TOTAL RECALL – 2012 – TOTALLY CAPTIVATING

“While Total Recall isn’t the deepest or most complex of science fiction films, it is full of enough exciting action and captivating characters to hold your interest until its spectacular climax!”

Science Fiction, Action and Espionage

Starring - Colin Farrell/Douglas Quaid & Hauser, Kate Beckinsale/Lori Quaid, Jessica Biel/Melina, Bryan Cranston/Cohaagen, Bokeem Woodbine/Harry and Bill Nighy/Matthias

Director – Len Wiseman

Writer(s) - Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback screenplay based on the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, some sexual content, brief nudity and language.

Runtime - 118 min

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Total Recall - despite the title – is not a remake of the 1990 film of the same name. If you were a fan of the original film, also very loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", than nothing I can say will convince you that this new movie is worth spending your time and money to see at the theater. Conversely, if you disliked the 1990 film, there is a chance you will like this film, but still be confused as to why they bothered to make another film with the same title, but with a completely different setting and plot. I don’t have an answer to the later question, but I will attempt to explain why I think Total Recall is a good, if somewhat flawed, science fiction film.

The setting for Total Recall is 2084 in which most of the surface of Earth has been made uninhabitable by a global nuclear war. Two areas are left inhabitable: The former British Isles now run by the United Federation of Britain and the continent of Australia, now dubbed The Colony. Workers commute daily between the two nations via a massive underground gravity elevator which travels through the Earth’s core.

Douglas Quaid is one of those commuters. He travels from his small apartment in the crowded capital of the UFB to a manufacturing complex in The Colony, to work on an assembly line manufacturing armored police robots. Tiring of this life and his recurring nightmares, Quaid visits Rekall, a company that promises to implant memories to help him escape his mundane existence. Instead, before the Rekall procedure even begins, they discover Quaid has already been implanted with memories and accuse him of being a UFB spy. This sets off a series of alarms and Quaid is surrounded by security officers before he can escape. Quaid kills all the officers with unknown skill and escapes home to his wife Lori. When Quaid confesses to Lori what has happened, she reveals the truth about their relationship and Quaid finds himself on the run from his past life that he knows little about.

Total Recall is essentially a futuristic spy story. The memory implantation technology devise is used only to set up the true narrative of Quaid’s previous life [SPOILER] as an agent for the USB and how he was used to infiltrate a resistance movement that is attempting to free The Colony from the USB’s influence. I am not adverse to using futuristic technology as a devise to hang a more conventional plot on and Total Recall does make use of one very important piece of future tech to implement an important plot point on. Unfortunately for me, this bit of technology did not seem plausible to me. The idea that you could boar a hole large enough to fit a “gravity elevator” large enough to transport hundreds of people doesn’t seem feasible to me. The Earth’s core is theorized to be made up of solid iron–nickel alloy under millions of pounds of pressure and has an estimated temperature of 9,800 ° Fahrenheit! Let’s say materials could be made to withstand these significant obstacles, common sense tells you that England is not the geological antipode of Australia. A quick search on an antipodal map shows that the antipode of England is about 1000 km southeast of New Zealand and the antipode of Australia is several 1000s of km west of Spain in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! While this works well as a metaphor for the opposition between the UFB and The Colony, it would have been nice if the writers could have done a bit more research to work around these physical improbabilities.

My scientific quibbles notwithstanding, I did enjoy Total Recall overall. The complex relationships between Quaid, his wife and his other love interest make for some fantastic physical confrontations. The plot of Quaid’s past is reveled quickly enough so that the majority of the film is taken over by his conflict with his former and current alliances. The film rushes along at a fantastic rate and culminates with a very satisfying visceral conclusion.

Colin Farrell as our hero Douglas Quaid is serviceable, if somewhat uninspiring. Jessica Biel is believable and fairly complex as Melinda the resistance agent. Kate Beckinsale as Lori Quaid really steals the show! She is terrifying and gorgeous at the same time! The many fight scenes between her and Farrell are both disturbing and realistic at the same time. Another nice character twist is played by Bokeem Woodbine, who plays Quaid’s friend and co-worker at the beginning of the film, but transforms into a completely different character lateR in the film.

