REVIEW - TOTAL RECALL

An unremarkable action thriller that homogenises a bunch of good ideas - although not a very big bunch - in an effort to appeal to the masses. The original Total Recall appealed to the masses because it was imaginative and unexpected in its content; Len Wiseman's by-the-numbers remake is the opposite. Rather than imitate its source material, it imitates dozens of existing sci-fi action films, few, if any, of them good. here's nothing to sink your teeth into here - no unique visual style, no political context (not strictly necessary, although surely an obvious addition, if maybe too obvious), nothing. The screenplay is dull, the production design is dull, the action sequences are dull, and all of it derivative. It most closely resembles Minority Report, often very closely, in fact, but lacking in that film's excitement, be that in compelling action, or in the thrill of watching an original, fully-formed vision, as Spielberg's was. Any apparent attempts to form such a complete impression of life in the future are few, thinly-drawn and inconsistent in context - we can now travel through the centre of the earth in a matter of minutes at low cost, yet we're still wearing the same clothes as today, using the same vernacular, listening to the same music. That this doesn't make sense is only a minor issue, though, as it's the film's near-total lack of charisma and originality that makes it the dud that it is. Indeed, the only charismatic thing about it is Kate Beckinsale's extraordinary hair. WERK!