Total Recall

For the longest I thought that Colin Farrell was just a product of bad luck and that this was the reason for his recent decline. Because if you look at his career, when he gets over this macho persona he's created for himself, he can actually act. Check out movies like In Bruges, The New World, or Tigerland and you will see a different side of him; one where it doesn't look like he guzzles a bottle of Jameson for breakfast while trying to steal your girlfriend.

Len Wiseman was no fool however; he made certain that he was on set while his wife Kate Beckinsdale made this remake of Total Recall with him. And really why wouldn't he since he stole Beckinsdale from Michael Sheen while making Underworld. But as a girl brought to my attention last night, "it's not bad luck, Colin Farrell is just dumb. Didn't he make Phone Booth?"Yes, yes he did. And then I started to think about some of his other ventures and you remember that he was in Daredevil, a terrible super hero movie directed by the same guy who wrote both Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men. Clearly a smart choice. Then let us not forget that he also starred in Alexander, the epic about the megalomaniac ruler of the same name. Again, on the surface it seems like a smart choice until you realize that a sober Oliver Stone is directing it and that Angelina Jolie is playing your mom and for some reason sounds like Elvira when she talks. The second she opened her mouth he should have walked off set, never to return. And under most circumstances  I would never say that a male should leave the room when Jolie opens her mouth for something but in this instance it actually makes sense.

Well now we come to his latest effort in the form of Total Recall, presented by Original Studios. I swear I'm not making that up. I wont bother comparing it to the original as that's a waste of yours and my time but just know that I saw the original for the first time in a long while and it was in definite need of an update. The graphics looked cheesy and the fight scenes looked like the Muppets fighting after band practice. In Wiseman's take on Recall there is no trip Mars. Instead, everything takes place on this post apocalyptic Earth and there are only two pieces of inhabitable land in the forms of Great Britain (God help us) and the ghetto which appears to be old China. It's the same basic story of Douglas Quaid (Farrell) going to this mind trip place called Recall which can help you escape from reality by implanting in your head memories of an awesome vacation that you never took. However just as Quaid decides to take a trip as a secret agent things seem to go wrong and now he's in a fight for his life as everyone appears to be out to kill him including his beautiful wife (Beckinsdale). The entire time you are not sure if he is really is a secret agent or if you are witnessing the dream that Recall has implanted in his head.

What makes this movie so entertaining is that they basically make Beckinsdale's character a human version of her Underworld character Selene. Even though she only weighs about 110 lbs she's totally believable as this bad ass undercover agent who can kick anyone's ass and works well as the main adversary for Quaid. Plus it helps that her first few scenes are of her wearing nothing but underwear. And when you're tired of her (which I dont know how that's possible) they flash over to Jessica Biel who serves as the "athletic, brunette, who's sleazy" that is trying to help Quaid escape. There are a ton of great action scenes which seemed to incorporate the style that made Spielberg action movies so entertaining in the 80's. Basically lots of fighting and gun play while maneuvering around an obstacle course of moving dangerous objects.

As a matter of fact this movie seems to steal from every good sci fi movie ever made. I wont go in detail for every instance but as you watch you'll notice bits or themes blatantly stolen from I Robot, Star Wars (all of the synthetics look like storm troopers) The Terminator, and Blade Runner just to name a few. I just kept waiting for an alien to pop out of Farrell's belly while Neo swooped in to Rage Against the Machine to scoop it up and destroy it. "He's beginning to believe".

I went in with crazy low expectations and walked out pleasantly surprised. I will rate this movie as kind of FRESH! Check it out for yourself. Oh yeah two important notes, yes the three boobs scene is in this one and Kate Beckinsdale has the best one liners in the movie by far!