Well maybe it was lowered expectations but after reading some very negative reviews of this, I must confess that the Total Recall remake was far more enjoyable and entertaining than I expected. No, Farrel's no Arnie as Douglas Quaid, but in fairness did anyone expect him to be? Also, Beckinsdale is surprisingly effective as Quaid's homicidal badass wife.
The film itself looks pretty cool and switching the location from Mars to an overcrowded Earth it engages in some nice ideas with a nicely realistic portrayal of cramped living quarters and twisting narrow alleys. It also presents a bleaker, grittier more dystopian view of the future than its predecessor and is rather akin to Blade Runner actually. It's also a film which (gasp!) CGI is actually done right.
Now, parts of it are quite silly with Cranston being woefully miscast IMO as Cohagen. Another quibble I had is that it's overall more plot lite with a rather dizzying array of action sequences used to cover up for this.
However, overall I gotta say I had fun with this and while nothing stand out or special, it's still a dumb but fun flick that as a stand alone action flick manages to be entertaining enough and it kept my attention throughout.
Basically anyone willing to park their brain at the door should have a reasonably good time with it.
That having said... Farrel is no Arnie...
6/10 overall, a daft but entertaining flick that reasonably delivers.
The film itself looks pretty cool and switching the location from Mars to an overcrowded Earth it engages in some nice ideas with a nicely realistic portrayal of cramped living quarters and twisting narrow alleys. It also presents a bleaker, grittier more dystopian view of the future than its predecessor and is rather akin to Blade Runner actually. It's also a film which (gasp!) CGI is actually done right.
Now, parts of it are quite silly with Cranston being woefully miscast IMO as Cohagen. Another quibble I had is that it's overall more plot lite with a rather dizzying array of action sequences used to cover up for this.
However, overall I gotta say I had fun with this and while nothing stand out or special, it's still a dumb but fun flick that as a stand alone action flick manages to be entertaining enough and it kept my attention throughout.
Basically anyone willing to park their brain at the door should have a reasonably good time with it.
That having said... Farrel is no Arnie...
6/10 overall, a daft but entertaining flick that reasonably delivers.