Total Recall

This whole Dick adaptation has one little hitch. Namely that they didn’t cast a more restrained actor than Arnie for the main role. I like him a lot, but he doesn't really fit into the paranoid adaptation of Dick's work with his character, even though he tries his best. Otherwise, everything is as it should be. Pace, effects, direction, and vision of the future. Along with the unbeatable Blade Runner, this is clearly the best movie adaptation of P. K. Dick. (06/25/2007)

The 1990s brought a lot of good things (like me :-D), but this sci-fi is not one of them, at least for me. Terrible sets (even sci-fi from previous years had a much better idea of the future), a story that really scrapes, music that likely didn't even make it to my ears. The only plus is Arnold's accent... Unfortunately, this cult didn't enchant me and left me cold. But definitely check it out – if there’s at least two of you – it will bring a little education. :-) (09/05/2010)

Sometimes, all a successful sci-fi movie needs is to set up the scenery and intensify the music. Verhoeven takes a somewhat questionable approach, unleashing his twisted taste and giving Arnie the feeling that he is playing a cleverly packaged game against all the evil members of society. No, this is not the way. Blood fits in Robocop, and dealing with an unconventional marital crisis fits in a more open satire. (07/02/2005)

It might be the best known, but it’s certainly one of Verhoeven's weaker films in terms of craftsmanship. In particular, the passage set on Earth is very stylistically bland and, as an intro to a bloody space carnage with a western-like structure, it feels a bit like a shy virgin next to Robert Rosenberg. Fortunately, there is an original story with a generous quantity of gradually dosed twists, a lot of convincing old-school effects, even more action, and most of all Arnold, who’s simply amazing in a role that underlines his golden Hollywood period. Some of the moments (and there more than a few) are too reminiscent of certain B-movie gems from the lower leagues of filmmaking in their technical execution and dysfunctional rustic logic, but there’s no other film I’d be more willing to forgive for that. Oldies Goldies. (04/07/2012)

Today I felt like watching something from the work of my long-time favorite director, and when I realized that I hadn't yet written a review for the movie that, along with RoboCop and James Cameron's Terminator series, completely captivated me at the beginning of the nineties. I was obsessed with action movies back then, and this quartet repeatedly brought me joy. I admit that this classic has noticeably aged (but compared to me, it still looks great), so the action sequences and special effects fell short of today's standards, to the point of being hilarious at times. Still, it didn't spoil the experience for me in any way. Paul Verhoeven's style of filmmaking resonates with me, so his cerebral excursion combined with an interplanetary trip still entertained me after thirty years. If I changed my original rating, I would be a hypocrite because I still really liked it today, I had fun, and I could reminisce about some exciting (and wild) times. When I compare it, for example, to a movie like Tenet... / Lesson learned: More of a reflection this time: Is it possible that the Recall company actually exists? There has been a strange increase in cases of women who remember what happened five, ten, or twenty years ago. It makes you wonder. (06/17/2023)