Total Recall Review

Most people don't have the time, money, or energy to watch a lot of movies, so when you do get a chance to watch something, you want it to be good. That's why Rotten Tomatoes exists: to give a snapshot of whether a movie is worth your time. But does it always work? I'll be watching all of Rotten Tomatoes’ Certified Fresh movies from this Wikipedia list starting in the year 1990, the decade I was born, and we'll see if these movies are really worth the hype.

Movie 8 of 1990

Total Recall, directed by Paul Verhoeven, is at its core a visual spectacle of a sci-fi film. It received two Oscar nominations and even won a Special Achievement Award for visual effects. This was extremely well deserved because the visual effects are what set this movie apart from those of a similar genre.

This went in multiple directions that I wasn't expecting. I assumed that Arnold Schwarzenegger's Quaid was an average family man with a wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), and a job who just wanted to experience some adventure in the form of a vacation to Mars, transferred into his memories. That alone sounds like a really interesting concept, but it is difficult to picture Arnold as an everyman. This turns out not to be the case, as he is actually a rogue agent from Mars colonizer Cohaagen's (Ronny Cox) Agency. His wife, his job, and his entire life were just an implanted memory.

The star of this movie is, without a doubt, the special effects. It makes sense why this was one of the most expensive movies to make at the time, but it was well worth it, as this was a box office success and still stands the test of time in many ways. In my opinion, practical effects are pretty ageless. They always work for me and usually look more realistic than the capabilities of older CGI. I loved all of the prosthetics and puppeteering, and my favorite effect was the one used to bulge out the actors' eyes when their characters were oxygen-deprived.

Speaking of oxygen, the plot turns into Quaid and his buddies now trying to provide oxygen to the people of Mars. Everything on Mars has been monetized, including air itself, which I actually found to be a very timely parallel. My favorite of Quaid’s new sidekicks was his love interest, Melina (Rachel Ticotin). She never felt like a damsel in distress and could really hold her own in all of the action sequences. I always appreciate it when action movies like this are able to craft a strong female character.

My biggest issue with this movie was that the plot didn't always feel focused. There were a lot of pieces of lore introduced, but not really enough time to explore them all. That's a double-edged sword for me, though, because I think a longer run time would have made me dislike this. Long action sequences aren't really my thing, so I would always cut that for more plot development, but I would imagine the majority of this film's audience would disagree with me on that.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Is it worth the hype?:

For the most part. The effects still really hold up, and the story is interesting enough if a little underdeveloped. I'm not really into action movies, and I still enjoyed myself well enough. This is definitely something that any film lover should check out at least once.