A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall – a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led – goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.

Ok, I know I'm a couple of weeks late watching this, but yeah, I actually forgot about it, so sue me, I've been busy 😛

Anyway, I was having difficulty trying to decide how to do this review while I was walking back to the office from the cinema, do I a) review and compare to the 1990 Arnie film, or b) Review purely based on what I saw…   decisions, descisions…  

Ok, lets have a little from Column A and a little from Column B

Firstly, I was surprised by the rating for this movie, the 1990 version in the UK was given an 18 rating and still some parts of the film ended up on the cutting room floor…  the 2012 version had a 12A certificate (No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12.), which had me worried that it was dumbed down and going to be tame, but I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the few F Bombs liberally sprinkled through the film

Hell, the mutant hooker witht eh three boobs is in this film too and even more in your face on the screen with dem three boobs, "You're gonna wish you had a third hand!" (still a classic line)

The reboot treatment worked well for Total Recall, the tech in the film is believable (I really want a fridge with a touch screen on the front, makes perfect sense), and the smartphone built into your hand that becomes a video phone and smartphone when you place your hand on glass?!?   Feckin genius idea!

The one thing about this one that also made it more believeable, it stays on Earth, no MARS in this one, however its an Earth with only two population areas, The Colony's (Australia, New zealand, etc) and the United federation of Britain (BOOYAH! oh wait, they were the bad guys…  oh…  🙁 )  Anyway, the rest of the planet is a smoggy, radiation hazard zone after a chemical war ravaged the planet and only those two areas survived (Obviously Russia, America and Africa took pot shots at each other and lost…) and the two population zones are linked by an awesome super maglev through the gravity well at the center of the planet (Awesome use of an idea thats being generally considered in the scientific community)

Of course the United Federation of Britain is the high tech, cool place to live, with Android/synthetic police/army and cool maglev cars, while The Colony's is a giant ghetto for all the factory workers and lower class of society and this is where the story realy kicks off.  The leader of the UFB, Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston, (Malcolm int he Middle, Breaking Bad and some awesome films at the moment) has decided to send his new army of Synthetics through "The Fall" (the maglev through the planet) to remove the entire population, then bulldoze it all and build more population space for UFB citizens…   A generally dick thing to do huh?

Anyway, Colin Farrell plays Douglas Quaid this time and yeah, pretty much all the names of characters are EXACTLY the same as they were in the 1990 movie and he plays the character brilliantly and honestly more convincingly than Arnie did

Kate Beckinsale plays his "wife" Lori and Jessica Biel plays his resistance girlfriend, Melina…  But Kate Beckinsale plays this SO MUCH better than Sharon Stone in the original, BUT you can't quite get away from thinking she is playing her character from Underworld…  it's like Mila Jovovich doing anything but Resident Evil (which I'll be reviewing next week btw) now, apart from Lilu in Fifth Element, she is Alice, but hey, after 5 films, characters stick…  Thats not to say Beckinsale is bad, FAR from it, her character is a briliant actress too and a proper bitch, but so was Sharon stone int he original

Anyway, all the elements and ideas are here, apart from one, the alien storyline on Mars…  and to be honest, I was glad for that, this film is far more grounded, far more "realistic" in both the storyline AND setting, the tech is believable, especially as some of it is ALREADY being made (I need one of those fridges!!!)

The one downside, this film was great, but it lacked that fizz, I would definitely buy it on DvD/BR and watch it again and it definetly didn't dissapoint in the action department, far from it, but it didn't get me excited either

Completly deserves a solid 7 outta 10 though

Well worth a watch

~Lone