Leopoldus
Joined Aug 2009
Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see ratings breakdowns and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Badges3
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Reviews6
Leopoldus's rating
A hundred and eighteen minutes of eye-blasting sequences and awesome background & futuristic landscapes
but nearly two hours of complete boredom.
I haven't seen the original Total Recall for a long time now, but there is absolutely nothing to compare, as often with blockbusting remakes like that, some would say. And they are damn right. The story gets completely drowned into action/fight/runaway sequences and very few are the moments where you can truly say "wait, what is going on ?"—to be honest, it happened only once for me— and even that was way too shallow to be completely honest concerning what a viewer might accept. I'm not going to compare with the original.
Okay, you can find in this movie what you expect Science-Fiction should look like in the 2010s, clean and wide shots of futuristic cities, the use of Mag-Lev technology for Cube-like runaway scenes and video-game paced car chase scenes, not to forget gun fights in Zero Gravity. That's for the visual part. The mental is quite absent, not that much of mind-games, just enough to say "Okay, that's it for the plot, we can go back to fighting."
But Come on ! It's not the 90's anymore, you cannot pretend anymore that a battalion of elite soldiers and robot-cops fully geared can miss fully exposed unarmed heroes, even if the hero himself is a trained assassin. Hollywood should stop taking what worked 20 years ago when Schwarzenegger was still a class-A Action Hero and the bad guys emptied their clips at him without much success, now that the targeted audience is spending half of its time playing ultra-realistic First Person Shooter games That just doesn't do it anymore. When the awesome CGI background suggests you are in the future, the action just sends the audience back to what they are doing : watching a poor SF remake putting everything on CGI effects, action sequences and Colin Farrell trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong.
There are some poorly reflected scenes, as for the Recall part that is presented as the ultimate and most trendy thing there is in this post-apocalyptic society, and you find yourself witnessing the hero going to a place without any clients, hold by a bleached-haired Asian guy —what could be more cliché ? barely explaining the dangers as the sequence is already initiated and the hero is strapped on the chair. Once again, it feels like somebody said "quick, quick, get on with it, so we can throw in more action sequences !" Come on
Concerning the acting itself, Colin Farrell is doing is best, so quite good, but while Melina gives a somehow brain-dead acting as her character definitely lacks deepness, Kate Beckinsale is terrible, overdoing it playing the two-face hot bitch her character is, and in no time you find yourself praying for someone to shut her up, which doesn't occur until the end of the movie, that has been long, long, long, way too long. Not even 2 hours seemed like 3 and a half as the production clearly thinks you're dumb as f*ck and that Science Fiction means 90% of action for 10% of brain use & mind-game. They had the chance to do it otherwise, I really wonder why they didn't.
All in all, if you are fifteen year-old, a wannabe futuristic architect or designer, a stoner having two hours to kill or you're into badly used big budget action flicks or maybe all that at a time, this movie is for you. For the others, true Sci-Fi amateurs, die-hard fans of implanted memories/mind controlled heroes-based story or simply not considering yourself an idiot, you would better read a book than go to see this thing.
5/10 for visual design and that's all.
I haven't seen the original Total Recall for a long time now, but there is absolutely nothing to compare, as often with blockbusting remakes like that, some would say. And they are damn right. The story gets completely drowned into action/fight/runaway sequences and very few are the moments where you can truly say "wait, what is going on ?"—to be honest, it happened only once for me— and even that was way too shallow to be completely honest concerning what a viewer might accept. I'm not going to compare with the original.
Okay, you can find in this movie what you expect Science-Fiction should look like in the 2010s, clean and wide shots of futuristic cities, the use of Mag-Lev technology for Cube-like runaway scenes and video-game paced car chase scenes, not to forget gun fights in Zero Gravity. That's for the visual part. The mental is quite absent, not that much of mind-games, just enough to say "Okay, that's it for the plot, we can go back to fighting."
But Come on ! It's not the 90's anymore, you cannot pretend anymore that a battalion of elite soldiers and robot-cops fully geared can miss fully exposed unarmed heroes, even if the hero himself is a trained assassin. Hollywood should stop taking what worked 20 years ago when Schwarzenegger was still a class-A Action Hero and the bad guys emptied their clips at him without much success, now that the targeted audience is spending half of its time playing ultra-realistic First Person Shooter games That just doesn't do it anymore. When the awesome CGI background suggests you are in the future, the action just sends the audience back to what they are doing : watching a poor SF remake putting everything on CGI effects, action sequences and Colin Farrell trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong.
