Total Recall (tbc)

It's The Future, and Arnie's a Johnny Lunchbox construction worker on an Earth with hologram TVs and slightly more neon. Restless, he signs up with a virtual vacation firm, which projects a customised scenario into his brain: he's a spy who takes a secret trip to Mars to meet a (specified) "athletic, sleazy and demure" lady-friend (Rachel Ticotin). Turns out Mars is ruled by a cruel dictator (Ronny Cox) and Arnie is soon embroiled in a high body-count, reality/fantasy-blurring adventure.

DVD Extras:

The big news is that the highly anticipated Schwarzenegger/Paul Verhoeven co-commentary significantly fails to live up to its billing. Arnie gabbles out basic plot explanations, while his director gets tangled up in the minutiae of Ronald Shusett's labyrinthine screenplay. A second yak-track by cinematographer Jost Vacano is more insightful, if less than gripping. The saving grace is Imagining Total Recall, a 30-minute retrospective documenting the movie's turbulent history. Here, we're offered tantalising glimpses of alternate Total Recalls - including one with Patrick Swayze as the lead. An ancient Making Of, trailers, storyboards, a documentary about space exploration, another about sci-fi literature and a batch of concept art act as the steroids artificially beefing-up this superficially muscular Special Edition.

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