The look of Total Recall is deep, rich and very immersive! The digital mat work is seamless and I kept looking at the cityscapes trying to figure out what was a real set and what was digital and I could not. I loved the sleek look of the flying cars, the detailed cacophony of massive infrastructure supporting the towering buildings and the details in the crowded roadways and sidewalks. It did have quite a few similarities to the look of Blade Runner, but there were enough differences to keep it from being a complete knock off.

While Total Recall isn’t the deepest or most complex of science fiction films, it is full of enough exciting action and captivating characters to hold your interest until its spectacular climax!

TECHNICAL: Acting – 9 Directing – 9 Cinematography – 9 Script – 8 Special Effects – 10

VISCERAL: Visual – 10 Auditory – 9 Intellectual – 8 Emotional – 9 Involvement – 10

TOTAL - 91

TRAILER TUESDAY! TOTAL RECALL: TOO SOON TO REMAKE?

When the original Total Recall debuted in June of 1990, it was generally well-received by critics and made a sizable profit. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, with a script originally penned by Dan O'Bannon, Total Recall was a big budget sci-fi film with a satirical edge. Total Recall was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to science fiction after dabbling in comedy with Red Heat and Twins and it demonstrated that he could still carry a big science fiction action-drama. Being a fan of Schwarzenegger’s (and in the 80’s and 90's who wasn’t?) I enjoyed Total Recall for what it was, but felt that as a science fiction film it fell short of its premise’s potential. The ending of the film always bothered me in its unrealistic portrayal of a body exposed to a near-vacuum and the speed at which Mars’ atmosphere is replenished.

Twenty-two years later, a “remake” of Total Recall is being released. This film is scripted by Kurt Wimmer , Mark Bomback and James Vanderbilt did a "polish" on the script.  This version is directed by Len Wiseman, who is best known for writing and directing Underworld (2003) and Underworld: Evolution (2006), as well as directing Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Colin Farrell stars as Douglas Quaid; with Jessica Biel playing Melina a Resistance member and Kate Beckinsale playing Lori, Quaid's "wife". With a reported budget of $200 million, this film looks like a big-budget sci-fi film, but I’m also hoping that it has a bit more science fictional ideas in it as well. Being a fan of Wiseman’s previous films, I have no doubt I’ll enjoy the look and style of this new Total Recall. I’m not a huge fan of Colin Farrell’s total body of work, but I did enjoy his turn as the vampire in the recent remake of Fright Night (2011), so hopefully some of the energy that he brought to that role will translate well to his portrayal of the put-upon factory worker Douglas Quaid. The bigger of the two female roles falls to Jessica Biel, who’s work I’ve admired in such diverse films as Blade: Trinity (2004), The Illusionist (2006) and Next (2007). Also, any film with Kate Beckinsale in it is always worth watching!

If the film is as good as this trailer looks, than I’m more than ready for this remake! Total Recall opens August 3, 2012.

THE THING – 2011 – A PALE IMITATION OF THE REAL THING

"The biggest problem with this film is that there is no suspense because you know how the film must end before it even begins. What makes horror work is not knowing who is going to survive the antagonist, so this vital aspect of the plot is removed from The Thing. All we are left with is trying to identify with these characters and hoping that they will at least make an effort to survive that is interesting and exhilarating. For the most part, The Thing disappoints in this regard as well."

Science Fiction, Horror and Action

Starring - Mary Elizabeth Winstead/Kate Lloyd, Joel Edgerton/Sam Carter, Ulrich Thomsen/Dr. Sander Halvorson, Eric Christian Olsen/Adam Finch, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje/Jameson, Paul Braunstein/Griggs, Trond Espen Seim/Edvard Wolner and Kim Bubbs/Juliette

Director - Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

Writer - Eric Heisserer

Rated R - strong creature violence and gore, disturbing images, and language

The Thing is a prequel to the 1982 film of the same name. John Carpenter’s The Thing is considered to be a modern classic sci-fi horror film and when I saw it in the theater in June of 1982 I would have concurred with that assessment. I watched The Thing again last year in HD on Netflix in preparation of seeing the “prequel”, and it was not the film I remembered. While I still appreciated the nicely squeamish alien effects and the general feeling of isolation and growing paranoia that Carpenter generated in the film, the characters felt underdeveloped and the film just didn’t have the same emotional impact on me the way it did twenty-nine years prior. The more I read about the reverential approach that the director of The Thing prequel were taking to make their film, the more I became disinterested in seeing this Thing.

