Skip to main content

Movie Review: Total Recall

     Hey, everyone. I wanted to share some thoughts about the new version of Total Recall. As you know, this is a remake of the sci-fi Schwarzenegger vehicle with Colin Farrell as Hauser. Let me set the plot for you.
     In the future there have been a number of wars in which the nations have used Chemical Weapons. As a result, most of the earth is uninhabitable. There are only two areas where people live; The Federated States of Britain is the seat of government and Australia, which is now simply called the Colony. The Government, run by a guy named Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston) is not good. People in the Colony have to commute back and forth daily to Britain for work. Wow, heck of a commute, you say. Indeed.
      They travel back and forth on a tube, through the center of the earth's core. When they pass the molten core, gravity flips and they are going up instead of down. The government is building droids in Britain and it is their devious plan to send these troops to the Colony and seize it for the living space. Crowding is a problem since the wars.
     Well, Hauser thinks he is just a worker bee until he becomes dissatisfied with his mundane existence and visits Rekall. It is a place where you can go and live out your fantasies via chemical injection and a mind control chair. Hauser can't think of anything better than being a spy, (duh) but then again, Kate Beckinsale is his wife Lori, so I can see why he wouldn't need any fantasy chick.
     Turns out that when they put the dude under, he finds out that he is actually a spy, rather than a factory worker. His wife Lori is also a spy and she immediately tries to kill him. Perhaps the best line of the movie came in this time frame when she told the astounded Hauser that she "Gives good wife" in response to his horror that she had been married to him for 8 years, without romantic involvement.
     The next revelation for Hauser is that he has a phone implanted in his hand. He finds out because he gets a call from a dude. He puts his hand to a window and sees a guy and chats with him. He is given a bank number and instructions on what to do. He still doesn't remember anything about his past life as a spy. In an alley, as he is fleeing, he cuts the phone out of his hand because his psycho, agent wife and her friends are tracing him by this technology. Yeah, gross. He gives the phone to an admiring street kid. Hey, the kid didn't have to stand in line at Apple for that thing.
      This movie is full of cool tech items like that. For instance, Hauser goes to his former apartment and discovers that he can suddenly play the piano. He discovers a dead key on the keyboard and sees a video made by himself, telling him what to do. A piano that plays secret files is what I always wanted. He is instructed to go to the leader of a resistance group. The guy is named Matthias (Bill Nighy).
    Luckily, the fleeing Hauser discovers he is a very dangerous man. He has spy skills, all of a sudden. Then he gets some aid from hot resistance spy lady Jessica Biel. How can you not like a movie with two very dangerous women in it? Either of these ladies could play Karina in my book, KGB Retirement Program.
    I'll rest my case here because there are a few surprises, twists and turns, I don't want to mess up. Carley thinks it is a guy flick, but she thinks for action movie fans it would be a 4 stars out of 5. I think that is a fair assessment; if anything it might be a tad under that. Still, the interesting tech stuff, the good acting, overall, and smashing action scenes make this worth seeing at the theater. I might give this film a bit of an edge over the Batman flick we saw two weeks ago. Besides, I like Colin Farrell, especially in The Recruit with Al Pacino.
    Oh, in answer to your question, the frog pictured above is not in the film. He is a friend who dropped by the green retreat. He was supposed to control the fly population but was woefully inadequate to the task. I replaced him with a fly swatter and carried him into the woods.
    I'm CE Wills.
P.S. Those are not my socks.
P.P.S. I almost forgot the most important thing about the movie. The storm trooper wannabees used a weapon from Mass Effect Infiltrator. It was a deal where an electronic leash goes out and wraps glowing ropes of power around a poor unfortunate guy and jerks him back to you. I am sitting there and I think, "Wow, cool! I've done that same thing to guys!" (They had just done that to Colin Farrell in the movie.)
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shadowgun: Crushing The Driller On Level 4

      Hey, everyone. Let's talk about the game called Shadowgun, the I-Pad game with which I have a love-hate relationship. Most of you who made it past the evil Cyber Lobster are doubtless locked in a death struggle with the Driller at the end of level 4. At this point you have been in the cave for a long time. The Driller breaks through the rock wall and chases you through the tunnel as you try to shoot out the green lights which slows the Driller down. If you are slick enough to shoot out all the lights and emerge from the cave, a rolling door crashes on the Driller and crushes his aggravating carcass. I have tried and failed to beat the Driller at least 250 times. I hate the Driller to the heights and depths my soul can reach. I hate it like a plague. I hate it with intensity of feeling. I hate it like a rich man hates taxes. Excuse me, I got carried away.       We had a big dinner here at the green retreat and my friend Trevor was ...

Faerie In a Glass Jar

    Hey, everyone. Sometimes gaming can be high-pressure. Take tonight, for instance. I was playing the excellent puzzle game titled 4 Elements #2. I have already done a review of it so I won't attempt to do so again. You have to match symbols and use 'power-ups' to get molten lava to flow around a board and bring life back to a faerie world. Cool. That's what I do. I'm into it. There are also a variety of mini-puzzles such as hidden objects and even putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Hey, when I get in trouble I call Carley.     Anyway, tonight, Carley wasn't around when a crisis struck. I was confronted with a faerie in a glass jar. She was crying for help. She said that she was running out of air. Every minute or two she would rattle the jar. In order to free her, I had to find all these objects and use them. Like there were some missing books. Then there was the pieces of a torch. When I found them I could light all the candles. I found the pieces of ...

Book Review: Box

     Hey, everyone. I just finished the latest novel by John Locke. It is titled Box . It is the story of a world renowned surgeon named, coincidentally, Gideon Box. Dr. Box is brilliant in his chosen field of endeavor but less skilled in anything that involves social interaction. He can't get along with people and is so bad at relationships that his flings at 'romance' normally involve strippers, lap dances and on-line dating services.      After a grueling operation, Box goes on a bender that involves going to visit three women in rural Kentucky that he 'met' on line. I would like to say that these women run the gamut between harmless and dangerous but that would be a misrepresentation. They are all dangerous. One of them has lied about all her particulars. Worse than that, she has pet seahorses and makes a particular powder that can be used as a weapon. The powder contains ground glass, among other things.      Without giving ...