Film Review — Total Recall (1990)

Get your ass to Mars

★★★★½

If it’s not Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movie it’s certainly the headiest and bloodiest of his career. Based very loosely on Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”, Schwarzenegger keeps his trademark one-liners but loses the invicibility — for a time, at least — playing against type as a constantly confused and very fallible construction worker caught in an intergalactic conspiracy that’s probably too insane to be real.

Total Recall plays just as you’d expect from a Paul Verhoeven movie of the era, with sharp satire and inventive violence cranked up to levels that will delight and nauseate in equal measure. But it’s the mindfuck of Douglas Quaid’s “ego trip” that elevates this to special movie territory. What’s actually real? Where does the fiction begin? Honestly, I can never be sure after all these years, with each viewing having me feel a different way.

It also probably helps that the movie still looks fantastic, with almost all of its visuals, sets, and practical effects holding up well to this day. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is an underrated gem, one that drives the film's marriage of over-the-top mayhem and wonderous sci-fi adventure.

Quite simply one of the best movies of the decade. A gory genre gem that perfectly fuses action and sci-fi, and brains and brawn.

Total Recall (1990)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Directed By: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox
Running Time: 113 minutes
Release Date: June 1, 1990
Certificate (UK): 18