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Total Recall

Total Recall (1990)

tomatometer

81

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 43
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 8

Under Paul Verhoeven's frenetic direction, Total Recall is a fast-paced rush of violence, gore, and humor that never slacks.

75

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 2

Under Paul Verhoeven's frenetic direction, Total Recall is a fast-paced rush of violence, gore, and humor that never slacks.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 210,981

My Rating

Movie Info

In Paul Verhoeven's wild sci-fi action movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Schwarzenegger learns that he's actually a secret agent who had become a threat to the government, so those in power planted the chip and invented a domestic lifestyle for him. Once he has realized his true identity, he travels to Mars to piece together the rest of his

R, 1 hr. 53 min.

Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Gary Goldman

Aug 29, 2000

Artisan Entertainment

Total Recall Trailer & Photos

More Trailers and Videos (1)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Total Recall

All Critics (43) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (8) | DVD (33)

Total Recall is too much -- but it's too much of a good thing.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The fierce and unrelenting pace, accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek strain of humor in the roughhouse screenplay, keeps the film moving like a juggernaut.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A worthy entry in the dystopian cycle launched by Blade Runner, this seems less derivative than most of its predecessors yet equally accomplished in its straight-ahead storytelling, with plenty of provocative satiric undertones and scenic details.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Melding the ever-more-workable Schwarzenegger mystique with a better-than-average science-fiction premise, the director Paul Verhoeven has come up with a vigorous, superviolent interplanetary thriller that packs in wallops with metronomic regularity.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A gratuitous explosion of vainglory and guts, the movie is all firecrackers and giblets and broken glass. The overall effect is like wading through hospital waste.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Rita Kempley
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Recall is full of the musclebound action that [Schwarzenegger's] fans presumably enjoy. It also means that this Mars-bound movie is violent, nasty and expensive (it cost Tri-Star well over $60 million).

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Overall, the movie's imaginative effects and ideas win the day.

December 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Brilliant but disturbing and violent Schwarzenegger sci-fi.

November 22, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Common Sense Media

An absolutely superb sci-fi film and a true modern cornerstone of the genre not seen since the deeper though less entertaining Blade Runner nearly ten years previous.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | Comment
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons

Not only one of the best films of 1990, it's one of Arnold's finest cinematic accomplishments -- a fireball of a film...still disembowels like a champion.

May 31, 2010 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comment
Brian Orndorf
BrianOrndorf.com

Total Recall is fine entertainment, complete with breathtaking action sequences and special effects that impress even in these computer-generated times.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment
Richard Luck
Film4 Source: Film4

Ugly, stupid, loud, offensive, and pointlessly violent.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comments (14)
TV Guide's Movie Guide

...if you only spoke Martian, you could still follow most of the storyline. (HD-DVD Import Edition)

February 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
John J. Puccio
Movie Metropolis

Say what you will about Verhoeven's penchant for extravagant theatrics, when he's not yanking the arms off people or putting bullets in their forehead, he tells a good story.

February 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comments (2)
John J. Puccio
Movie Metropolis

The future doesn't come any better.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
Geoff Andrew
Time Out Source: Time Out

...people are allowed to change their minds

July 10, 2005 Full Review | Comment
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Thought-provoking, flashy, and FULL of action!

April 17, 2005 Comment
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

Oh for the days when Verhoeven was still in Holland.

November 24, 2003 Comment (1)
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Total Recall

View All

It may not be the greatest science fiction film of all time, but "Total Recall" is the type of movie that you can sit back, relax and enjoy at any time, given that it can appeal to many audience members who are willing to witness a gory good time. When this film begins, Doug Quaid (Schwarzenegger) is deciding whether

October 3, 2010
KJ Proulx
KJ Proulx

Super Reviewer

Worth it to see the famed space hooker with three tits.

April 15, 2012
Joe McCall
Joe McCall

Super Reviewer

Total Recall Quotes

View All

    1. Doug Quaid: Consider this a divorce.
    – Submitted by Danny S (16 days ago)
    1. Doug Quaid: [laughs] Did you think this is the real Doug Quaid? It is.
    – Submitted by Danny S (4 months ago)
    1. Doug Quaid: Now, this is the plan. Get your ass to Mars.
    – Submitted by Andrew B (6 months ago)
    1. Doug Quaid: See you at the party, Richter!
    – Submitted by Dominic H (6 months ago)
    1. Lori Quaid: Doug, honey... you wouldn't hurt me, would you, sweetheart? Sweetheart, be reasonable. After all, we're married! [Lori goes for her gun, Quaid shoots her in the head, killing her]
    2. Doug Quaid: Consider that a divorce!
    – Submitted by Gavin S (9 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Total Recall (1990) (DE)
  • Total Recall (1990) (UK)
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