Trying to keep an open a mind as possible, I watched the blu-ray of The Thing and still found myself very underwhelmed. I just couldn’t help but think to myself why was this film even made? I actually could understand it better if they made a straight up remake. After all, the 1982 The Thing is a remake of the 1951 The Thing from Another World, both of which are liberal adaptations of the short story "Who Goes There?" by the science fiction editor/writer John W. Campbell Jr. There have already been two other science fiction novels that have been remade multiple times. The Body Snatchers, the 1955 science fiction novel by Jack Finney, was made into films in 1956, 1978, 1993 and 2007. I Am Legend, the 1954 Richard Matheson novel, was made into films in 1964, 1971 and 2007. Hollywood obviously has no shame when it comes to recycling the same stories over and over again, so why not another The Thing as well?

Instead, the writer became obsessed with telling the story of the Norwegian camp from the first film, as Heisserer explained in interviews that in writing the script it was necessary for him to research all the information that was revealed about the Norwegian camp from the first film, down to the smallest details, so that it could be incorporated into the prequel in order to create a consistent backstory. Considering that this backstory of the Norwegian’s is a complete fabrication of 1982 The Thing’s screenplay writer Bill Lancaster, I think by going even further away from the source material for inspiration to make an entire feature film is senseless. What makes this story even more uninspired is that it essentially tells exactly the same story as the 1982 The Thing, only with different characters!

The film opens with two of the Norwegian research team literally falling through the Antarctic ice onto the buried alien spaceship. An expedition goes looking for the missing men and finds instead the frozen body of a misshaped alien creature. Dr. Sander Halvorson, the head of the Norwegian team, recruits an American Paleontologist Kate Lloyd to help excavate and examine the alien body. Kate is flown to the Antarctic base by fellow Americans Carter, Derek and Griggs.

The alien is excavated from the ice, but left frozen in a block of it when brought into the camp. As the Norwegians drunkenly celebrate their find, Derek sees the alien inexplicably burst free of the ice and escape the building. The Norwegians and Americans split into small search parties and as soon as two of the Norwegians find it, it kills Henrik with Olav running away for help. The others return and use a flame thrower to burn the creature to death. Halvorson and Lloyd examine the remains and discover that the alien’s cells are still alive and are consuming and imitating Henrick’s cells.

The scientists devise a method of testing the blood to determine who the alien is imitating, but the lab is destroyed, so Lloyd devises another method to tell human from alien imitation. Despite their best efforts, one by one the humans are killed by the alien, leaving only a few left to keep the alien from contaminating the rest of the world.

One of the few interesting things about this Thing is the alien spacecraft. We see a glimpse of it in the beginning of the film, but the final act of the film makes use of it even better. Unfortunately, because this is a prequel, the events at the end of this film must not conflict with the beginning of the 1982 film and what could have been an interesting twist at the end is ruined. The biggest problem with this film is that there is no suspense because you know how the film must end before it even begins. What makes horror work is not knowing who is going to survive the antagonist, so this vital aspect of the plot is removed from The Thing. All we are left with is trying to identify with these characters and hoping that they will at least make an effort to survive that is interesting and exhilarating. For the most part, The Thing disappoints in this regard as well.

If some filmmaker in the next ten or fifteen years decides the time is right for another Thing film, I for one hope that they create their own original and fresh take on the film and not resort to slavishly imitating another filmmaker’s past glories.

TECHNICAL: Acting – 7 Directing – 7 Cinematography – 8 Script – 7 Special Effects – 8

VISCERAL: Visual – 8 Auditory – 8 Intellectual – 7 Emotional – 7 Involvement – 7

TOTAL RATING – 74

FRIGHT NIGHT - 2011 - A FRIGHTFULLY FUN REMAKE!

“Fright Night strikes just the right balance between horror and comedy, which I think even fans of the original film will appreciate.”

Horror and Comedy

Starring – Anton Yelchin/Charley Brewster, Colin Farrell/Jerry Danridge, Toni Collette/Jane Brewster, David Tennant/Peter Vincent, Imogen Poots/Amy and Christopher Mintz-Plasse/”Evil” Ed Thompson

Director – Craig Gillespie   Writer- Marti Noxon

Rated R – for bloody horror violence and language

1 hr, 46 min.

