Plot: What’s it about?
Before the event of so many “Must See Summer Movies” there was Total Recall. While not exactly the event movie of 1990, it was certainly a money-maker for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold was still king of the action box office with hits like Kindergarten Cop, Predator and Twins in recent memory. So when he teamed with Director Paul Verhoeven who was best-known for his efforts on “RoboCop”, it was certainly something to be seen. While it’s considered a science fiction movie, the concepts in Total Recall aren’t totally foreign to us. In the not so distant future, we have established a life on Mars and as a resort to taking vacations, we have people selling us vacations in the form of memory implants. The way they see it “Why take the actual trip, when you can remember it like you already took it”? This sets the scene for Arnold and his attempt to actually act, instead of just how us his body yet again…To be quite honest, it took me more than one viewing of this movie to fully understand it. Part of the vision and mastery of Paul Verhoeven is that he can take difficult scripts (movies) and turn them around so you literally don’t know what’s going on. Or at least, that’s what I got out of it the first time I saw it. But in the meantime, sit back and get ready for a surprise!
Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a humble worker. While not the most ambitious man, he does have a nice home to go to and an even nicer wife (Sharon Stone). He feels the need to go to a local retailer by the name of Rekall. What Rekall does is sell you memory implants to vacations of far away places, without actually going there. Against everyone’s advice, he decides to enlist the services of Rekall, but soon finds that his life is not his own…or at least he thinks so. Now this is where the confusion can easily set in. Quaid is man Arnold (I write ‘Arnold’ because it gets so tiring to write out ‘Schwarzenegger’ time and again) is playing at the beginning of the movie. But as we (and Quaid) find out, he is not actually him…he’s another man by the name of Douglas Howser (also Arnold) who is part of the ruling class on Mars. You see, Mars is to the Earth like Puerto Rico is to the United States. They’re almost a part of us, but there is a class of people who either don’t want it or are unwilling to accept it to happen. After a bothced memory implant, Quaid is told by some “friends” to head to the real Mars where he is needed to find Kuato (Marshall Bell). Kuato is described as the “George Washington” of Mars, as life in the Martian mines has formed a race of mutant beings.
Confused yet? It’s ok…it gets worse (in the best since of the term). We do learn that Quaid’s life on Earth was a set up, but Quaid refuses to believe that he is anyone but himself, and so the struggle ensues. He ends up having to trust someone from a memory implant (Rachel Ticotin) and is being chased by some of Cohaagen’s (Ronny Cox) men. To fill you in, Cohaagen is the man in charge on Mars and Arnold’s character of Howser is his second in command. By this point I was very confused, this is not only an action movie, but one in which you have to think and keep up with; that’s something that Hollywood can’t seem to produce much of anymore. Still, I feel it’s one of Arnold’s better roles, and one that’s been argued over time and again.
Video: How does it look?
”Total Recall” looks fairly good despite being over fifteen years old. The MPEG-2 HD transfer is a bit better than the previous DVD incarnations (I lose count as to how many there were) and as we might expect, the detail is bumped up a bit and colors are a little more on the bright side. I did notice a few specs of grain on the transfer here and there. It’s nothing to lose sleep over, for sure but when we’ve become so used to seeing these HD titles look pretty close to perfection, it’s a bit odd when we do see any sort of error pop up. Proof that Blu-ray (like HD DVD) is actually fallible. The 1.85:1 image is very clean with black levels right on target and the contrast is rock solid as well. I can actually remember seeing this movie in theaters when it came out and though my memory isn’t that good, I’ll go out on a limb and say that this is the best that “Total Recall” has ever looked on a home video format. Fans of the movie will, for the time being, have the definitive edition when it comes to video and audio.
Note: The OAR is incorrectly labeled as 2.35:1 on the box, but the transfer is indeed 1.85:1.
Audio: How does it sound?
As with several other early Lion’s Gate Blu-ray releases, we get a Dolby Digital EX track along with a DTS ES mix. Don’t get me wrong, these mixes are great and sound outstanding; especially with “Total Recall” but after hearing some of the uncompressed soundtracks on other discs, these just seem to come up short. With that in mind, I can safely say that these tracks sound identical to the previous tracks on the older DVD’s (circa 2002 if I’m not mistaken). Sonics are very good with vocals being clear and coherent. The surrounds kick in at just the right times and there’s plenty of action to keep all of the surround units busy from beginning to end. Don’t expect the best track you’ve ever heard, but instead a very natural, if explosive, pair of soundtracks here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
If its supplements you’re looking for, look elsewhere. The only supplement we get is the “Visions of Mars” featurette that was included on the previous DVD. There’s no commentary by Schwarzenegger or any of the other extras that appeared on the standard DVD’s.
