In 1990, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven released his Directorial follow-up to 1987's surprise hit Robocop, but this time around though he had significantly more star power. The movie I'm referring to is of course Total Recall and its lead was the world's biggest movie star at the time - Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition to Arnold, we also saw Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, and a young Pre-Basic Instinct (Verhoeven's next movie) Sharon Stone. His budget was quite a bit larger too, inflated to about 8 times what Robocop cost, and they in turn grossed over $250 million worldwide. Not too bad for an early 90s, 'R' rated Sci-fi flick that didn't have the crutch of 3D or IMAX to boost ticket prices.
So this is how Schwarzenegger, one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, was introduced to a new decade. He was Douglas Quaid, jack hammer wielding, muscle-bound superman. Complete with a gorgeous wife and an affliction to nightmares. He also seemingly possessed a desire for a crappy vacation as he was determined to visit boring old Mars, and he held no interest in taking a Space Cruise to vacation hot spot Saturn. Much to the chagrin of his beautiful wife. Did I mention that he had a hot wife?
So anyway as we all remember, or at least as we should, it turned out that Douglas Quaid wasn’t really Douglas Quaid, and the vacation to Mars ends with a whole lotta people getting killed, and Quaid becoming a freedom fighter. There are actually quite a few similarities you could draw between this and The Running Man, which was released a few years earlier. In both movies Arnold switches sides, bucks the system, and ends up leading a revolution – all the while spouting some of film’s greatest one-liners ever.
Oh, wait...
So anyhow, the movie, loosely based on a Philip K. Dick story, made a bunch of money, and the critics for the most part were even favorable towards it. However there was a contingent, that in the wake of Robocop (also currently being remade), which widely criticized the movie for being ‘too violent’, and who believed Verhoeven not only refused to tone the violence down, but actually made it more personal. This time trading in a lot of gun kills for impalings and severed limbs. The gun kills left in however where extra violent, which may be one reason I watched it about 100 times when I was a kid. Well, that and this…
So now here we sit, 22 years later with the release of a new Total Recall. This time without Verhoeven or Schwarzenegger, or even Mars, and no ‘R’ rating either. But with the release of the remake, it seemed like as good a time as any to take a look back at a movie that is still counted amongst the best of its era, be it 90s Sci-fi or just Schwarzenegger movies in general. From mutant cabbies, to tiny hookers, to 500,000 year old alien technology – the original Total Recall had it all. I guess I’ll find out tonight if the new one was able to capture the same magic, or if the PG-13 rating is just gonna be to big a creative hurdle to avoid disappointing fans of the original…
Long Live Kuato!