THE AVENGERS

So here we are finally, from the very first seeds of the idea sown in Nick Fury’s post-credits appearance in Iron Man, through the end credits pay offs in every one of the Marvel canon’s movies that followed, The Avengers movie is upon us. Opening to megabucks and global fanfare the question that wants answering is “Is it any good?” and the answer flat out is “Damn right it is”!

Carrying on story threads from both Thor and Captain America, the plot follows the creation of the Avengers team to defend the Earth against Thor’s brother Loki; who plots to invade and conquer the planet with a little help from the Chatauri and the Tesseract, the source of unlimited power that the Red Skull craved in Captain America. The action kicks off right from the word go as Loki pinches the sparkly power cube from S.H.I.E.L.D h.q. and Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) finds his only real means to get it back, and effectively save the planet is to resurrect the dormant Avengers Initiative and compile a team of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as our last line of defence. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye are all signed up and get to throw down in the streets and skies of New York as the alien horde arrives.

The key to Marvel’s adaptations has been in their near perfect casting choices for their heroes. There is no doubting the characters are great. Years of comic book storylines and legions of fans are testament to that. So the casting for these iconic superheroes has had to be spot on and they’ve nailed each and every one.

Downey Jr’s take on Tony Stark is still amazing. Narcissistic and arrogant, yet somehow Downey Jr makes these into likeable qualities and you’re rooting for him every step of the way. Iron Man paved the way for this movie and it must be said, the first Iron Man is still my personal favourite. With the Iron Man series Marvel has created the very best of the superhero genre and in the Avengers it’s just business as usual. He cannot put an iron clad foot wrong.

Chris Hemsworth as Thor is equally great. Thor was hugely enjoyable in its own right and he brings an amiable pomposity to the God of Thunder that’s hard to dislike. Some of his ridiculous Asgardian dialogue and speech mannerisms could have faltered were his conviction and believability not one hundred percent.

Chris Evans plays Captain America perfectly. Of all the Avengers, Captain America obviously had the potential to fall prey to hokey American patriotic fervour and was perhaps the one potential stumbling block for transferring the characters from page to screen. Fear not however, as Cap rises to the challenge as always. Cap is a man out of time. Old tyme values in the modern age. The emphasis is always on him being a good guy doing the right thing rather than any notion of overt nationalism (other than y’know, the costume, the shield and the name!).

Scarlett Johansson returns as Black Widow, first seen in Iron Man 2. A master of interrogation and a deadly fighter, she is also very good in this. Her introductory scene in particular is a lot of fun, as she turns the tables on some low life interrogators, calmly dispatching them with some crunchy, brutal fisticuffs; And Jeremy Renner, reprising his role from Thor as the conflicted, archery obsessed Hawkeye, plays a blinder with one of the lesser known heroes.

Finally we get to The Hulk. What to say about The Hulk? I am fond of Ang Lee’s movie. It is flawed, but underrated nonetheless. The Norton starring Incredible Hulk was also decent, if unremarkable. But The Hulk in the Avengers gets the best treatment of all. Mark Ruffalo is a revelation as Banner. He is PERFECT, and the most enjoyable parts of a movie that is more or less TOTAL enjoyment, fall to The Hulk. To say precisely why the Hulk is so great would be to give away some of the best moments, but suffice to say the scrap he has with Thor and his face off against a gigantic enemy are highlights of the whole film. If nothing else, go along to this movie and feast your peepers on the rampaging Hulk smashing aliens to bits. Incredible.

The excellent Tom Hiddleston returns as Loki, the seething, petulant brother to Thor. Sly, cunning, and pulling the strings of megalomaniacal World dominance, he is a fantastic villain and perfect for this.

Stellan Skarsgard and Gwyneth Paltrow are on board as their respective characters from Thor and Iron Man, and although their parts are diminished this time around it’s fantastic they are present for the continuity of the movie and the Marvel universe. All the boxes are ticked and the details considered. They leave nothing out – even going so far as to explain the absence of Jane (Natalie Portman’s character from Thor) from the action.

