Total Recall

Is it too early to call Colin Farell the king of the well-made, but ultimately unnecessary, remake? Exactly one year ago, he took on the role of the lead vampire in a remake of Fright Night. This time, he steps into the role of Douglas Quaid, a role made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall back in 1990. The original was certainly no classic, but it came out at the peak of Schwarzengger's fame, and pretty much contained everything that his fans expected at the time. The 2012 film is certainly never boring, but just never escapes from the shadow of the earlier movie.

Okay, let's get one thing out of the way first - Colin Farell is no Arnold, and wisely, he does not try to be. I guess this decision works, since this movie doesn't really try to mimic the earlier movie. Sure, there are references (a woman with three breasts shows up at one point), but for the most part, this movie is more closely tied to the short story, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, which was the inspiration of both films. That means that none of the film's action takes place on Mars, like in the 1990 version. Instead, it's set on an apocalyptic Earth, where most of it is uninhabitable except for two regions - The powerful and prosperous United Federation of Britain, and the impoverished and Blade Runner-inspired cityscape called The Colony. The former is home to sleek, upscale buildings and flying hover cars. The later has dirty, crowded streets, sleazy bars, and strip joints.

The Colony is where Douglas Quaid makes his home and his life. By day, he toils away in a factory, constructing robotic patrol guards that keep the peace on the streets, and look so similar to the Clone Army from the Star Wars films, I half expected Douglas' boss to turn out to be Senator Palpatine. At night, he gets to go home to his loving and sympathetic wife, Lori (Kate Beckinsale). All would be okay if only Douglas wasn't haunted by the same mysterious nightmare every night when he tries to sleep. Looking for some excitement in his life, Douglas heads for the local "Rekall" shop, which can supplement his boring, everyday memories with more exciting ones, such as being a secret agent, and going on a globe-trotting adventure.

Suddenly, some soldiers burst into the room, and accuse Douglas of actually being a secret agent. The way he manages to fend off those soldiers, you wouldn't be surprised if maybe he was. Then it turns out that the once-caring Lori is now a hired assassin who wants to kill him. Even worse, everyone seems to know that he's not who he thinks he is, but won't tell him much more than that. It seems that the only person that he can trust is a mysterious young woman named Melina (Jessica Biel), who just so happens to be the same woman from the dream Douglas has every night. She claims she can help him, and also tells him he's a member of a resistance movement that's trying to stop an evil plot to wipe out The Colony.

Pretty much, from the moment those guards burst in on Douglas, Total Recall turns into a competent but somewhat exhausting non-stop action thrill ride that seldom slows down for character development. Director Les Wiseman (Live Free, or Die Hard) tells his story with the same pace as a video game, giving us little snippets of plot-related dialogue in-between each action sequence, which involves Douglas and Melina leaping across rooftops, flying cars, elevators, and pretty much anything that requires perilous jumps to get across safely. It certainly keeps things moving at a brisk pace, but I kind of missed the earlier movie's attempts to mess with your mind, and make you question if what was happening to Douglas was actually real, or in his head. There is one scene that does attempt this, where Quaid is confronted by his former best friend, who tries to convince him that none of what's happening is real. It's a suspenseful and well done sequence, and I would have liked to have seen the movie use this approach a little bit more.

At the very least, I would say that this is a remake that manages to stay afloat, and obviously a lot of effort went into the making of it. I just was disappointed by how the movie never breaks free of its workmanlike plotting. The heroes are cornered by the villains, they escape, they're cornered, they escape, etc. We never quite feel for Douglas and his mission to learn his true identity. He's just being dragged along from one action sequence to the next. Farell plays the role well enough, but he's not given anything more to do than shoot at mindless henchmen who behave like walking targets. At least Arnold got to get off a lot of corny one liners in his movie. The 2012 version isn't really interested in one liners, or even characters. It gives us a lot of technically well done chases and special effects, but nothing that really stays with us when it's over.

I suppose if we must have another Total Recall, this is as good of one as we could hope for. It just never gets around to that all-important question as to why did this movie have to be remade in the first place? It's been made with skill, it's kind of fun in a big dumb way at times, and it's ultimately kind of unnecessary, and becomes even more so when you think back on it.

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