Total Recall

Alot of action. Really good movie

I had no real expectations about this movie, but came away impressed. I am a huge fan of science fiction films, but not enough to keep watching if the particular movie is absolutely atrocious or doesn't hold my interest. Fortunately, that wasn't the case at all here. The very first thing I noticed was the very well-done backdrop upon which the story takes place. This isn't another sci-fi movie set on a sparsely populated desert or jungle planet with some aliens and laser guns thrown in to make it futuristic, or on some generic small space station in tight corridors. Nope, you see the whole Earth, big cityscapes, giant intra-planetary elevators connecting the hemispheres, dingy retro-futuristic slums, and much more, all brought to life with surprising attention to detail and style. And yeah, it really looks good. Contrasting the previous incarnation of the film, the action doesn't take place on Mars, but on a post-nuclear war Earth with the two remaining governments existing in radiation-free zones in Europe and Australia. The British/European colony is your typical futuristic Utopia with a dirty little secret, while Australia / "The Colony" is portrayed as much grittier and darker. It's not quite dystopian per se, but it has a grungy mega-city feel clearly inspired by Blade Runner and maybe with a little bit of the "Dredd" remake aesthetic thrown in. This dichotomy brings to mind another recent film, Upside Down, which also had gorgeous visuals, but of a twin-planet system where the "Up Above" world was a veritable Utopia that fed off the poor, working class world of "Down Below." However, while Upside Down focused more on a dramatic love story and the clever - if implausible - premise, Total Recall is all about the action. That action does not disappoint. There's a great exposition in the beginning, showing off and establishing the world and backstory, and introducing us to Colin Farrell's role as Quiad the factory worker. Once the inevitable secret is slipped, great chase and fight scenes abound, interspersed by segments which build on the story and add a decent (but not "thriller"-worthy) amount of suspense and mystery. As can be expected, CGI is highly utilized for the action, but it's well done and never feels like it's there just to exist. The story is a fresh take on the original, but to me was just as appealing. The political and social overtones are there, but honestly aren't any more obvious than in something like, say, the original RoboCop (still haven't seen the remake of that one), which was very well received. Though I won't spoil it, the mystery behind the "original" Quaid and who he was/is kept me guessing literally til the end. The acting was also well done, bringing life to the story. Colin Farrell was particularly entertaining to watch. as he is good with the character-driven parts and very convincing with subtleties in his performance during the action. As a factory worker, Quaid knows he "shouldn't" know all these crazy action moves he is performing, and seems continually surprised by himself as his former-self's reflexes and hidden knowledge keep his present-self alive. All of the supporting roles are well played as well, with lots of big names offering quality acting, even when the script isn't the most outstanding. Overall, I am very happy with this rendition of Philip K Dick's original story. I am more surprised than anything, really, because I had heard it was a very mediocre reboot, but as far as sci-fi action films go, I don't think you could ask for anything more. It combines visuals almost as beautiful as those in the sappy "Upside Down" with a backstory almost as clever as the one in "Source Code" with better action than either. I would highly recommend at least giving this iteration a try, for fans of action, adventure, or science fiction movies. One thing to note was that the copy I ordered in early March 2014 had one short potion of the sound and dialogue completely out of sync with the picture. It was near the beginning and the issue was cleared in a couple of minutes, but it was still annoying. I'm thinking of asking for an item exchange, but I'm not sure if it's just on my copy or others as well, and honestly it may not even be distracting enough to be worth the return hassle.