One of the real joys to this movie is that no character feels left out. Many times with larger ensemble movies, some characters in a large cast need to take a back seat (even my beloved Star Trek has fallen victim to this on occasion), but that is not so here. Nobody gets lost in the mix. All the main Marvel heroes serve the story well without feeling like they are there merely to be included. They each have their own arcs from Iron Man to Hawkeye to Agent Coulson and everyone has something to do and to contribute. And on top of all that they don’t skimp on using Loki either. Everything is evenly balanced and calibrated and the credit for that must go to Joss Whedon.

Whedon knows his onions. This is fact. To be honest I’m not much of a Buffy fan (from series 3 it all started to go a bit pear shaped for my money), but Firefly/Serenity is masterful science fiction and my hat is most definitely off to the man for that. He tests his mettle here with the Avengers and juggles multiple character arcs with raucous action that provides giddy excitement. Moreover it is funny. The tone is light without being too insubstantial, and the dry sense of humour that runs through the likes of Firefly and Buffy has found a comfortable home here alongside some more overt genuine belly laugh slapstick.

It’s a strong movie indeed.  Again, its appeal is probably that this is one for both the fans and the casual Marvel dabbler, as well as your average Joe Cinemagoer. What’s all the more impressive is that although it certainly helps to have seen the other films, Thor and Captain America in particular lend a lot of character and story strands, you don’t HAVE to have seen them to be able to understand  it on its own.

To call something ‘a popcorn movie’ or a ‘blockbuster’ seems almost like a dirty word these days, but maybe that’s because they so rarely deliver on their promise. The Avengers takes back the blockbuster and delivers… and then some.

I’ve seen it twice already (it’s been out 2 weeks), and I would go again. Make of that what you will!

IMDB: The Avengers

Since the official poster is beyond appalling, and far and away the worst thing about the movie (Iron Man and Captain America unmasked on a badly photoshopped mess) here is a way better version from poster god Tyler Stout.

C.H.U.D.

Let’s kick things off with some personal background to C.H.U.D., or Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, if you prefer. This particular sci-fi horror opus has always been something of a white whale to me. Let us travel through the hazy mists of time back to the early/mid 80’s where I was but a film obsessed child of a marvellous new technological age. Yes friends, I was witnessing the birth of a brave new dawn for humanity as the cinema found a new home in our living rooms. The home video boom was upon us.  Many was the time when I would go into Flickers, our local video library (as they were called in them days) perusing the many titles that I was both allowed and forbidden to rent. C.H.U.D. fell into that latter category. The cover of the video staring down at me from the racks, was both scary yet intriguing at the same time. Part of me wanted to see it desperately, and another part of me was too terrified of it, much like the large Reanimator poster they had in there for a time.  Also I’m sure my friend Chris Purser had claimed, at the time, to have seen C.H.U.D. thus elevating his credibility in those long gone days when having watched (or merely having claimed to have watched)  a 15 or 18 rated film was a badge of honour. Now, thanks to the sterling work of the Melbourne Horror Film Society, who screened it in the back room of a Northcote pub in a double bill alongside fellow mutation sensation, The Stuff, I have finally clapped eyes upon C.H.U.D. and I can once again hold my head high in the playground.

C.H.U.D. then, is a rollicking good fun sci-fi horror yarn about a subterranean bunch of glowy eyed toxic beasties, picking off homeless folk and errant dog walkers while Jaws-style beaureacrats try to cover it up. Starring future Home Alone alumni John Heard and Daniel Stern as a photojournalist and soup kitchen chef who soon get hip to the fact that something is decimating New York’s underground street people population. They team up with maverick cop Captain Bosch (Christopher Curry) whose ragged pursuit of the C.H.U.D. investigation stems from a mysterious and personal vested interest.

