When they announced the Len Wiseman-helmed reboot of Total Recall a while back, I wasn’t too excited.
This may have something to do with Wiseman, who, aside from some good solid work on Die Hard 4.0, has spent most of his career directing his wife Kate Beckinsale in latex fetish fest Underworld and its disastrous sequel Underworld: Evolution.
It may have something to do with the cast which seems to be mainly comprised by a rag-tag bunch of Hollywood pretty faces (Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and the obligatory Beckinsale) and the superlative Bryan Cranston who may add a dash of much-needed gravitas to an otherwise underwhelming line-up.
However I think that the main problem here is the distinct smell of unoriginality that hangs around the entire affair. This lack of inspiration is furthered by this week’s release of an extended plot synopsis:
“Total Recall” is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he’s got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life – real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world – Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.
Whilst the setting may be different, pretty much everything else seems to be the same. Despite reading claims that the film is ‘inspired anew’, I couldn’t quite process the platitude due to the unbearable sound of the execs at Original Film loudly plundering the grave of Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 cult classic.
It’s still astonishing however that Total Recall hasn’t really featured on any of the ‘most anticipated’ lists of 2012. I suppose that the best we can all hope for is that it surprises everyone and the best that the studios can hope for is that it manages to recoup its staggering $200 million budget. Things aren’t looking promising but there is a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that I shouldn’t write it off just yet.
Source: GeekTyrant
