of his character later was disappointing, other than to act as a kind of Deus Ex Machina so he could escape. I guess because it's Colin rather than Arnold, he can't physically break out; he has to have an insider help him. Matthias was the great leader of the resistance who has only a few minutes of screen time before he dispose of him because we need to get back to scenes of Kate chasing Colin and Jessica.
- The "tear" didn't sell me. If Harry's lie was supposed to confuse Quaid, then Harry should be calm, and Melina will tell him whatever he wants to make him believe it's real. If she would SAY anything, then couldn't she also fake cry? I don't buy that a single tear is the make or break moment. The sweaty brow worked in the original because the doctor shouldn't be nervous if he's not real; he has no stake. If he dies, it's not really him. Harry already made that point by taking the gun and giving it back, only Harry didn't flinch, didn't sweat, and he had a good poker face.
- "The Fall". I think some writer was beside himself that he could set up such a clever metaphor here. Because, you see, The Fall ended up setting up the fall for the Chancellor, both in his tyranny and his life. Only, I didn't find it that clever. Also, The Fall travels through the Earth's core and reverses the gravitational pull half way through? /eyeroll. This is Armageddon-level science. I don't buy for a second that this is the only way to travel from Britain to the Colony, since it makes so little sense to devise a travel system this way, UNLESS you need to make a convoluted point that there's only a single line of transportation from point A to point B that once destroyed severs all contact from one region to the other. Also, it takes 17 MINUTES to travel from here to there? That's some super duper bullet train.
- The ending was very meh. Most of the audience I was with left in a daze as it was just suddenly stopping the story. Perhaps if we were treated to a better psychological thriller throughout the movie that doubted his existence in the way that Inception did, but it felt like a standard chase movie, only set in the future, with different elevators and cars and weapons and apartments.
I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't give my opinions about it quite yet but I definitely want to see the movie. Here is hoping that I'll get out of the house tomorrow to go see it.
I have to say I really enjoyed this movie. Objectively it's about a 7/10, but my experience was more like a 9/10. I got home from a long weekend (destination wedding) at about 9:30 pm. As soon as I drafted a GREAT red/white M13 deck to relax...my power went out. Fumbled around the house in complete darkness only to discover that for some reason my mother had removed the batteries from the only flashlight I could locate.
So I slapped the walls until I located my front door, got into the car and drove to the mall. I knew SOMETHING would be showing in the 10:15 slot and was effectively playing movie roulette. Pleasantly surprised to see that I ended up with Total Recall and not The Watch.
I was literally the only person in the theater. Bad for the box office, good for Action.
Anyway the movie itself is a lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak. As other posters have noted there are good, fascinating ideas here which are unfortunately bypassed to get back to the action.
Is it real? Is it recall? The premise, the characters, and the trailer ask you this but the movie fails to provide any footholds for either argument.
Also regarding the climax:
The end sequence reminded me of a George Carlin bit. Isn't it weird that when the bad guy and good guy finally meet, they're both excellent fighters? I mean Coehagen is ostensibly The President/Prime Minister, and yet towards the end of the film (and during the final fight) he's incredibly hands on. He actually pulls a tactical knife on the hero and stabs him! Having the leader of a nation don body armor and ride to the front lines of a blitzkrieg is so bizarre that it turned silly. Still enjoyed the flick though.
I guess this is a movie they can get away with being a "spiritual successor" to the original or something.
If they did this type of treatment to beloved movies like Back to the Future or Ghostbusters, where many things are changed from the original in a reboot I imagine the feedback would not be pretty.
I guess this is a movie they can get away with being a "spiritual successor" to the original or something.
If they did this type of treatment to beloved movies like Back to the Future or Ghostbusters, where many things are changed from the original in a reboot I imagine the feedback would not be pretty.
Well, both movies are based on the book. It's definitely not a remake of the original.
The new movie was okay, but nothing to write home about.