There are some poorly reflected scenes, as for the Recall part that is presented as the ultimate and most trendy thing there is in this post-apocalyptic society, and you find yourself witnessing the hero going to a place without any clients, hold by a bleached-haired Asian guy —what could be more cliché ? barely explaining the dangers as the sequence is already initiated and the hero is strapped on the chair. Once again, it feels like somebody said "quick, quick, get on with it, so we can throw in more action sequences !" Come on
Concerning the acting itself, Colin Farrell is doing is best, so quite good, but while Melina gives a somehow brain-dead acting as her character definitely lacks deepness, Kate Beckinsale is terrible, overdoing it playing the two-face hot bitch her character is, and in no time you find yourself praying for someone to shut her up, which doesn't occur until the end of the movie, that has been long, long, long, way too long. Not even 2 hours seemed like 3 and a half as the production clearly thinks you're dumb as f*ck and that Science Fiction means 90% of action for 10% of brain use & mind-game. They had the chance to do it otherwise, I really wonder why they didn't.
All in all, if you are fifteen year-old, a wannabe futuristic architect or designer, a stoner having two hours to kill or you're into badly used big budget action flicks or maybe all that at a time, this movie is for you. For the others, true Sci-Fi amateurs, die-hard fans of implanted memories/mind controlled heroes-based story or simply not considering yourself an idiot, you would better read a book than go to see this thing.
5/10 for visual design and that's all.
I've only watched the pilot so far, but got to start episode 2 right away. So, it's basic Horror material, three main characters with their own profile, clean on top but messy inside, move into a haunted house. You may expect suspense, some brutal violence, a bit of weird stuff and you'd kill for a good soundtrack that makes the sauce. So far, you'll get pretty much served. The cast is quite good and very efficient, I think having Connie Britton playing the mother does the trick: a real mid-life looking woman, without any particular desire to struggle against time effects—finally, someone without any facial surgery or heavy make-up. Evan Peters is really creepy in his role, the typical sociopath with high mental skills and urges to kill, with something more. There are a few "something more" in that show, don't miss it, the fact that each episode starts with a short flashback of other gruesome activities in the House through time, with its proper clichés that make the thing easy to aboard; the very neat editing combines to the fine soundtrack in very twisted "horror-action" sequences. The whole thing is quite Carpenteresque on its non-CGI setting and can be slightly Lynchian on the time line. Plus its a series, so every character gets its time on screen. I don't know if the rest of the series is doing good (yet) but be sure to take an hour to watch the pilot. Or you can skip to season 2, as it's been said that every season would have a new cast and story. That would prevent the thing to grow boring for too long.
Surprisingly enough, I was looking forward to see this movie, as I thought watching Mel Gibson be something else on screen than a hero could be nice, for once. Well, I was right. Mel gives a really convincing performance doing the man-having- everything-but-what-he-truly-needs going through a recovery that just cannot leave him, his relatives and the viewer unharmed at the end of the flick. The story also focuses on the way his son tries all he can to avoid becoming like him, and his own discover of the f*cked-up way life takes sometimes, concretizing the Great Motto "Shit Happens" through his teenage relations & the unavoidable trans-generational psycho- genealogy, when coming to deal with identity—one's or another's.
Jodie Foster did a pretty nice job directing this flick, the photography & directing making slowly fading Mel for the Beaver, without transferring any sympathy to the puppet and keeping the character on the edge of recovery and/or a deeper failure for the whole movie. The viewer gets easily sucked in, considering the common of the situation & the fact that depression can really go so far, and even though the teenager part is highly predictable the rhythm makes it stable and enjoyable. Good acting performances, good directing, good story, a more than good movie.
Jodie Foster did a pretty nice job directing this flick, the photography & directing making slowly fading Mel for the Beaver, without transferring any sympathy to the puppet and keeping the character on the edge of recovery and/or a deeper failure for the whole movie. The viewer gets easily sucked in, considering the common of the situation & the fact that depression can really go so far, and even though the teenager part is highly predictable the rhythm makes it stable and enjoyable. Good acting performances, good directing, good story, a more than good movie.