It was a bit of a slow burn to begin with. It took a little while to crank itself up, and I could perhaps have done with a bit more actual screen time for the C.H.U.D.’s, which I can only imagine must have been due to some budgetary reason. But when the C.H.U.D.’s attack they up the ante with a rather excellent head hacking set piece. The upshot of it all is that there is a lot of fun to be had here. There is an early career appearance from John Goodman and the geezer off of Mork and Mindy as a couple of beat cops, and the C.H.U.D.’s themselves are excellent hulking, slimy fiends.

I’m stoked to have finally seen it, and once seen, not only will you have enjoyed a tasty slice of 80’s mutant horror, you’ll be able to fully understand the C.H.U.D. reference in The City of  New York Vs Homer Simpson!! Predictable 80s staples are easily forgiven, as this flick got heart.

IMDB: C.H.U.D.

 

Excellent (but sadly sold out) C.H.U.D. t-shirt design from Fright Rags

KILL LIST

Before we go any further with this review, if you are pondering going to see Kill List, do so now without reading any further; as you will be doing yourself a big favour by going into this movie totally fresh. The fact I knew very little about it going in, helped heighten its impact a great deal. Now with that in mind, whilst I won’t give away anything crucial, in the context of how best to enjoy this film, the following review does contain spoilers of a sort.

Kill List is the sophomore feature from Ben Wheatley, and focuses on the story of two hit men getting gradually and inexorably drawn into a situation they cannot escape. Jay (Neil Maskell) is a family man. Albeit one with a short fuse and a temper to match. We meet him having been out of work for 8 months. Financial woes and the resultant stress is putting strain on his marriage. The slow reveal of his line of work tells us he was in ‘private security’ (a contract killer) and he has not worked since an apparent botched job in Kiev. His partner Gal (Michael Smiley - who will no doubt be known to most as ‘Tyres’ in Simon Pegg’s Spaced series) comes to him with an offer of work. The eponymous Kill List of the title. Three hits, for a lot of money. They agree to do the job together and set about the task of assassinating the three targets. The film is then divided into corresponding segments: The Priest, The Librarian and The M.P.

Right from the start, Kill List cuts an unsettling tone.  It reminds me of three great films in particular. For aspects of the story you can’t avoid thinking of The Wicker Man - provincial devil worshippers going mental; For the look and style of the movie, it brought to mind Shane Meadows’ excellent Dead Man’s Shoes - grimy, low budget bouts of ultraviolence, slap bang in the middle of mundane English settings; And finally Takashi Miike’s gloriously beserk Audition – in the sense that you think you’re watching a different kind of film, and gradually, every so often, small odd things start happening until you realise this movie is not heading in the direction you were thinking it was going. That’s not so say this film is derivative, but rather that it has a lot in common with three fantastic movies, not least the fact that it is an excellently effective piece of horror cinema.

If I have a small quibble, I would say that the violence is a tad gratuitous, or at least uncalled for. Too much modern horror relies upon bravura scenes of violence at the expense of genuine scares; creating a talking point in movies that are otherwise devoid of anything else to talk about (see: the Saw franchise, Hostel, Wrong Turn etc). In the wake of Hostel, torture scenes have become as gimmicky as an orchestral powerchord designed to make you jump out of your seat during a quiet moment. To that end, I felt some of the violence on show in Kill List was unnecessary because the movie already has the audience hooked and baited well before it’s graphic bloodshed. Kill List creates an uneasy, seedy, creepy atmosphere well before it kicks up a gear in the final third.

Admittedly things start at a slow pace. But it works. It’s building blocks for what lies ahead. The plot twists and turns at right angles, all the time heading  toward a gobsmacking climax. When we get there, the ending does feel a little rushed. But WHAT an ending it is. Its speed and brevity compared to the rest of the film only heighten its impact, and to be honest if you stop to actually think about it for a second, you begin to realise that it’s utter nonsense. However you don’t have that time to think until well after the credits have rolled and by that stage, taking the movie as a whole, you should be well reconciled with the fact that this is a proper, genuine horror movie.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste, and the plot holes are gaping, but it’s so well handled that it ended up being highly effective. As a whole entity Kill List was a properly creepy and unsettling watch and for me this is exciting, interesting and crucial horror filmmaking.

