Total Recall – Special Edition
Douglas Quaid is a worker who every night wakes up after having had the same nightmare: he’s on Mars, looking for a beautiful woman called Melina. Despite his wife’s protest, he decides to go to Rekall Inc a company who promises they can give him the experience of having a holiday on Mars, just like if he would have gone there for real. Unfortunately, something goes terribly wrong when they try to implant the memories in his mind and he finds out that nothing is what it seems. He appears to be some sort of secret agent and with several killers on his heels, he decides to go to Mars to look for answers…
Sound and Vision:
The Blu-ray release for Total Recall does a fine job to the movie. We get a minimal amount of dirt, grain and print damage which seeing that the movie dates from the early 90s is quite an accomplishment. Consistent contrast and deep blacks as well as good color reproduction make this a joy to watch. The transfer isn’t perfect though. The amount of detail is lacking a bit and the image overall looks a softened and flat.
An action movie like Total Recall needs a decent soundtrack and Universal has done a very good in that department as well. The surround speakers get the necessary action and the subwoofer does a very fine job as well.
Extras:
On the extras department, all we get is a documentary called “Models & Skeletons” which handles the special effects but isn’t really a great feature. Truly a disappointing part here.
Conclusion:
Total Recall, based on a story by Philip K. Dick, is a fun movie to watch, even 20 years after release. Paul Verhoeven didn’t manage to make it an all-time classic, but he did include all the necessary elements to make it entertaining: plenty of decent action, stuff blowing up, and the necessary comedy here and there.
Total Recall isn’t Paul Verhoeven’s nor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best work (those would be respecitvely Robocop and Terminator) but it was a box office hit for a reason and that’s also why Universal probably put plenty of effort in giving this Blu-ray release some decent image and sound quality. Unfortunately, the extras department is lacking but that may have something to do with Arnie wanting money for appearing in the extras.
All in all a nice release that we can certainly suggest.
8.0