Courtesy Michael Gibson | Columbia Pictures Colin Farrell plays Doug Quaid, a regular guy about to go through the Mind Trip experience, in the sci-fi thriller "Total Recall."

Movie review: ‘Total Recall’ solid, not as strange as original

By Sean P. Means

| The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Aug 02 2012 04:14 pm • Last Updated Aug 02 2012 06:30 pm

Len Wiseman’s remake of "Total Recall" is more earthbound than Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 version, in more ways than one.

In Wiseman’s version, chemical warfare has reduced the Earth to two outposts — The United Federation of Britain (in England) and The Colony (in Australia), linked by an underground conduit called The Fall, where workers from The Colony commute to the richer factories of the Federation.

One such worker is Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell), happily married to Lori (Kate Beckinsale) but suffering from bad dreams. He decides to try out a memory-fantasy service, Rekall, and soon discovers that his regular life isn’t really his own. For starters, he’s somehow got the skills of a secret agent, and Lori’s actually a police spy trying to kill him.

As Doug tries to unravel the truth, he becomes embroiled in a plot involving the Federation’s nasty dictator (Bryan Cranston), a rebel leader (Bill Nighy) and the pretty rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) who populates his dreams.

Wiseman ("Underworld," "Live Free or Die Hard") creates some energetic action sequences and puts a futuristic sheen to the standard "Blade Runner"-style dystopia. Farrell does the regular-guy thing better than Arnold Schwarzenegger ever did, and Beckinsale (aka Mrs. Wiseman) is quite good as a kick-ass villain.

What’s missing — besides the fact the movie never goes to Mars, as the original did — is the loony, over-the-top panache Verhoeven brought to the story. It’s a serviceable action thriller, but not a memorable one.

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