There have been a slew of genre movie remakes in the past ten years and more often than not, the original is superior to the remake. The few exceptions that spring to mind are: Death Race (2008), the Paul W. S. Anderson remake of the 1975 Death Race 2000 and Dawn of the Dead (2004) directed by Zach Snyder which is a remake of the 1978 Romero classic of the same name. Now another film can be added to this rare list of respectful remakes: Fright Night (2011).

While I enjoyed the 1985 film at the time, more recent rewatchings have not been as much fun; although I must admit I still like Roddy McDowall’s portrayal of Peter Vincent as a horror host. Because I’m not an uber-fan of the original, it probably allowed me to be more open to enjoying the remake.

The 2011 Fright Night follows the same basic plot of the original, with a few minor character, plot and mythology changes. One of the major changes from the original film is that Charley’s friend Ed is the one who discovers that Charley’s neighbor is a vampire and not Charley himself. The other slightly less important change is that Peter Vincent in the remake is a Los Vegas magician and not a TV horror host as in the original. I didn’t think either of these changes affected the overall tone of the film, which is still like the original a blend of horror and comedy.

Charley Brewster is a reformed nerd, who now has a girlfriend and has begun hanging out with the cool kids in High School. Charley’s former nerdy friend “Evil” Ed Lee tells Charley that their old friend has gone missing and they check in on the his house only to find it abandoned. Ed tries to convince Charley that his next-door neighbor Jerry is a vampire and that he is the one responsible for the recent rash of disappearing students. Charley is convinced only that Ed is delusional and is just desperately trying to get his attention.

Ed continues his surveillance of Jerry, until Jerry catches Ed and seemingly kills him. Charley now notices Ed missing and eventually begins to believe that Ed may have been right about Jerry being a vampire. Charley sneaks into Jerry’s house, where he finds that Jerry is storing victims in rooms hidden upstairs to feed on. After narrowly escaping Jerry’s house, Charley goes to Ed’s house to look for Ed’s research on vampires. It is there that Charley sees Peter Vincent’s web site on Ed’s computer, which claims that Vincent is an expert vampire hunter. Charley goes to Vegas and attempts to gain the aid of the flamboyant magician, but Vincent pretends not to believe Charley’s story and sends him on his way.

 

Charley attempts to barricade his home from Jerry the vampire, but Jerry attacks Charley, his girlfriend Amy and his mother Jane in his home, which they flee from in their mother’s car. Jerry chases after them and they survive, but Jane is injured in the fight. Charley once again pleads with Vincent for help and this time Vincent joins Charley to hunt down the vampire and stake him.

There is a lot to like about Fright Night. The direction by Craig Gillespie, who previously directed Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and Mr. Woodcock (2007), shows off a real talent for comedic pacing those other films did not. There are some scenes that stretch out to create tension and then speed up for the inevitable violent confrontation, which are then punctuated by well-timed humor. Some of this clever plotting and humor should be attributed to screenplay writer Marti Noxon, who wrote dozens of scripts for the similarly themed Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV program.

Anton Yelchin, who plays the teenage Charley and is best known to genre fans for playing Chekov in the 2009 Star Trek film, does a fine job playing a former nerd and growing teen, trying to fit into his new social situation. Colin Farrell plays the part of the vampire Jerry with a quite cool air in his human form. But as a vampire, his vicious and malicious ferocity is truly frightening. I also liked Toni Collette as Charley’s understanding Mother Jane and Imogen Poots as Charley’s sweet and strong girlfriend Amy. The standout performance for genre fans is David Tennant, who is best known for playing the Doctor on Doctor Who for three-plus seasons. Tennant as Peter Vincent the Goth Vegas magician is fantastic; playing both the drama-queen stage magician and the slightly cowardly vampire hunter!

Fright Night strikes just the right balance between horror and comedy, which I think even fans of the original film will apreaciate. While this version of Fright Night is definitely more adult in its language and levels of violence than its predecessor, I never felt that any of it was gratuitous or unnecessary. If you’d like a break from the dark and dismal horror films of late, you should give Fright Night a try.

TECHNICAL: Acting – 9 Directing – 9 Cinematography – 8 Script – 10 Special effects – 9

VISCERAL: Visual – 9 Auditory – 9 Intellectual – 7 Emotional – 9 Involvement – 9

TOTAL RATING: 88