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‘Total Recall’ is arguably among the very best science-fiction films of the 90’s

Based on a Philip K. Dick short story (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale), Total Recall is set in a futuristic society, where “it has become scientifically possible to implant fake memories into a person’s mind, while erasing their previous identity, thus creating a fictitious persona in such that the subject believes he or she is someone else.” The filmmakers took great liberty with the original story, but, luckily Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett (respected writers of some of the greatest science fiction films), whipped up one of the best produced Hollywood screenplays of the 1990’s.

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‘Imagining ‘Total Recall’ – How Verhoeven and His Team Made the Film

Based on a Philip K. Dick short story (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale), Total Recall is one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best films, and one of the best action films of the 1990’s. Under Paul Verhoeven’s frenetic direction, Total Recall is a fast-paced rush of violence, action, and humor that never, for a minute, …

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‘RoboCop’ remake merely forgettable, instead of being an outright misfire

RoboCop Written by Joshua Zetumer & Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner Directed by José Padilha USA, 2014 Paul Verhoeven’s science-fiction films RoboCop and Total Recall take place in different environments and eras, but share a similarly raucous, ramshackle, satiric attitude. These films are products of their time, filled with garishly practical effects and grimy, tactile …

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Is ‘Liberal’ Hollywood to Blame for America’s Gun Culture?

On December 14, 2012, a young man named Adam Lanza broke into a primary school and fatally shot 26 people in the small village of Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Twenty of them were children, aged 6 or 7. On that day, no matter where I went or what I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about the …

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Move over, ‘Total Recall’: 10 more remakes you’ll want to avoid

Whether you measure your movies by box office, reviews, or popular appeal, Sony’s $125 million remake of the 1990 Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger interplanetary action fest Total Recall looks like a strike-out.  The movie opened with a lethal softness; a $25.7 million first weekend meaning Recall won’t even come close to making back its budget during its …

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Where to Next? An Ode to the Importance of the Festival Circuit

With this weekend’s Total Recall cashing in on a trend we could conceivably never see the end of (at least in this lifetime), the question I’m posing refers to what we have to look forward to, but not from bombastic, shallow-minded “anti-auteurs;” we look instead to the distinguished festival elite. Putting aside the innumerable trademarks …

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Breaking the Bank: Six of Hollywood’s Lost Old-School Epics

  For moviegoers growing up in the last 20-30 years, big is the new normal.  I’m talking about those big-budget, over-produced, effects/action-packed extravaganzas that are as expected and routine an arrival as a commuter bus, and never more so than during the summer months.  Come a rise in temperatures, there’s an almost ceaseless parade of …

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Four Most Interesting Films Set On The Planet Mars

Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century and with good reason. Apart from the beauty of the planet’s dramatic red colour, early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life have often inspired writers to take on either the possibility that Mars could be colonized by humans …

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2011 Box Office: It’s Deja Vu All Over Again

Want a prediction for 2012 at the movies? It’s going to look a lot like 2011. An awful lot. It’s going to be a case of, If ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, actually, the creative machinery in Hollywood is broke, but, as the numbers show, not broken enough to warrant fixing. So. Next year, …

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