Another reviewer said it perfectly, "Different enough from the original to be entertaining". I am not usually a big fan of movie remakes or re-boots, but this version of the Arnold classic put a twist on the original script to make it new again. This is not an Arnold remake, rather a fresh new look at how the original story could have gone. Colin Farrell is great as Quaid, and the sexy Kate Bekinsale and Jessica Biel fill in the movie with good action and eye candy. Those who may complain about it not being as good as the original, you need to stop comparing them because they are not the same movie. The only problem I had was with the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. It constantly kept dropping out. I exchanged the movie for a replacement and it did the exact same thing at the exact same points in the film. It seems that this is a issue with several movie titles on BluRay discs using the Dolby TrueHD mode. Amazon gave me a phone number for Sony to call about the issue (Which proves they know there IS an issue). Sony said to go into the menu of my BluRay player and change the digital audio output to PCM-Multi-Channel, and that should fix it. Well, I did exactly what they said, and it did indeed fix the drop-outs. It was no longer a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, but it was a PCM 7.1 surround track which sounds pretty darn good played through my system. The PCM audio sounds just as good as the Dolby TrueHD, so I don't feel like I am missing anything from the soundtrack. But the PCM audio does not drop out at any point in the film Sony should RECALL (no pun intended) the BluRay discs of this movie, and reissue new discs with a Dolby TrueHD (or better yet) a superior DTS soundtrack that works. All Dolby modes are inferior to DTS sound. Dolby TrueHD claims they are lossless, but they still use a tiny bit of compression. DTS HDMA is 100% no compression and has a wider dynamic range than Dolby. DTS is truly lossless. It is why the majority of newer BluRay titles use only DTS HD Master Audio.

Great movie works as advertised!

I was impressed with the quality of this blu-ray! I am a fan of the original Total Recall with Arnie and didn't really consider getting this movie until I saw this for $8 and thought I'd take a chance. The chance I took was on the "Mastered in 4K" version. This is NOT an UHD-Blu-ray, it is really a deep-colour (or I suppose SuperBit) regular Blu-ray. I did not know if this would play to its full potential on my UHD TV. I currently have two different Blu-ray players, an OPPO Blu-ray only (no 3D or UHD) and a Philips 4K UHD player. My 4K UHD TV supports Deep Colour (30 - 36bit colour) and full UHD (BT2020). The interesting thing is that the Philips UHD player only plays this back as a regular blu-ray (no deep colour), but the older OPPO does support deep colour and plays it in extended colour at 1080P on my UHD TV! I would say that 1080P with deep colour looks very close to 4K UHD as it is much easier to notice the extra colours over the extra resolution. This was a great test purchase as even though I like the original better, this movie still has plunty of action and looks great in deep colour! Since this blu-ray is totally compatible with regular players and regular HD TVs it would be a good format to buy if one was planning to upgrade to UHD later as you would not see as much of a difference between this format and the 4K UHD format as you would from comming from a regular (non-deep colour) blu-ray. Not to mention that the format seems to be much cheaper than the typical 4K UHD movie. (Note: if you didn't know, a regular blu-ray player will not play the 4K UHD disks, but they usually include the regular blu-ray version as well) I had no issues redeeming the UV digital copy in Canada.

Questo remake di Total Recall è tecnicamente perfetto, ma meno coinvolgente del film originale. In questo film c'e più azione ed e coreografata meglio, anche la trama è interessante in quanto tratta di un complotto credibile, invece dell' originale, che era fantastico, ma non ci sono scene o dialoghi memorabili come nel primo. Mi sono divertito, ma ho scordato il film subito dopo averlo visto, mentre mi ricordo il film originale per ragioni riportate prima.

Wooow...bin jetzt erst dazu gekommen mir das Remake des alten Schwarzenegger Films von "Total Recall" anzusehen und bin absolut begeistert..!! Ab der gefühlten 10ten Filmminute gibt es Action, Action und nochmals Action (sehr gut gemachte!!) bis zum Filmende. Film-Athmosphäre Spitze, Schauspieler Spitze, Spannungsbogen Spitze, Action Spitze. Filmherz, was willst du mehr... :-)

Fantastic modern reboot of Total Recall

film d'azione, non cadete nell'errore di doverlo per forza confrontare con quello di Swarzy, assolutamente no, certo qualche richiamo c'è, ma vi assicuro che fila via che è un piacere, serrato, veloce, una storia più che appagante e un cast perfetto , il tutto farcito da scenografie fantascientifiche gratificano lo spettatore affamato di pellicole di genere, insomma per me da collezzionare assolutamente! Goduria allo stato puro. Video: perfetto nei primi piani e dettagliatissimo negli sfondi; Audio: da riferimenti un Dolby True HD 5.1 come pochi. Rifornitevi di pop-corn e ...buon divertimento!