IMDB: Kill List

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS

Guy Ritchie’s follow up to 2009’s, hugely enjoyable Holmes escapade, is timed interestingly (coincidentally?) to arrive at almost exactly the same time as the BBC’s second series of Sherlock. Both movie and TV series are resoundingly enjoyable, both fun and interesting in their different interpretations; and this second outing for the Downey Jr / Law partnership is well worth a look.

Downey Jr’s Holmes is a Victorian action hero. If you read that on paper you would think it conceptually brainless, yet it carries itself with enough charm, panache and haughty swagger that you get fully on board with it.

This time around Holmes is tasked with facing off against his greatest adversary. A man whom in the intervening period since the last movie, Holmes has discovered is the focal point for virtually every dastardly crime going. Played by Mad Men’s Jared Harris, Professor James Moriarty is a magnificent bastard. In a superbly villainous turn, the greatest crime on show is his threat to run off with the movie. Some further inspired casting sees Stephen Fry appearing as Mycroft Holmes, providing comic relief and starched shirt pomposity in equal measure.

As the adventure takes them from a train bound for Brighton (woo!), to dense German forests, to the Swiss Alp finale, Robert Downey Jr and Jude law instill enough fun chemistry in it to make a jolly fun ride. Ritchie too, handles it all well despite threatening to overegg the slo-mo at times. It follows on well from the first movie and overall it’s a good, fun caper.

IMDB: Sherlock Holmes : A Game of Shadows

REVIEW OF 2011

Ok so it’s time for the old annual review of the year here at Reel Important. The following thirteen films are my favourites from 2011. I couldn’t narrow it down to a Top 10, and the rough order of preference is likely to fluctuate at any given moment. Anyhow, these here are this year’s best to my reckoning. A couple of these have not had reviews on the blog yet, but are likely to follow.

1.    Super
2.    Submarine
3.    True Grit
4.    13 Assassins (a.k.a. Jûsan-nin no shikaku)
5.    Tucker & Dale Vs Evil
6.    Melancholia
7.    Super 8
8.    Beginners
9.    X-Men: First Class
10.    The Trip
11.    Attack The Block
12.    Captain America
13.    Thor

1. Super

James Gunn’s fantastically violent and hilarious vigilante / superhero movie. Left me grinning like an idiot and wanting to watch it all over again the minute I stepped outside the cinema.

2. Submarine

Richard Ayoade’s sublime directorial debut. A hugely enjoyable and funny coming of age story, set in 1980’s Wales. Wonderful stuff.

3. True Grit

Although technically a 2010 release, the Coen Brothers stunning western hit Australian shores in January so qualifies for the 2011 list.  A mesmerising central performance from Hailee Steinfeld either side of the excellent Jeff Bridges and the outstanding Matt Damon made this absolutely riveting stuff. It is nigh-on perfection.

4. 13 Assassins (a.k.a. Jûsan-nin no shikaku)
Takashi Miike’s awesome samurai scrap sees the eponymous 13 Assassins sent on a suicide mission to kill a brutal feudal warlord. Thrillingly exciting and joyously violent, Mr Miike considers it a ‘family film’. Despite what he says, don’t take your Nan to see it.

5. Tucker & Dale Vs Evil

Fantastic, funny twist on the college-kids-attacked-by-hillbillies genre. Slipped under the radar of most, yet deserves to be seen by all. Review to follow.

6. Melancholia

Lars Von Trier’s polarising, 2 hour-plus study of a woman with chronic depression, set against the backdrop of catastrophic global annihilation. Dunst, Gainsbourg and Sutherland were all incredible in this movie and I loved it. Review to follow, hopefully.

7. Super 8

JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg channel Stand By Me, Close Encounters and E.T. and come up with a charming, heartfelt coming of age/creature feature medley.

