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In 2020, Douglas feels he needs a break from the day to day life and goes to Total Recall – where memories are planted in your head to make you think you are someone else for a while – a holiday in your head if you will. However before he can be injected he begins to have flashbacks and suddenly finds that people are trying to kill him and that somehow he must get to Mars to uncover the reasons. However what is truth and what is fake and is the whole thing really happening or not?

Based on a Phillip K. Dick story this was always going to be intelligent – however it's surprising that Verhoeven manages to keep that core well. The plot allows his excessive violence but is also a great story that more than holds the interest with twists and turns and neither Douglas or us fully knowing what's going on. The action is great – even 10 or so years on, and the tension just stays solid throughout.

Schwarzenegger does his usual invincible muscles stuff and looks happy blasting crowds, but he is also OK in other areas too. Tictin is good but never repeated this success for herself. The baddies (or maybe not?) are the best roles – solid baddies like Ironside and Cox are just as good as they were in other similar roles and Sharon Stone is good as Douglas' wife.

Overall this continues Verhoeven's trend of making ultra-violence and clever plots and satire work well together (Robocop, Starship Troopers and this) as opposed to his trend of making trash! Everything about this film works well – whether it be the action or the acting or the plot – a surprisingly nice package for a violent action movie!

I first saw this in 1990 on a vhs i used to own. Revisited it recently. The three boobs n the comedic bulging eyes stayed with me from a tender young age. The film has lots of action, some violent scenes, good one liners n Arnie's fine acting at display. Surprisingly, this time he doesn't get to go shirtless or in a vest. The mutants mayb disturbing for some viewers. This was one of the earliest one to deal with a secret agent losing memory and all. Way before Bourne Identity and Jackie Chan's Who am I.

The red pill and how's a dream comes reality.... I rewatched this movie after almost 30 years and definitely is a classic. The script and action is so much better than today's full CGI movies.

'Total Recall (1990)' is both an interesting, layered, concept-driven science-fiction film and a squishy, one-liner-filled, Arnold Schwarzenegger action romp, essentially, in equal measure. It's concerned just as much with its special effects and filled-to-the-brim squibs as it is with its twisty narrative and heady ideas. This contrast is, in practice, cohesion. It's what sets the piece apart from almost all others in its genre. It's enjoyable on all levels. It provides breathless, balls-to-the-wall action and an intriguing, ultimately fulfilling narrative filled with well-rounded characters and genuinely clever concepts. The world is incredibly creative and the tone is spot on, in typical Verhoeven fashion. The characters are also great, though, and the way they interact with the central conceit is brilliant. I won't spoil the main twist of the piece but it really is fantastic, something that you'll still be pondering - as a concept - long after the credits have rolled. On the whole, this is a really great film. It's tangible, exciting, inventive and, generally, just entertaining. 8/10

Total Recall is without doubt Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movie since The Terminator. Arnold fits perfectly in the role of Doug Quaid (definitely his best acting in a movie to date) the confused construction worker and Ronny Cox provides his usual evil plotting arch bad-guy. The impressive visual effects are worth the movie's $100million price tag, and Paul Verhoeven proved that, as with Robocop and Starship Troopers, sci-fi is where he does his best work.

What does spoil films like these, however, are people who cannot grasp the concept of Science FICTION, and refuse to suspend their belief for 2 hours(a vital part of enjoying these movies). Movies like this don't work without the overplayed violence, cheesy one-liners and stunning effects. Take away any of these elements and you no longer have a sci-fi action movie.

Chill out, check out and enjoy...