A bit long here, but if youre up for a little movie stuff... So I had recently purchased the DVD of the original version of the movie Total Recall (I would have purchased the Blu-Ray, but it wasnt available at the time where I bought the DVD). This has always been a favorite movie of mine...it came out in 1990, and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronny Cox, Sharon Stone, and had a decent supporting cast, including Rachel Ticotin, Michael Ironside, and Marshall Bell (whose names, I am sure, ring no bells for anyone under the age of 30, mores the pity. Probably Ronny Coxs too. Though, if you fall into that set, but have seen the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies, then youll certainly know him as Lieutenant Bogomil, from the Beverly Hills police force). Anyway, this led me to wanting to hunt down the remake/reboot of Total Recall, which was released in 2012, and which starred Colin Farrell, with his own impressive list of co-stars (Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bokeem Woodbine, and John Cho). I desperately wanted to see if THIS measured up (even though it came and went in the theaters pretty fast, and has been hard to find in stores since). I managed, finally, to find the Blu-Ray/DVD/Ultraviolet combo pack in Best Buy for all of $9.99. I watched. And, while I didnt HATE it the way I HATE most remakes/reboots for their massive fails, I have to agree with the website Rotten Tomatoes, who gave it a 30% rating. The top review reads exactly like the very thoughts I had about it after watching it (which is scary...lol): While it boasts some impressive action sequences, Total Recall lacks the intricate plotting, wry humor, and fleshed out characters that made the original a sci-fi classic. Its telling that Rotten Tomatoes gave the original an 84% rating. Thats 54 percentage points higher than the effects-heavy remake/reboot, folks. lol And thats substantial. WHEN are modern Hollywood directors going to ditch the Michael Bay syndrome of cranking out movies with massive effects but egregious lack of story, character development and plot??? I mean, the effects and action sequences WERE very impressive in this remake/reboot. They were far better than the original for the most part (when you consider the vast space of time, and the way movie-making technology has evolved in that span of time, it SHOULD come as no surprise however). This movie had some interesting salutes to scenes and scripting in the original, though it also had some minor and very vague similarities to that crappy liberal/leftist propaganda piece from 2013, Elysium (imdb/title/tt1535108/)...just without the disgusting socialistic grandstanding that made THAT movie such a piece of tripe. But, just like Rotten Tomatoes said about the Total Recall remake/reboot, it lacked the depth of character, plot and story of the original, and even took away much of the story which made the original so great (ironic that they would put a review from a MYSPACE user on the packaging which screams BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL! Yeah...if effects are all that matter to you). At least I only paid ten bucks. (When is Generation Y going to actually start caring about story and plot and character development instead of video-game-inspired effects and staged action sequences as the key elements of what make a movie worth watching and remembering? *SIGH* Hollywood will always market to the younger generations first, and that makes the rest of us have to slog through this crap in utter irritation and disdain.) --------------- Anyhoo...some other links related to this: Trailer for the 1990 version: youtube/watch?v=2DwNb-ZGVjE IMDB page for the original: imdb/title/tt0100802/ Rotten Tomatoes page for the original: rottentomatoes/m/total_recall/ IMDB page for the remake/reboot: imdb/title/tt1386703/ Rotten Tomatoes page for the remake/reboot: rottentomatoes/m/total_recall_2012/ youtube/watch?v=_pV2zz3z0oM
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 13:43:38 +0000
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