Total Reality

In one of his last movies released as of this writing, lesser-known action hero David Bradley teamed with sci-fi aficionado Philip Roth to create an ultimately disappointing time travel adventure. TOTAL REALITY is highlighted by occasional flair in the effects and drama departments, but this far from compensates for its bland characters and mediocre action content.

The story: A soldier from the future (Bradley) leads a team of convicts in a suicide mission to 1998 to stop a deadly separatist (Thomas Kretschmann) from changing history.

The movie begins and ends with a bang, showcasing some exciting CG-driven space scenes with graphics that are pretty impressive for a low-budget film from the mid-90s. However, this seems to demonstrate where the majority of the budget has gone: while the contemporary-set scenes do well, the sets for spaceship interiors and the like are far from convincing. I also don't buy the placement of the dramatic scenes: there are a couple of genuinely well-acted exchanges late in the movie, but they arrive too late to generate much interest in the largely mundane personas, and would have been better placed earlier in the production. David Bradley gives one of the better performances of his career and Thomas Kretschmann is the closest thing the film has to genuine dramatic clout, but for the most part, they are not doing or saying much of genuine interest.

Action-wise, shootouts are the name of the game, but to be honest, there definitely aren't enough adrenaline scenes for a movie like this. David the martial artist gets one fight scene, but otherwise, he and the remaining cast engage in a handful of slow-motioned unexciting gunfights wherein taking cover is completely optional. There really is not much in the way of excitement with this one.

Almost twenty years after the release of TOTAL REALITY, I'm still disappointed that David Bradley's film career ended, but if this is what directly precluded it, I cannot blame whoever made the final decision. No one ought use this film to introduce themselves to either the actor or the director, and would do well to avoid it in general.

Film-makers and movie-goers should see this film. It high-lights major problems with this genre. If we start with the use of studios and the penchant for special effects. This means that the sets are always, dark, and more than often that they are in derelict buildings. The models used are constructed by similar thinking people. The film itself is constructed on stereotypical binaries. The German accented villain - is unfortunate, it is built on I think a less than subliminated version of the Second World War. Brunettes, blondes, Germans, Jews, dirty faced children, clean children, war, peace, black, white. They are cliches.The dialogue could have been written on a beer mat. The acting was deplorable. Wooden. Why do people waste money on such a production? Yet there are so many like this.Given the same material and same budget I could have made a much better movie. I think Philip Roth should hang his head in shame. But as I said before. Watch it and study the formulaic, the stereotypes, the cliches --indeed this film should be put on the viewing list of film courses. A must to see.

Loved this b-grade movie...

I never laughed so hard at a time travel sci-fi flick...from the moment the bald-headed baddie hopped in the back of a Ford pick-up and yelled "Hey, it's a Turk!" and his lead henchman sneered at him and said "Truck. It's a *truck*."

Funny stuff all the way through what would otherwise be a standard fare time travel flick.

It's another one of those low budget sci-fi films that go straight to video with David Bradley in. It's not that bad, really, sure it's a pretty standard plot, sure the effects don't look like they are real, but it's still a pretty much allright piece of entertainment. Also one thing about this movie, that Misa Koprova is beautiful! She should have had much more of a role in this, but then again that would have taken away screen time from David Bradley (star of Cyborg Cop) I bought this because he was in it, going into watching it having seen the 2 Cyborg cop films previously. How can he run straight down a straight corridor with a machine gun firing straight at him and not get hit? Because he's David Bradley! Why does he smash through a glass window when a pane that had already been smashed is right next to it, because he's David Bradley. Unfortunately he doesn't get to do much physical fighting but he still gets to do a bit(D-Von get the tables!). Anyway getting back to the point, if you like low budget DTV sci-fi affairs you'll probably be satisfied, it's on about the same level(and storyline) as Time Runner. Some parts of the film I think could have been shortened, there could have been more physical action, there could have been more shown of Misa Koprova :) and it could have done with a better ending with a twist perhaps, but other than that it's an okay piece of DTV entertainment.

This film is striking only in its banality and use of cliches. Sadly it was obvious throughout up until the ending. But don't be mistaken into thinking that it ended strongly. Only a little unexpectedly, though nothing worth watching the thing through for.

From the taciturn and wronged hero, to the Germanic baddy, to the expendable team, the characters were entirely wooden and obvious. The two FBI agents Smith and Wesson (geddit?) gave some hope of humour, but that came to nothing.

I am a big science fiction fan but it is hard to find any redeeming quality in this film. A turkey!