Total Recall - review.

Memory to keep...Colin Farrell in Total Recall.

Despite negative reviews for Total Recall, I found myself pleasantly surprised by this remake. With tickets booked I read reviews last night and felt pretty trapped into going to a bad movie, luckily it was great. Its set in a future Earth where everywhere but Australia and the UK (?) has been nuked, making it uninhabitable. Australia has been renamed The Colony and not ever referred to as Australia whereas the UK is the United Federation of Britain. Being a Brit, a friend and I were cheering at it in the cinema. Irish actor Colin Farrell plays Doug Quaid, a factory worker living in The Colony with his 'English lass' wife, Lori (played by a psychotic, gun-wielding Kate Beckinsale). Thinking his life's going nowhere, he goes to ReKall, a company that literally gives you memories, false ones albeit. Things don't go smoothly and Quaid is on the run, along with Melina (Jessica Biel), a member of the Resistance. The Resistance is an organisation that em... resists the government led by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), a ruthless dictator that hopes to... do evil things that aren't explained properly. The first hour and a half is a runaround chase before they finally get to the final face-off. The films principle 'soldier' role is filmed in by Cohaagen's "synthetic police force", a cross between a Stormtrooper and a dancing iPod robot. 
Its fun stuff and gorgeous to look at, for people who haven't seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger version or read the book they'll enjoy it. From what reviews say it doesn't stick to the plot of the 1990 movie or the Philip K. Dick short story, so fans of either of they won't be fans of this...


3.5/5