The production values were good, but the problem is it wasn't grounded enough for the realistic feel they were going for. It basically seemed like another 'Near Future' action movie that had the Rekall plot point inserted. You literally could have interchanged the set pieces with other near future movies like I Robot, Minority Report or others and I wouldn't have noticed a difference.
The biggest problem, though, was that I never once felt like the issue of what was real was really a central theme of the movie, unlike the original.
That's mostly because it never was. They opened the movie with the "dream sequence" and that hook pretty much made us all believe that "that was the truth" and nothing that happened afterwards made us question the reality of that sequence.
The only scene where that is maybe questioned is where the guy is claiming that he's entered the MC's mind. But, that's over so quickly that we just move on to assume its all real.
I never believe that Quaid's friend for a second.
The ONLY thing that made me believe it may be Rekall is Harold Cho's character basically outlining the entire plot of the movie. But besides the scene you mention, that wasn't addressed again until the end where he sees the Rekall ad.
My overall experience of the movie was positive. I agree that the key was kind of blown out of proportion, but for what the movie was (a chase thriller), I thought it worked well enough. I enjoyed the casting and the world was amazing.
My primary grip setting wise is with The Fall. As an object moves closer to the center of Earth, gravity increases. What that means is that I'm pretty sure that when The Fall crosses (just beside mind you) the core, gravity should not drop to 0G's. Quite the opposite actually, I think. I'd need someone else to confirm.
Plotwise... This is kind of awkward for me because I always assumed the events of the original Total Recall were real. The doctor sweating was enough to convince me, and I never looked back. So for me, the real issue that I thought was always with Hauser and identity. I was always fascinated by the idea that (Arnold) Hauser erased his memory to be a double agent, and that was something that Quaid had to deal with because his identity was a sham. With (Colin) Hauser/Quaid, I don't feel the same force because there's no sense of betrayal involved between Hauser and Quaid. In fact, the movie drops the name Quaid altogether before it's over.
It is interesting about the possibilities and questions with overwriting Hauser with his own memory before he switched to the Resistance, but the movie actively steers away from that. Even to the point where Hauser doesn't fake being his old self to get aboard or while aboard the The Fall.
The end sequence reminded me of a George Carlin bit. Isn't it weird that when the bad guy and good guy finally meet, they're both excellent fighters? I mean Coehagen is ostensibly The President/Prime Minister, and yet towards the end of the film (and during the final fight) he's incredibly hands on. He actually pulls a tactical knife on the hero and stabs him! Having the leader of a nation don body armor and ride to the front lines of a blitzkrieg is so bizarre that it turned silly. Still enjoyed the flick though.
I saw that ending coming from a mile away, and they at least set it up in a way that worked for me. First, they cast Bryan Cranston as Cohaagen. I've seen him play the bad guy before, and when he plays the bad guy, he tends to be the guy who's pulling the strings in the background while not afraid to jump into the fray to achieve his ends. He delivered. Second, they mention that Cohaagen has a history of being a military man in addition being to a politician, so I knew that he'd be ready to fight when the time came. But you're right, it is a cliche nonetheless.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
My primary grip setting wise is with The Fall. As an object moves closer to the center of Earth, gravity increases. What that means is that I'm pretty sure that when The Fall crosses (just beside mind you) the core, gravity should not drop to 0G's. Quite the opposite actually, I think. I'd need someone else to confirm.
I did not see the movie nor do I plan to, but re: gravity
I don't know what was portrayed in the movie, but the gravity at the core is pretty much zero. But (ignoring friction and your initial horizontal component of velocity on the surface of a rotating earth, and making a tunnel to the core that has survivable temperature) in a fall to the center of the earth, you would certainly be gaining speed the entire time, falling towards the core, then shoot past the core at max speed, and once you past the core, start slowing down until you reached the surface at the other side of earth (though with no idea where sea level is at the exit, you might slow to a stop 5 miles above the ground or 5 miles below), then if you didn't grab something to hang onto, you'd shoot back down to repeat the ride.
