"Tell us the fantasy, we'll give you the memory." Ah, the good old mind-trip vacation gone awry, we've certainly all been there. Depending on your point of view, Len Wiseman's "Total Recall" remake starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel might either look like a dark and entertaining thrill ride or well, potentially hysterical. Truthfully, while the aesthetics look rather impressive in a wannabe, contemporary "Blade Runner" sort of way, the the lie-within-the-lie narrative already looks like it could be extremely clunky or right on the nose. But we'll try and not write it off quite yet.
Oh, and fans of the original version made in 1990 by Paul Verhoeven will obviously love the cheeky reference to the femme-alien with a third breast. Here's the official synopsis:
Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid, even though he's got a beautiful wife who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life – real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police – controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen, the leader of the free world – Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter to find the head of the underground resistance and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.
Also starring Bryan Cranston, Bill Nighy, John Cho, Bookeem Woodbine and Will Yun Lee, the film also distinctly shares some moods from "The Matrix" in tone and narrative, and arguably borrows some of its conceits. Will the "what's real and what's reality" sections of the film come off like a true twisty mindbender or is this just an action-thriller with some minor sci-fi food for thought? The jury's out, though the trailer is definitely slick enough that a certain demographic of the male populace are probably already sold. We're on the fence personally (with some of us not even on it), but you get to decide on August 3rd when "Total Recall" hits theaters.