Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Recall, a company who manufacture memories. Something goes wrong during his memory implant turning Doug's life upside down and even to question what is reality and what isn't.
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.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
The future doesn't come any better.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
fresh:
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.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
1 Mar 2007
fresh:
Total Recall is too much -- but it's too much of a good thing.
– Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly,
6 Jul 2010
fresh:
It's not a masterpiece, but it is a fast-moving thriller, one worth revisiting (and, evidently, remaking).