Total Recall (2012)

Arnold Schwazzenagger for whatever else his sins, made some pretty good science fiction movies. The Terminator,  The running man, and Predator. I remember seeing the adverts for the 1990s version of the film. It is a classic. Its always interesting to see the pasts's view of the future. Working and routine interplanetary transports, but everyone still smokes and the id's are all paper.

The film borrows from Arnold's original based on the novel by Phillip K Dick. the New colony, clearly borrows, from Blade runner, as do the flying cars. Which are not controlled by a super computer

We see Colin Farrell reading a paperback on the Fall. Despite it being a world where the messages left on fridges, are electronic, and there are sub dermal phones. Cohagen asking his agent, to answer him, without using the video display was quite well thought out. The guards not happy at seeing someone second guess the boss, was good too.
I am assuming you have seen the original Total Recall. This version follows the plot of Arnold S, quite closely. In fact the film assumes you have too. So there is a nice scene, when one of Quaid's friends confronts Quaid/Farrell and tells him its a drug induced dream. This friend  steals the sidearm from Jessica Biel and gives it back to make the point, that this is not real. I was pleased, I was wondering how they would resolve that. Also the woman with the three breasts was much prettier.

Kate Beckinsale reprises Sharon stones role in the original, where she played Arnolds/ Quaids wife, here she has a much bigger part role. She pursues Quaid/Hauser/Farrell for most of the movie. Even after the death of Cohagen. The chancellor of the Alliance, she takes one last chance to kill Quaid. Not smart enough than to disappear then . However she looks very nice in white knickers. She is not married to one of Quaid's pursuers

The idea of Quaid discovering his memories through music is rather touching. There is an earlier reference to him, talking about playing the piano.

The mcguffin in this film, is`` the Fall''. In Arnolds original it was an alien pyramid on Mars. The fall is a tunnel/train between London and somewhere in the Southern hemisphere. Its probably supposed to be Australia, but in fact:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipodes_Islands
 With ``The fall'' and an army of robotic soldiers Cohagen controls the colony and the UFB.  Its rather less interesting and imposing as the Alien pyramid Arnold found on  Mars. Also why didn't the colonial government simply barricade the other end of the Fall.

The film is strangely American accented, even when we meet the leader of the resistance. Bill Nighy in London. He speaks with an American accent. So do his henchmen.  Was there something else here. There are references to the UFB being the home of the establishment. Quaid is passed over for promotion. The UFB get the better jobs. Was something lost in the rewrite?

We see Big Ben, but London's Theatre land, seems to be unsafe to inhabit. The two are blocks away

It was not a bad movie, but they did it better last time. Kate Beckinsale had the best of it.