13 replies to this topic

[TWoP Gadget]

Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid, even though he's got a beautiful wife who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen, the leader of the free world – Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter to find the head of the underground resistance and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.

[Princess Aldrea]

I liked it. Some of the actions scenes went on too long and the reveal scene was a little confusing but it was good.

[ElymianDucat]

This movie doesn't premier over here until next week, so I have a question about it for those that have seen it. 

Don't worry, it's not a spoiler, it's a question about something Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel talk about in almost every interview about the movie. Is the fight scene between the two of them any good? 

Because to hear them talk about it, its like it's the mother of all fistfights. I'm very curious to know if they were exaggerating. 

Besides that, I'm going to see this movie with very low expectations. I know it probably won't be good, but it had better be entertaining.  

[Princess Aldrea]

Don't worry, it's not a spoiler, it's a question about something Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel talk about in almost every interview about the movie. Is the fight scene between the two of them any good?

I thought it looked convincingly like they were trying to kill each other. Kate Beckinsale just kicked ass all movie.



When it comes to the ending, I was a little confused about how Hauser knew that Lori and not Melina was with him at the end. He cited a scar that Melina didn't have that was on Lori's hand but given what Melina had just been through, wouldn't her having another scar after the experience be expected? He didn't seem to notice that she didn't have the scar Melina had or recognize the scar as one that Lori already had.

And if Hauser went off the grid when he went to Rekall and became known to the resistance, what was the plan? Was he supposed to stay there for awhile longer and then the resistance would be permitted to find him?

And was Hauser really turned, even just a little, before his memory was erased? Cohaagen doesn't think so but Hammond thought he was and rescued him at the cost of his own life rather than having Hauser's pre-Resistance memories back? It sort of seemed to me that he was supposed to join the resistance, get caught as a spy, pretend that he changed his mind and really was working for the resistance, and then have his memory erased after he saw something vital so that he had to be brought to the resistance leader. However, at some point he really did convert and that's why they had to implant his pre-Resistance memories and not his pre-mind wipe memories even though he would have lost at least several months of his life.

[TiffanyNichelle]

No he saw that "Melina" didn't have the bullet wound scar that Melina showed him earlier. When "Melina" took his hand in the ambulance the scar on her hand would have been there but it wasn't. I would have liked a little explanation for why he shot his friend. Was it because he kept pressing him to kill Melina in the lobby?

I don't know if it was because I was so tired going in but I was bored.

[Princess Aldrea]

I would have liked a little explanation for why he shot his friend. Was it because he kept pressing him to kill Melina in the lobby?

As far as I can tell, there were only four possible scenarios.

1) Melina was absolutely right and so therefore when Harry tried to convince him that it was a dream and he needed to shoot her then he's in on it and is a bad guy.
2) Melina was absolutely right but Harry is just Doug's friend who thinks Melina is a crazy terrorist. The fact he's so eager to get Doug himself to shoot her is problematic but perhaps he's told that that's the only way the government will be able to trust that he's not a terrorist, too. He might even be counting on the government faking him still being at Rekall so that he wouldn't have to know what he did.
3) Harry was absolutely right and he went into Doug's mind to inform him that Melina is just a projection that Doug needs to kill in order to escape the trap that he's in in Rekall.
4) Harry was absolutely right about Doug being trapped in Rekall but he himself is also a projection.

If the fourth option is true then it doesn't matter what he does. The second option became highly improbably the moment that Harry tried to get Doug to shoot Melina as if they were both real then that's asking him to commit murder and can't just be because he's concerned.

That leaves option one and option three. Either Dous is still at Rekall (in which case who knows if killing Harry would actually kill him?) or he's with Melina. He chose to believe that Melina was real because Harry slipped up. He said that Doug, still at Rekall, became trapped in it (and since he kept telling Doug how terrible Rekall was and how it was to be avoided, something going horribly wrong like that isn't that implausible) and that he was contacted. He went and got Lori who was at work and she was by Doug's side right now as Harry went into Doug's dream to talk him back to reality.

At the bar earlier that night, Doug lied and agreed that Lori was at work when Harry asked him. I'm not sure why he did it, maybe he just didn't want to discuss it. What actually happened was that Lori left a message for him saying that she had a long day and went to bed early. Therefore, while a Harry that was from a world where Melina was telling the truth and Lori was hunting him wouldn't know that Lori hadn't been at work when Doug went to Rekall, a Harry that had to go and find Lori shortly after Doug went into Rekall would have found her at their house.

If Harry hadn't made it obvious that he was lying then there's a good chance that Doug would have just shot Melina because he really wanted to go back to his normal life and not be hunted by everyone and told that his entire identity was a lie.

[BooBear]

Well, I liked it. The only thing I didn't love is that they seemed to dispense with the wink / nod to the audience ... was it real or was it Recall? The ending seemed to make it appear that the entire thing was real. But in the original the way the ended it left it up to the audience to debate if it was real or not. I thought the ending was not an improvement.

I liked the expanded roles for both of the women -- and I have a hard time believing that anyone would think Rachel Ticotin was the woman of anyone's dreams in the original but here...Jessica Biel.... I can see it.

I liked that the story was much more down to earth in this one -- no mars - but I think that is consistent with them seeming to come from a place that all of it was real. Even the Recall scene was much shorter here, for instance in the original we see a picture of Melena in the Recall prep, but here there is nothing like that here and it seems implausible for them to have done anything to Quaid in the short time he was there.

They should have cut the action down a tad. I thought that elevator action sequence was not necessary.

[ribboninthesky1]

But in the original the way the ended it left it up to the audience to debate if it was real or not.

I've not seen the original in a long time, but I don't remember feeling ambivalent about if it was real. Do you mean the recall, or what Quaid went through afterwards?

