TOTAL RECALL - Blu-ray review

Director Paul Verhoeven is the director you love or hate. Above anyone else in Hollywood, he is a man known for filmed violence and controversy. His films never get past the MPAA without an initial X or NC-17 rating. These violent films are usually Science Fiction, and generally intelligent. "Robocop," "Total Recall," "Basic Instinct," "Showgirls," "Starship Troopers" and "Hollow Man" is not the resume you would expect from a man with a doctorate in math and physics.

After creating a number of award winning films in his native Netherlands, such as "Soldaat van Oranje" and "Turks fruit," Verhoeven hit it big with "Robocop." "Robocop" became a cultural phenomenon, despite the violent nature of the film and inherent gore. That film poised Verhoeven for a bigger follow up project.

One day, Arnold Schwarzenegger came calling. He had wanted to work with Verhoeven for quite some time, and he had been interested in the screenplay "Total Recall" for an even longer time. After falling through the hands of David Cronenberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Patrick Swayze and a bankrupt Dino DeLaurentiis, Schwarzenegger talked Carolco Pictures into purchasing the story and with he and Verhoeven's recent successes, "Total Recall" would finally make it to the big screen. Swayze and DeLaurentiis had went as far as having sets built and production began, but when DeLaurentiis' company went bankrupt, production was halted.

With director and star attached, "Total Recall" began production in 1989. The film was one of the last big budget spectacles to utilize miniature effects and other classical means of special effects. Afterwards, computers began to monopolize the industry. Verhoeven resorted to using the old technique of projecting filmed sequences onto miniatures for many of the effects through the film. "Total Recall" would go onto win an Academy Award for its special effects.

Upon release, "Total Recall" quickly gained notoriety for its record setting body count. Verhoeven easily outdid the gore and violence of "Robocop" and set a new standard for body counts. Many cuts had to be made before the MPAA would allow the film to be released with an R rating. Verhoeven, of course, defends the violent nature of the film and the scenes that were trimmed. A remarkable amount was preserved, and scenes involving Arnold using an innocent as a human shield and a scene where a villain's arms are removed at the elbow were retained for the final release.

"Total Recall" is a benchmark of modern science fiction films. The film possesses an incredibly intelligent plot that leaves the viewing guessing whether or not the main character was dreaming or the film took place in reality. The effects were stunning and to a degree, hold up well today. Without a doubt, this is Arnold's best picture and arguably Verhoeven's best American outing. The film successfully meshes action and (yes) violence with a great story and outstanding acting.

The basic premise of "Total Recall" is that Quaid (Arnold) keeps having dreams about Mars. His wife (Sharon Stone) keeps telling him that he does not want to visit Mars and tries to get him away from those dreams. One day, Quaid decides to go to Rekall, a company that sells artificial memories of vacations or exciting adventures. Quaid is then either put into a Rekall session that makes him a superskilled agent who must save all of Mars, or has Quaid suddenly remember that he is actually a superskilled agent that must save all of Mars.

This dual possibility of final outcome is what makes "Total Recall" special. One view is that Quaid dreams the entire events that happen during the film, as part of the Rekall program. In the end of the dream, he is lobotomized, because he cannot be woken from the Rekall session. The other possibility is that his visit to Rekall restores parts of his memory and the reason he dreams of Mars is that he was actually an agent who was fighting for either the bad or good guys.

The main story for "Total Recall" was taken from Philip K. Dick's short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Dick was also responsible for the novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? This novel was later brought to the big screen in the form of "Blade Runner." Dick also wrote a short story that was to be the sequel for "Total Recall," but is now the basis for Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report."

"Total Recall" is the epitome of a Science Fiction classic. It combines top-notch special effects with a powerful story and great acting. Verhoeven was on top of his game when he filmed "Total Recall" and garnered the best performance ever given by muscle-bound hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are so many reasons why you should watch this film. There are not many reasons as to why you should not.

Video :
"Total Recall" is nicely framed in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio for its debut on Blu-Ray. The film, which has been released numerous times on DVD in the past makes a nice transition to the realm of high definition with this release. Mastered in 1080p, the film is quite clean and its vibrant hues are nicely reproduced. "Total Recall" is a film with a lot of blues and reds in its color scheme and whether the palette is hot or cold, the Blu-Ray holds up in reproducing them. Black levels are solid and the picture is steady, with clean source materials. Detail was a bit lacking in this high definition transfer and looked only marginally better than the Special Limited Edition DVD playing in an upconverted DVD player. A few sequences exhibited a minor amount of posterization, mostly in the opening sequence. After that, the digital compression appeared to be quite good, but the image simply lacked the detail of many other high definition transfers.

Audio :
Lionsgate continues to support both DTS HD High Resolution ES Audio and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX Audio. Interestingly, the default appears to have been the DTS track. Both tracks are quite good and are lively in their audio presentation. Much of the action does take place in the front three channels, but when the action starts to heat up, the rear channels and the low frequency effects channel spring to action. The Jerry Goldsmith score is nicely rendered and sounds very good through either audio selection. Being an action heavy film, the Blu-Ray release of "Total Recall" handles dialogue, even in the most active scenes, cleanly. You can hear each cheesy one-liner by the Governator with no problem. Now, "Total Recall" is not a film that will leap out and grab you by the ears and it sounds remarkably similar to the former DVD release, it is still a pleasing listening experience.

Extras :
The former DVD release, the "Total Recall: Special Limited Edition" was not the most feature laden release. However, that release was far superior to the Blu-Ray reincarnation of the film. The commentary track and features from that previous release are all missing, with one exception. The five-minute vignette called "Visions of Mars" survives and finds a NASA expert giving information on Mars and laying out plans for the eventual exploration of the red planet. This feature seems especially dated after the success of the Martian rovers, but it is better than nothing. Still, releases such as "Total Recall" continue to show that Blu-Ray has some catching up to do with HD-DVD when it comes to value added content.

Closing Comments :
I've seen "Total Recall" a number of times. Fortunately, I am a Paul Verhoeven fan. I love a little violence in my movies. "Total Recall" delivers with a high death count and pretty good action. The Governor of California does a great job in the title role and fifteen years later, this is still a fun film to watch. The Blu-Ray release is serviceable, but I would not consider it a worthy upgrade over the more recent DVD releases. The picture quality is improved, but only marginally better than an upconverted DVD. Sound quality is extremely similar and may be the same soundtrack carried over onto the Blu-Ray disc. The special features are embarrassing, simply because they are missing. This is a fine film to add to you collection, but if you already have the DVD version that came in a pretty Mars shaped container, then you may want to just skip out until the next Blu-Ray release of the film is made. I'm sure a special edition will eventually be released.