8. Beginners

Endearing comedic drama following Ewan McGregor embarking on a new relationship in the aftermath of his father’s recent death. Warmed the cockles and tugged the heartstrings without being too saccharine.

9. X-Men: First Class

Rollicking good fun origin story; shifting the excitement meter back into territory last seen in X-Men 2, and helping aid the suppression of X-Men 3 and Wolverine memories.
(I still have a review of this that’s only about ¼ completed. I hope it sees the light of day in 2012)

10. The Trip

BBC TV series pared down to feature length. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon traverse the Lake District in a 4x4, eating in posh restaurants and trying to outdo each other’s Michael Caine impressions (sounds like an Alan Partridge TV pitch!). Gently hilarious. It made me miss the U.K.

11. Attack The Block

Joe Cornish of Adam & Joe fame directs his debut movie, as a bunch of London kids defend their estate from alien attack. Played out as more serious sci-fi than broad comedy, and with a set of principal characters that are largely hard to like, it defied some expectations and garnered some not undeserved comparisons to early John Carpenter.

12. Captain America

Marvel geared itself up for the Avengers with a nifty, Red Skull smashing, WWII winning, origin story spectacle that laid off any distasteful patriotism in favour submarine punching heroics and 1940’s ‘derring-do’!

13. Thor

Flash Gordon-lite as Hemsworth, Hopkins, Skarsgard and Portman make a fine fist of one of Marvel’s less appealing heroes. It’s no Iron Man, but it is another splendidly entertaining entry in the Marvel canon. (Another half finished review lurks, unpublished, on this blog.)

Honourable mentions:

I enjoyed the slow burn adaptation of Murakami’s Norwegian Wood; Snowtown, although very good indeed, just failed to make my list on account of the fact it is so grim I can’t imagine when I would want to sit down and watch it again; Natalie Portman going berserk in Darren Aranovsky’s Black Swan was certainly of note; The Inbetweeners Movie was a fitting swansong, although let’s be quite clear that the whole thing has run its course now; and Rise of the Planet of the Apes soothed away the pain of Tim Burton’s ill conceived remake.

Other films I enjoyed from 2010, too late to make it on to last year's list, included Alexandre Aja’s grisly Piranha reboot; Emma Stone comedy vehicle Easy A, replete with Stanley Tucci scene-stealing; and Sally Hawkins proving that it is flat out impossible for her to make bad film, with the warmly enjoyable Made In Dagenham.

Worst: The Future

I’m not sure that I can properly convey, within the confines of the English language, just quite how much I despised The Future. Having been utterly revolted by it at M.I.F.F. this year, the reviews upon its general release seemed to be largely positive, thereby proving beyond any doubt that people have absolutely no taste whatsoever. It is the nuclear bomb of cinema – humanity wishes it could be uninvented because we are stuck with it and it’s ruining lives. A strong, strong contender for being quite possibly the worst film I have ever seen (bearing in mind that I HAVE seen Crash).

SUSPIRIA / ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (aka ZOMBIE aka ZOMBI 2)

A couple of weeks ago I went to the movies to see a double bill of Suspiria and Zombie Flesh Eaters (aka Zombie aka Zombi 2) at one of my favourite places in Melbourne – the awesome Astor Theatre. I hadn't seen either movie so it was pretty cool to go see both on the big screen, and too good of a double bill to pass up.

First up was horror maestro (and his being Italian I feel that it’s an appropriate use of the word) Dario Argento’s most renowned work, Suspiria. Telling the story of Suzy Bannion, who goes to study at a prestigious German dance academy, only to soon discover the school is run by a coven of occult practicing witches. Although looking a bit dated and a bit odd in places, Suspiria was generally successful in creating a rather unsettling mood. The famous Goblin soundtrack and Argento’s use of bizarre sets in vivid colours, lent an uneasy vibe to the proceedings. The effects and shocks hold up very well and it executed (pun intended) a corking set piece within the first 5 or 10 minutes or so. Addressing its criticisms, it certainly WAS a bit slow and muddled in places and some dodgy acting/dubbing and clunky dialogue mean it wasn't perfect - I'm still not sure I quite 'get' all the uber love for Argento either, but it was certainly an enjoyable watch. The set pieces were very well done and the disturbing Goblin soundtrack was well worthy of its reputation and played a huge part in creating the disconcerting mood of the film. Its general all round creepiness wins out in the end for me though.

