MOVIE REVIEW - Total Recall

Colin Ferrell stars this week in yet another big Sci-Fi action flick, Total Recall. Sound familiar to some? It should. Here we go again.

TR is the story of our world in the late 21st century. There has been a horrible chemical world war. The only two places on earth that are inhabitable are Europe, and Australia. They have different names now. Europe is the "haves" and Australia or "The Colony" has basically been enslaved to be the workers in Europe. There is a transportation system called "The Fall" that runs through the earth's middle and transports Colonists to Europe to work for them. Trouble is, they are running out of room for people in Europe and they plan to invade Australia and make it their empire.

Meet Doug, (Farrell). He is an average guy in The Colony and he is married to Lori, (Kate Beckinsdale). He works in Europe and is kind of depressed with his life. He decides to go to a shop called Recall. Recall is a service that you can get where they implant permanent memories in your brain that you pick. You can be anything you want, but it's only in your mind. Doug goes, and during the procedure it becomes clear that there is something wrong. Recall unearths memories in Doug that suggest he is not some ordinary guy.

In fact, he is a highly trained operative double agent, and the government has blocked his memory to suggest to himself he is someone else. Then his wife is trying to kill him and everyone is seemingly out o get him. Why? That's Total Recall. So, who is she, and who is basically everyone in this movie? Real or imagined?

This is a non-stop Sci-Fi action thriller that once it puts its foot on the gas pedal, it seldom lets up. This is a very busy movie with some real cool effects and some of the same ones you've seen a thousand times before. It is very elaborately decorated with computer generated effects both for the eyes and the ears. Some of this is very good summer movie making, and summer fun. But this is too belabored and way too long, and some of these action scenes are just beaten to death. Shorter would have been better.

This does though have a real nice young cast that in addition to Beckinsdale and Ferrell, has Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston and Bokeem Woodbine. Woodbine is really good in his very small role as one of Doug's seemingly best friends, Harry. Real nice performance.

Total Recall also has a lot formula to it. There are plenty of shoot-em-up scenes, and tons of shooting robots running around for effect. Much of this mas a video game feel. There are also the obligatory shots of Kate Beckinsdale's derriere in all these heavy action scenes that are obviously planned by our less that subtle director. There is some attempted humor with Biel and Beckinsdale trying to drum up a rivalry between the women, with our less than slick writers. That kind of thumped. In short, some of this works and some of it really does not. Our actors hold up there end (no pun intended) with what they are asked to do. But this is really not great writing, or super movie making.

Total Recall. Attempted summer fun.