Someone tell Hollywood studios to stop remaking Paul Verhoeven’s American films. (If they Really I want to do one of his secular European offerings again, however, I’d be almost morbidly curious to see their take Her Queer Nun drama “Benedetta.) Just look at 2014’s “RoboCop,” a tale that lacks both the personality and satirical edge of the Dutch filmmaker’s original sci-fi action classic from 1987. And considering how incisive Verhoeven reworked Robert A. Heinlein’s novel “Starship Troopers” into an ironic cinematic lampoon fascism and militarism, there is no point in renovating this property from an artistic point of view.
2012’s “Total Recall” is just further proof that Verhoeven’s American productions should be left behind. Directed by Len Wiseman (the overseer of the “Underworld” franchise) and credited to screenwriters Kurt Wimmer (“Equilibrium”) and Mark Bomback (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”), the sci-fi action thriller starring Colin Farrell is as polished and carefully packaged as one would expect from a creative team like that. It’s also quite superficial; its action sequences are brilliant but fail to leave a lasting impression, while its characters and themes could use a lot more development. The man, the myth, the legend Roger Ebert himself rated it higher than most other critics, and yet even he wrote in his criticism that he “never touched [him] emotionally,” as Verhoeven’s “Total Recall” did in 1990.
Verhoeven, on the other hand, was less charitable. Speaking during a Q&A session after a screening of his own “Total Recall” in 2012 (via ScreenRant), the filmmaker claimed that one of the remake’s producers called his original version “cheesy or something”, adding that Farrell (again, allegedly) called it “kitsch” in an interview. “So I dare say his version was not good,” Verhoeven explained.
Why Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall is better than the remake
In its defense, 2012’s “Total Recall” is not a paint-by-numbers rehearsal. Moreover, Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 film differs considerably from its own source material, namely Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story “We Can Remember It for You Basically.” Their main point in common? They all start with an average Joe named Douglas (Douglas Quaid in the “Total Recall” films but Douglas Quail in Dick’s story) deciding to have false memories implanted in his brain in a future where this is actually possible. Except it turns out that these “fantasies” are based on real memories that have been erased from Douglas’s mind. Or are they?
Both iterations of “Total Recall,” like Dick’s story, examine how the version of ourselves we present to the world can differ from who we “really” are, so much so that it becomes not only difficult but dangerous not to recognize the difference. This is where Verhoeven’s film has a big advantage over the remake: because Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid here and his grand adventure contains many of the same elements as your average cinematic power fantasy starring the Austrian Oak, the film as a whole is as much a meta-commentary on itself as it is a straight genre film. The reboot just doesn’t have that extra layer of meaning.
Additionally, like 2014’s “RoboCop,” 2012’s “Total Recall” comes across as bland and generic compared to Verhoeven’s crackpot artistry. The original film explores corporate tyranny and oppression from a fantastical vision of Mars populated by mutating social classes, brought to life by imaginative production design. and incredible non-CGI effects. However, with its Earth-based storyline and grounded dystopian setting, the “Total Recall” reboot is “realistic” to a fault. Who would dream of something like that?