If you account for air resistance (and again ignoring earths rotation), you probably hit terminal velocity at about 200 mph pretty quickly, and then fall at that speed for a while, then start slowing to a lower terminal velocity since you get closer the core (denser atmosphere AND less gravity), and you might cross the core (at way less than 70 mph I'd guesstimate) and then when you crossed the core, gravity would slow you and pull you back eventually after only a few hundred miles at most, and you'd do this funny back and forth thing around the core until air friction ended your movement and you'd be stuck at the core.
If you account for rotation, results vary depending on what you choose to do whenever you touch the wall of the tunnel to the core.
They should call it total close calls. There were so many close calls with them slipping through tiny cracks and jumping out of exploding stuff at the last second.
Watched it with a mix of firsttimers and veterans of the concept.
Personally:
I did like Kate's character, she had a much more cutthroat edge and is more of a free agent than Sharon's character. I actually rooted for her.
Colin was underused, it would have been better if the character would change accents and talk with an Irish accent.
The scene with his old buddy trying to convince him, was also handled poorly. The original scene was very ambiguous, which was good. The scene was shot too focussed on the weapons and the tempo was too quick. It didn't leave much time for ambiguity. This is also the case with the rekall scene.
The callbacks, or hommages, to the previous film were OK.
I am also a little incredulous about Cranston's character. Putting him physically in the action is a bit of a stretch.
I just saw this like a couple of days ago and I definitely really liked the movie. I thought it was definitely an great improvement from the original in my opinion.
Most remakes of movies don't usually get good reviews, I always go in to remakes with a open mind because usually if I have high expectation I will be let down.
I saw the movie the other day, and boy, am I glad I didn't go see it in cinema. The movie is BAD. Never mind the fact that the movie has nothing to do with the original. This movie as a stand alone is just bad.
The entire idea of an elevator going through the earth's core is ridiculous and it takes them only 20 minutes? Yeah right, more like 20 days. And all this just to transport a few workers?
I love seeing Kate Beckinsale on screen (who doesn't?) but here she was obnoxious, annoying and very over the top. She was like a terminator, never slowing down, always popping up, surviving several explosions, while all the time preserving her make-up. She just wasn't convincing as a trained assassin.
I also thought that giving Cranston a fighting scene was a mistake, IMO. Also, the movie never slows down. It's one mindless action scene after another. Avoid at all costs.
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Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
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Two things should be noted:
1. I don't think anyone can complain that it's "not the original." I believe that if you want to see the original, watch the original. It's not the same movie, and if it were, then there's no point in making it.
2. We can't get around calling it a "remake." Therefore, your expectations should be guided by this notion: it's a "remake" of a Schwarzenegger film.
For these above reasons, I can't complain about glaring plot holes. I thought it was (mostly) fun to watch. Kate Beckinsale looked like she was having a good time filming it. I was surprised to see Bryan Cranston as Cohaagen, and I would have liked more of the film's primary antagonist.
Colin Farrell was, in my opinion, Colin Farrell. Jessica Biel didn't need to be there, but then again, Melina didn't need to be there either.
I would have liked to see the film play more with the concept of "is this real or is this recall," but I had a good time anyway.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
While you seem to be pushing that this film be based on its own merits, it's extremely difficult (for me) to do so for a few reasons:
1) The film name is the same. If they really wanted to distance themselves from the original, they could have named it something like "Wholesale Memories", but they clearly wanted to people to go BECAUSE it's going to be like the first one.
2) The film clearly makes references to the original. Aside from the characters (Hauser/Quaid, Lori, Melina, Cohaagen, Harry), we also have the multi-breasted woman, the large woman in yellow passing through security, and the similar sweat on the brow/tear in the eye.