Lucio Fulci’s notorious Zombie Flesh Eaters was up next and was generally a lot of fun. Banned in the UK throughout the 80’s as a ‘video nasty’ (alongside the utterly peerless The Evil Dead and the dismal Driller Killer to name but a couple) it ain't winning any plaudits for its acting or bad dubbing (again) but it is an enjoyably hammy gorefest that’s mostly worthy of its fandom. Although large parts of it involved a lot of wandering about and terrible expository dialogue in order to pad out the movie around 3 or 4 action scenes. The scene in the airport departure lounge where they discuss the length of their flight(!!) was, for example, totally unnecessary! So although it felt at times like they were filling space around the set pieces - what set pieces they were!

The story involves the discovery of a zombie on board an abandoned yacht in New York and the subsequent search by the yacht owners daughter and a British journalist, for her father’s whereabouts. Their search takes them to a mysterious Caribbean island. Needless to say the island is discovered to be in the grip of a zombie epidemic and chaos ensues.

In contrast to the rest of the film the major action scenes were handled with an invention and sophistication that was unfortunately lacking elsewhere. The famous zombie vs shark sequence was surprisingly well handled and not at all cheap looking as I had feared. The infamous eyeball v splinter interface was a grisly delight. TOTALLY gross, but REALLY well done; and the zombies climbing from the earth, smothered in worms, featuring zombie POV shots as the soil slides from view were highly entertaining. It also featured a pretty good atmospheric soundtrack during the zombie sequences. Overall it was a heap of gory pleasure and well worth seeing if like me, you’ve never had the chance to see it before.

So to conclude, both Suspiria and Zombie were very enjoyable if not quite up to the measure of their respective reputations. Nonetheless both were good, and there are certainly worse ways to spend a Monday evening than educating yourself on classic Italian horror.

Cool Zombie Flesh Eaters posters by Jock, via Mondo (again!)

TOTAL RECALL

I recently came across this footage of the mighty Noothgrush playing in front of a ‘Kuato Lives’ banner, and it reminded me that I had not seen Paul Verhoeven’s ultraviolent Mars-terpiece in a long time. It was due a rewatch. It really does hold up magnificently for a film that is now 20 years old but I really can’t go into this review the way I want to without it being pretty spoiler-y. So if you’ve not seen Total Recall please drop what you’re doing and go see it immediately, and THEN come back and read this.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Douglas Quaid, an everyday workaday Joe who has an overwhelming fascination with Mars. The Mars of this future is a dystopian mining colony ruled over with an iron fist by corporate moneybags Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox); fighting a brutal war of attrition against an underground resistance movement lead by the mysterious Kuato. Quaid is nonetheless fascinated by its barren red landscape and rumours of alien technology, so when his wife Lori (Sharon Stone) puts the kibosh on his plans to travel there, he opts for the next best thing in getting some fabricated memories of a Mars trip from the Rekall company. He opts for an adventure package where he plays a spy on a mission to the red planet. Unfortunately the implant process goes wrong and it is discovered that Quaid has already had fake memories implanted. This leads him on a dangerous journey to Mars to recover his own identity and help overthrow the ruthless Cohaagen. But is this all reality or the product of a botched memory implant? The movie plays it uncertain all the way through.

Schwarzenegger is great in his last real hard action role (Terminator 2 was ahead of him still, but this was the last of the real senselessly violent action movies that built his early career – Commando, Predator, Red Heat et al). Ronny Cox plays another corporate bastard villain, just like his menacing turn as Dick Jones in Robocop. He’s a great actor and shares bad guy duties with chief henchman, Richter, played by Michael Ironside who chews the scenery with a seething intensity, and gets his comeuppance in the most memorable scene of the movie.  I also noticed, fact fans, that the cast includes Dean Norris a.k.a. Walt’s brother in law Hank from Breaking Bad, playing mutant resistance fighter Tony!

