He stole the scenes he was in with great comic timing and an interesting back-story. Clearly the best character was Benny the Cab Driver, played by Mel Johnson, Jr in his only notable role. And Sharon Stone was looking her best for this movie, and since her role seemed to be the sexpot wife who does little more than exercise and seduce her husband, that is a big endorsement. these guys are great but not right for this part. Arnold was a great choice, and no one else could be Quaid. Besides, coming from Rob Bottin ('The Thing'), the focus should be on the strengths of the makeup and effects and not the possible shortfalls. But at the same time this was somewhat amusing and a bit comical so it can be overlooked. In real life you would simply die in space, not explode. There is a certain absurdity with the special effects - eyes bulging and whatnot when the people lose oxygen. Is it a dream? A brain embolism? Reality? Any of these has evidence to support it and also to contradict it. One of the great things about Total Recall is the ambiguous nature of the story. And even as a stand-alone sci-fi film, it ranks as one of the better ones of the 1990s, if not all time. Total Recall is easily worthy of standing beside Blade Runner. With A Scanner Darkly and Paycheck (among others) creating an extended trilogy (you know, like Douglas Adams did). Dick trilogy: Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. You can't fake spryness (as Robert De Niro demonstrated during his fight scene in Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman'), so why not lean into the elderliness? It's fun to see a capable but creaky Schwarzenegger labor where once he was effortless.When a man (Arnold Schwarzenegger) goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he? One could consider 'Total Recall' part of a Philip K.

He's still in phenomenal shape, but he moves like a man who's dedicated his life to weightlifting and taking his lumps as an action star. Ivan Reitman fairly gets credit for tapping Schwarzenegger's potential (even if 'Twins' and 'Kindergarten Cop' are pretty lousy movies), but he's much funnier in John McTiernan's scattershot 'Last Action Hero' and James Cameron's wildly entertaining (and very dated) 'True Lies.' His comedic timing has only improved with age.Īs for playing that age, Schwarzenegger's been mindful of not trying to turn back the clock. And we shouldn't try to get around my age - let's play my age.' He came up with the idea of doing a True Lies-type thing.' 'I said, 'It has to be something where I can use all my aspects and talents.

Arnold schwarzenegger 1990