Genre Grandeur – Total Recall (1990) – MovieRob

For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Dystopian Movies, here’s a review of Total Recall (1990) by me

Thanks again to James of Back to the Viewer for choosing this month’s genre.

Next month’s Genre has been chosen by S.G. Liput of Rhyme and Reason.  We will be reviewing our favorite fantasy/sci-fi animated movies (non-Disney or Pixar) . Please get me your submissions by 25th May by sending them to animated@movierob.net  Try to think out of the box! Great choice S.G.!

Let’s see what I thought of this movie:

 “Relax. You’ll live longer.” – Doug Quaid

Number of Times Seen – At least 10 times (Three times in the theater in 1990, cable, video, DVD and 27 Apr 2015)

Brief Synopsis – In the near future, a construction worker questions his own existence when he starts to feel that something is wrong with the way he lives his life.

My Take on it – Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if one day you woke up and found out that your whole mundane life was a lie and that you have a secret life and skills that your body still understands even though your mind has forgotten?

This is the premise of this groundbreaking sci-fi movie that definitely is one of the best movies made that fall into the category of Dystopian movies.

Back when this came out, Arnie was a household name for action packed movies, but many of them didn’t really have a deeper meaning to the storyline like this one does.

It’s the age old question about who we are and can the body forget who we are even if the mind also has?

The special effects in this movie were so unbelievable at the time that the Academy decided to put aside the competition that year and just give the award to this movie because nothing else could come anywhere close to achieving what this movie did effects-wise.

I can rewatch this movie over and over again because it is so much fun to watch and wrap my mind around the psychological and philosophical themes presented.

The best part about this movie is that it leaves of with a bit of ambiguity in teh end which will always make us question whethere it all is real or merely a dream.

To do that is not easy and this movie does it so well.

Bottom Line – One of Arnie’s best movies.  Amazing special effects that the Academy deemed worthy to give the award to them instead of making it a competition.  Great on multiple levels and one can keep rewatching it due to all of the psychological and philosophical questions that this movie. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Scripts for Total Recall (1990) had been kicking around Hollywood so long people thought the project was jinxed. Dino De Laurentiis owned the film rights and had tried to get the project off the ground twice in Rome and Australia. Originally it was less violent and more about the fantasy of taking a trip to Mars. Schwarzenegger was annoyed that De Laurentiis didn’t offer it to him because he really wanted the part. Patrick Swayze and Richard Dreyfuss had been in the running to play Quaid but De Laurentiis ran into money troubles (not for the first time), so Schwarzenegger tried to persuade Carolco to bankroll the film and they bought it off him. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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