The dvd commentary with Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger is a lot of fun. I confess at this stage I have not sat through all of it, but I put it on for some key scenes as I was intrigued to get their take on what was going on. The film is deliberately ambiguous, but on the talk track Verhoeven states outright that although he purposely filmed the movie to be interpreted either way, he intended for it to all be a dream after Quaid first goes to Rekall. He spells it out - “from this moment on it’s all a dream” - and it’s great to hear them both discuss their experiences and theories on what is a very entertaining commentary. By addressing the ambiguity of the storyline in the commentary it feels like Verhoeven is letting you in on a secret. The dream aspect is not overt in the movie but the filmmaker’s intent is explicit in the commentary. He talks about the scene with Dr Edgemar from Rekall – even admitting the audience will be wanting the story to be ‘real’ and rooting for Arnie. But it’s not! I guess that highlights why the film is great. Verhoeven knows what he’s doing, knows what the film is about, knows what it is that the audience will be thinking and what they want from the film, and he subverts that. He knows we will be rooting for Arnie as the hero of a conventional action flick, and he gives us that; but at the same time if you look closely the clues are all there to show it is merely a delusion playing itself out in Quaid’s mind. But even if you decide to take Total Recall at face value (admittedly a few of the commentary explanations for it being a dream fall a little flat) then that’s ok too by Verhoeven. He’s not too pompous to allow the audience to take it as a straight up action film and provides plenty of good reasons for you to do so.

It is graphically violent. When people get shot the bullets pulp them; Martian police officers get lifted off their feet by gun fire; Arnie skewers a guy in the face with a metal pole; civilians get used as human shields; and the piece de resistance is Richter’s grim elevator demise. If Arnie tussles with a group of bad guys, then every fight scene ends with a visceral aerial shot of the thugs lying in a grisly pool of blood.

For the most part, all of its tech is either perfectly believable or actually starting to appear. Looking at it now the only things that seem outdated are the size of the viewscreens and use of keyboards in the shopping mall scene – who in 1980’s Hollywood could have envisaged flat screens, touch screens and iPads?

Some of the effects, such as the landscapes and spaceships are starting to look a little bit dated, but considering the age of the movie, are really not too bad at all. Most of the other effects – disguises and gore and mutants - still look fantastic in 2011. Rob Bottin (The Thing)’s work strongly putting that young upstart CGI in its place.

Verhoeven used a lot of the same crew that he used on Robocop, a movie that would make for a perfect double bill with Total Recall, and at the risk of sounding like an old fart, they just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Nowadays it seems all futuristic sci fi has to be explained and their universes have to be put in context by being compared to ours in some way. Whereas in the 70s and 80s you would be just presented with some bizarro future world which the filmmaker just plonked you right in the middle of, and you just had to accept it and discover it as the movie goes along. Total Recall is successful with this and its future is not too far off our own so we don’t have to make too big of a leap.

I would love to see Verhoeven back in Hollywood making movies like this again. After helming such fantastically violent sci-fi as Total Recall, Robocop and Starship Troopers, it’s a proper shame that he hasn’t made a film of its like in years. I want to see more intelligent, violent and above all else ENTERTAINING science fiction from this man (although, let’s not mention Hollow Man at this stage, because that laboured clunker ruins my whole point!).

In conclusion, Total Recall is the last of its kind. A gratuitously brutal 80’s action flick (that technically came out in the 90s) and sci-fi mindfuck all rolled into one. One of Arnie’s last hurrahs before turning his hand to shitty family comedy, dubious right wing politics and tabloid disgrace.  It brims with invention and excitement, from story to effects to direction and it just flat out rules. Hard.

IMDB: Total Recall  

 

supercool Mondo poster from 2009 (above) by Tyler Stout.