I thought Kate and Jessica were dull, and found Kate's expanded role doubly annoying. My friend and I kept wondering when she would die already. Frankly, I thought Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin did a much better job in their smaller roles, and didn't need expanded fight scenes to validate their badassery. But it may just be nostalgia kicking in.

I've always liked Colin Farrell, and certainly believe he is a good action star and leading man material. Unfortunately, this movie was kind of sacrificed at the altar of Kate being the director's wife (she seems to have that in common with Milla Jovovich). She's fine as an actress, but the Underworld series is her time to shine. I didn't need to see her all that much in this movie, and I felt like we didn't get to see much of Quaid/Hauser's journey. I was kind of bored at times as well. The dialogue could be cringeworthy as well. But I saw that Kurt Wimmer was one of the writers, and he's hit or miss for me.

I wasn't that impressed with the fight scene between Kate and Jessica.

[CChambers]

I've not seen the original in a long time, but I don't remember feeling ambivalent about if it was real. Do you mean the recall, or what Quaid went through afterwards?

I'm not sure if this is what you are asking, but ever since the movie came out, there has been a debate among fans as to whether the events of the movie are real or if they are part of Quaid's memory implant. Paul Verhoeven, the director of the original, goes back and forth but leans on it being in his head, while Arnold believes it was real.

[BooBear]

I've not seen the original in a long time, but I don't remember feeling ambivalent about if it was real. Do you mean the recall, or what Quaid went through afterwards?

In the original... the Recall person describes the way his fantasy will end... he will get the girl and save the world. At the end of the original.. after Quaid saves the people of mars and gets the girl.. he says "omg what if this is a dream" and Melena says "kiss me quick before we wake up" they kiss and the screen goes white -- as if either (1) it is dream and he is waking up or (2) it is just reflection from the sun on Mars.

The credits come up before you can really tell. Its a clear "pysche" moment for the audience. And was a whole wink and nod.

In this version there is none of that. Recall doesn't even mention a girl... and the fact that Quaid dreams of her before he goes go Recall seems to very very clearly say this is not a dream.

[ShadowDenizen]

In this version there is none of that. Recall doesn't even mention a girl... and the fact that Quaid dreams of her before he goes go Recall seems to very very clearly say this is not a dream.

And that is my big-beef with this film. There's very little to discuss. There's clearly no ambiguity in this film about "Is it real? Or is it recall/", which was the cnetral conceit of the orignal movie (and short story, of course.)

I liked that the story was much more down to earth in this one -- no mars - but I think that is consistent with them seeming to come from a place that all of it was real. Even the Recall scene was much shorter here, for instance in the original we see a picture of Melena in the Recall prep, but here there is nothing like that here and it seems implausible for them to have done anything to Quaid in the short time he was there.

Also, in the original, they had a much more detailed sequence at Rekall, including the intereviewer asking questions about what type of woman he [Arnold] liked, what his fatnasies were, etc.... WIth this one, that was abbrviated to "We'll just take a neuroplygraph".. LAME; you miss out on the character development that way.

Some of the actions scenes went on too long and the reveal scene was a little confusing

If they'd cut out a FRATION of the action scenes, and added some talk/quiet scenes in, it would have been a more fulfilling movie, IMO.


And? The great Bryan Cranston was horribly underused.

[TiffanyNichelle]

I thought Kate and Jessica were dull, and found Kate's expanded role doubly annoying. My friend and I kept wondering when she would die already.

I so agree. At one point I wondered how she was not dead yet. I'm still not sure how she got off the exploding transport fall thing. Was she supposed to be superhuman or something?

[Princess Aldrea]

And? The great Bryan Cranston was horribly underused.

He managed to make me feel sorry for him when Hauser betrayed him despite the fact he was evil and the betrayal was a good thing.

There's very little to discuss. There's clearly no ambiguity in this film about "Is it real? Or is it recall/", which was the cnetral conceit of the orignal movie (and short story, of course.)

I'm not sure about the original but I think the ambiguity here was whether Hauser ever turned or not. He had a pretty convincing escape attempt at the beginning, after all, and even if most of the things that happened can be dismissed as Hauser setting up his amnesiac self to accidentally sell out the resistance, one thing doesn't make sense if that's the case. Hammond called him and warned him about the key which, for the purpose of betraying the resistance, he might not have needed since the other resistance fighters seemed to know what it was that was supposedly in his head. And even if that was faked, at the end Hammond let him go instead of allowing Hauser's memory to come back. And the chancellor was pretty clear that they were going to restore Hauser's memories from before he went undercover and was "tainted" when they could have easily made a copy of his memories before they erased them. In fact, they could have done both (one at the start in case something went wrong and they didn't get another chance and one right before they erased his memories) and yet they specifically tried to restore pre-resistance Hauser. The chancellor also said that, due to Hauser's 'good work', he was going to give him a second chance. If he'd never betrayed them, why would he need a second chance?

To me, that indicates taht despite what the chancellor would have everyone believe, Hauser really did turn against the chancellor and start to sympathize with the resistance so his capture was legitimate and no longer part of the plan.

I'm also curious what the original plan for amnesiac Hauser was. He clearly wasn't supposed to go to Rekall, learn he was a secret agent, and then go on the run. How was he supposed to go from random factory worker to meeting the leader of the resistance then? Was he supposed to be driven to it by his failures to get a promotion depsite being more qualified than the British person who took the job (was Hauser even from the colony? If he was, how did he know the chancellor and why would he help destroy the colony? But he never spoke with a British accent like Lori did)? And what would have happened if at some point they managed to recapture him alive? Another mind-wipe I'm guessing but how does that help them get to the resistance leader?

[ribboninthesky1]

Thanks for clarifying, BooBear and CChambers. I totally forgot about the very end - now I need to watch the original again.