Total Recall Movie Review

Mind-bending sci-fi adventure set in the 21st century, when Earth's citizens have fictionalized memories implanted to grant them adventures they couldn't afford to experience. Restless construction worker Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) undergoes the procedure to exorcize his fixation with the Mars mining colony, but something goes wrong. It seems he really was a secret agent on Mars and had a false memory implant to wipe his true identity out. Or did he? Dodging assassins at every turn, Quaid heads for Mars for answers. Elaborate expansion of Philip K. Dick's short tale “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” is an entertaining but problematic puzzler, rewritten to fit Schwarzenegger's Conan-scale persona; whenever the mazelike plot becomes too much, Quaid can just punch his way out, though the storyline's logic grows progressively tortured – until the hero can't even exist if everything is taken literally. Add half a bone is you're an unquestioning action fan, since spectacular f/x and graphic violence are rife throughout. Grotesque mutant makeup by Rob Bottin.

1990 (R) 113m/C Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox, Roy Brock-smith, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson Jr.; D: Paul Verhoeven; W: Gary Goldman, Dan O'Bannon; M: Jerry Goldsmith. Academy Awards ‘90: Best Visual Effects; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘90: Best Sound. VHS, Beta, LV, 8mm IME, FUS, LIV