3) There have been a number of remakes/reboots and I compared Nolan's Batman with its predecessors, Star Trek (Abrams) to the older versions, and Rise Planet of the Apes to Planet of the Apes, and other movies, and it's natural to do it here.
But, even if I ignore comparisons to the original, I feel the newer version as a generic sci-fi flick was rather weak.
- Although Star Wars: Episode I showed us that politics in the context of a sci-fi film can be done poorly, establishing a political conflict that plays off of class warfare and a first-world/third-world opposition seems like they should play this aspect up and give a better motivation for Cohaagen. I understand that I was supposed to see that he's a power-hungry guy who wants to literally be ruler of the world, being Chancellor of the UFB, which once they rid the Colony of humans will be all under UFB control. I can't decide whether the allegory is done poorly, or done in an overhanded way that beats us over the head with the message that it's wrong for a nation to decimate a population because of fear of terrorism.
- I understand why Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel were respectively cast in their roles, but Kate's underwear scene was ridiculously catered to young males aged 14-34, who are likely the key demographic for the film, and Jessica Biel being "Melina" makes me cringe. She hardly looks like a Melina (sorry for the comparison, but I buy Rachel Ticotin as a "Melina" more than Jessica Biel). I supposed they were between a rock and a hard place as Jessica Biel attracts more viewers and changing her to "Melissa" would not go over well.
- I found the "key" payoff not proportional to the number of times the word "key" was said and the yelling Colin did to say "key". It's a different kind of key that unlocks a secret message. That's it. Oh. Okay. I felt ripped off that I was expecting more and didn't get much more than if he was never told a word about the key and simply sat down at the piano and played and suddenly a message appeared without him needing to replace the black key. Nolan made the piano a secret combination to get into the secret room in Wayne Manor to separate Batman from the rest of the mansion, but didn't present it as this mystery to figure out.
- The secondary characters were largely forgettable. I get that Harry is his best friend, but I guess I just didn't connect with him emotionally and when he died, Quaid was sad for about 0.5 seconds, then had to run away. Hammond was secretly a member of the UFB, but the big reveal of his character later was disappointing, other than to act as a kind of Deus Ex Machina so he could escape. I guess because it's Colin rather than Arnold, he can't physically break out; he has to have an insider help him. Matthias was the great leader of the resistance who has only a few minutes of screen time before he dispose of him because we need to get back to scenes of Kate chasing Colin and Jessica.
- The "tear" didn't sell me. If Harry's lie was supposed to confuse Quaid, then Harry should be calm, and Melina will tell him whatever he wants to make him believe it's real. If she would SAY anything, then couldn't she also fake cry? I don't buy that a single tear is the make or break moment. The sweaty brow worked in the original because the doctor shouldn't be nervous if he's not real; he has no stake. If he dies, it's not really him. Harry already made that point by taking the gun and giving it back, only Harry didn't flinch, didn't sweat, and he had a good poker face.
- "The Fall". I think some writer was beside himself that he could set up such a clever metaphor here. Because, you see, The Fall ended up setting up the fall for the Chancellor, both in his tyranny and his life. Only, I didn't find it that clever. Also, The Fall travels through the Earth's core and reverses the gravitational pull half way through? /eyeroll. This is Armageddon-level science. I don't buy for a second that this is the only way to travel from Britain to the Colony, since it makes so little sense to devise a travel system this way, UNLESS you need to make a convoluted point that there's only a single line of transportation from point A to point B that once destroyed severs all contact from one region to the other. Also, it takes 17 MINUTES to travel from here to there? That's some super duper bullet train.
- The ending was very meh. Most of the audience I was with left in a daze as it was just suddenly stopping the story. Perhaps if we were treated to a better psychological thriller throughout the movie that doubted his existence in the way that Inception did, but it felt like a standard chase movie, only set in the future, with different elevators and cars and weapons and apartments.
