3 August 2012

Total Recall [Digital]

This is NOT a remake of the brilliant, classic 1990 Arnie's Total Recall. It is instead based vaguely on the same concept (the Philip K Dick short story) and that's where the similarities end. Colin Farrell makes a decent action hero but sadly the story and plot were unable to support him and his efforts to resurrect his career. The extremely wooden Jessica Biel did not help things, and they both had absolutely zero chemistry. At least he sparked better with Kate Beckinsale who was at least a watchable component of this debacle. The big bad was so ridiculous, poor Bryan Cranston! Bill Nighy practically slept-read through his lines, and poor John Cho was a joke. Len Wiseman needs a lot more practice, word of advice: light flares do not make you brilliant or Spielberg-ish (or even Abrams-esque), and it is very annoying! Also, spend more effort on world-building and logic/continuity, which was so much better done on the Underworld series he helmed, although the incoherence could be blamed more on the group of writers who were also responsible for the many cheesy one-liners (delivered woodenly by the cast). The CGI needs refinement as does the generic score. On a small plus side, some of the early action scenes were actually quite well directed.

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