Jason Solomons 

Total Recall – review

Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi classic has its clunky moments but wins out on many levels, writes Jason Solomons
  
  

total-recall-arnold
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall: 'gloriously ropey in places yet brilliant in others'. Photograph: PR

Ahead of a remake out next month, a reissue for Paul Verhoeven's 1990 sci-fi classic, with Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to remember why he's on Mars. It's still a remarkable film, gloriously ropey in places (those taxi cabs are like something out of Woody Allen's Sleeper) yet brilliant in others, with its synth score and lines such as: "If I'm not me, then who am I?" It's a blockbuster from another era, when a big idea, rather than a pair of 3D goggles, gave the film its extra dimension.

 

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