So I slapped the walls until I located my front door, got into the car and drove to the mall. I knew SOMETHING would be showing in the 10:15 slot and was effectively playing movie roulette. Pleasantly surprised to see that I ended up with Total Recall and not The Watch.
I was literally the only person in the theater. Bad for the box office, good for Action.
Anyway the movie itself is a lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak. As other posters have noted there are good, fascinating ideas here which are unfortunately bypassed to get back to the action.
Is it real? Is it recall? The premise, the characters, and the trailer ask you this but the movie fails to provide any footholds for either argument.
Also regarding the climax:
If they did this type of treatment to beloved movies like Back to the Future or Ghostbusters, where many things are changed from the original in a reboot I imagine the feedback would not be pretty.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
Well, both movies are based on the book. It's definitely not a remake of the original.
The production values were good, but the problem is it wasn't grounded enough for the realistic feel they were going for. It basically seemed like another 'Near Future' action movie that had the Rekall plot point inserted. You literally could have interchanged the set pieces with other near future movies like I Robot, Minority Report or others and I wouldn't have noticed a difference.
The biggest problem, though, was that I never once felt like the issue of what was real was really a central theme of the movie, unlike the original.
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The ONLY thing that made me believe it may be Rekall is Harold Cho's character basically outlining the entire plot of the movie. But besides the scene you mention, that wasn't addressed again until the end where he sees the Rekall ad.
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My primary grip setting wise is with The Fall. As an object moves closer to the center of Earth, gravity increases. What that means is that I'm pretty sure that when The Fall crosses (just beside mind you) the core, gravity should not drop to 0G's. Quite the opposite actually, I think. I'd need someone else to confirm.
Plotwise... This is kind of awkward for me because I always assumed the events of the original Total Recall were real. The doctor sweating was enough to convince me, and I never looked back. So for me, the real issue that I thought was always with Hauser and identity. I was always fascinated by the idea that (Arnold) Hauser erased his memory to be a double agent, and that was something that Quaid had to deal with because his identity was a sham. With (Colin) Hauser/Quaid, I don't feel the same force because there's no sense of betrayal involved between Hauser and Quaid. In fact, the movie drops the name Quaid altogether before it's over.
It is interesting about the possibilities and questions with overwriting Hauser with his own memory before he switched to the Resistance, but the movie actively steers away from that. Even to the point where Hauser doesn't fake being his old self to get aboard or while aboard the The Fall.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
If you account for air resistance (and again ignoring earths rotation), you probably hit terminal velocity at about 200 mph pretty quickly, and then fall at that speed for a while, then start slowing to a lower terminal velocity since you get closer the core (denser atmosphere AND less gravity), and you might cross the core (at way less than 70 mph I'd guesstimate) and then when you crossed the core, gravity would slow you and pull you back eventually after only a few hundred miles at most, and you'd do this funny back and forth thing around the core until air friction ended your movement and you'd be stuck at the core.
If you account for rotation, results vary depending on what you choose to do whenever you touch the wall of the tunnel to the core.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
Personally:
I did like Kate's character, she had a much more cutthroat edge and is more of a free agent than Sharon's character. I actually rooted for her.
Colin was underused, it would have been better if the character would change accents and talk with an Irish accent.
The callbacks, or hommages, to the previous film were OK.
I am also a little incredulous about Cranston's character. Putting him physically in the action is a bit of a stretch.
The entire idea of an elevator going through the earth's core is ridiculous and it takes them only 20 minutes? Yeah right, more like 20 days. And all this just to transport a few workers?
I love seeing Kate Beckinsale on screen (who doesn't?) but here she was obnoxious, annoying and very over the top. She was like a terminator, never slowing down, always popping up, surviving several explosions, while all the time preserving her make-up. She just wasn't convincing as a trained assassin.
I also thought that giving Cranston a fighting scene was a mistake, IMO. Also, the movie never slows down. It's one mindless action scene after another. Avoid at all costs.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.