Total Recall Reviews

More or less serviceable action thriller with some nice ideas for visual set pieces, but did it really have to be as long as it is?

Full Review

Messing with memories is how you forget that a better version of Total Recall happened 22 years ago.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

If there had never been an 'original' Total Recall, the reaction to Wiseman's version would surely have been a lot less frosty. Because in and of itself, it's a decent enough sci-fi action flick - severely flawed, but a lot of fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

Visually, the 2012 remake is better than the original, with interesting set and background designs, decent enough futuristic vehicles, and superb special effects. The plot is another story.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

Wiseman makes mildly pretty films, full of blues and grays and lens flares, but they're the definition of bland.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

[D]irector Len Underworld Wiseman's least hacktackular movie yet, which isn't to say that it's quality entertainment, but it is some solid B-grade processed-cheese-product movie junk food.

Full Review

While far from terrible, this retread forgoes any qualities to justify its existence in the first place. It will be justly forgotten before long.

| Original Score: 2/4

A remake that's well-worth missing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

This new version of Total Recall is the cinematic equivalent of a vibrator: it is whirling, sleek, shiny and utterly artificial, yet it gets you where you need to go.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A bright and shiny slice of blockbuster sci-fi that's so dazzling it makes tender love to your retinas but so underwhelming it practically wipes itself from your memory the instant it's over.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Delivers a serviceable piece of updated movie product.

Full Review | Original Score: B

Enough visual spectacle to make viewers wish they had three eyeballs but thin characters and a convoluted story ultimately undermine Wiseman's successes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Total Recall is it's own beast - one that needs to be caged off and held at arm's length. It is a mess, a wasteful rethink that was never needed and lousy movie at worst.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5

"Total Recall" is a totally unnecessary remake of a moderately amusing sci-fi thriller from 1990. The 2012 version starring Colin Farrell is about as memorable as yesterday's lunch.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

Engaging visual effects don't make up for a banal script and paper-thin characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Total Recall is nothing more than a lazy, dull, soulless studio effort wrapped up in an enticing sci-fi landscape.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/10

What we end up with is a forgettable, monotonous reimagining that was wholly unnecessary.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

A sci-fi action movie that wears its influences loudly, what Total Recall lacks in originality it makes up in its brooding tech-world action noir spectacle.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Recall the original.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10

Director Wiseman invests this sci-fi action remake with plenty of visual whizzery even as he seems to miss the point of the story

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5