Nick's Flicks

Collin Farrell - "Total Recall"

            Total Recall

            3 stars of 5

A nuclear war at the turn of the 21^st century leaves most of Earth uninhabitable, only two livable settlements remain-the UFB and The Colony.  The rich and powerful UFB have been The Colony since the birth of the two territories. The underprivileged citizens of The Colony live in poverty stricken cities and terrible housing while the UFB is quite the opposite; a resistance is mounting against the UFB. For factory worker and lifetime citizen of The Colony, Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), his boring and repetitive life starts to seem… well, boring and repetitive so he takes a trip to Rekall; a company that can provide its clients with a false memory of their choice. Douglas chooses a secret agent memory, however once he is hooked up to the Rekall machine; something goes horribly wrong when the shop is raided by UFB Special Forces. Swarmed with lies and unanswered questions, Douglas then begins to suspect that he is a secret agent working with the resistance to bring down the repressive UFB’s hold over The Colony. Is Douglas who he suspects? If so can he save The Colony?

To be honest, I didn't walk into the theater with very high hopes for “Total Recall”. It seemed like
just another corny rouge government agent film, except set in the distant future. Nor did it seem possible that it could live up to the 1990 original “Total Recall” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. However I was pleasantly surprised; it was actually not a bad film. Not great, but good to say the least. The first ten minutes or so are slow,  but then it picks up. The story line was decent, and there were certainly a lot of, “Wow I can’t believe that just happened!” moments. What did surprise me about “Total Recall” was that there was only one plot, Douglas; there were no sub-plots going on with any other characters. There were two things that really disappointed me: The final half-hour wasn't very good. Not to say it was bad, it just wasn’t up to par with the rest of the film, and the climax was a HUGE letdown.  I expected an explosive final fight between UFB leader Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston) and the Colony’s last hope, Douglas Quaid. Wrong, on almost every level. If I were Len Wiseman (director), I would have picked almost anyone beside Bryan Cranston. He wasn’t intimating at all, which was a shock to me because after all - he was terrific in “Breaking Bad”. The showdown between Cohaagen and Douglas had the potential, but without the fear element of the good guy’s opponent - it just doesn't work. It ended up so that I almost felt bad for Cohaagen. It was like big, bad Douglas was pounding on poor old-man Cohaagen - who didn't even have a chance.

From obsessing over the trailer when it first came out, I was convinced there was going to be top-notch special effects. Unfortunately, there wasn't . There were a few explosions here and there, but nothing mind-boggling. The acting however was quite good. Collin Ferrell exceeded my expectations by far, as well as most all other members of the cast. Who I was most excited about was (my favorite actor) Bryan Cranston, though as I mentioned earlier, his performance was pitiful. On a scale of: evening price, matinee price, wait for it on DVD, or skip it, I rate it “matinee price” and fetches three stars.