What I'm watching

Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.

5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.

4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.

3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.

2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.

1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.

0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.

As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.

Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.

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#410/#127 Total Recall (2012) Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) is a factory worker looking for a little more out of life. Living in the slums of the Colony (formally Australia) and commuting, via a giant gravity lift through the centre of the planet, to the super rich United Federation of Britain day in and day out isn’t what he imagined for himself. Deciding to have a little fun he visits Rekall, a company which can give you any memory you want. There however, he seemingly trips some dormant memory to a hidden past life as a government spy turned traitor and quickly finds himself being hunted down by the authorities, the woman he thought was his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and a woman (Jessica Biel) he’s been having mysterious dreams about recently. I have seen the 1990 version of Total Recall but I have no real attachment to it personally. It’s a fun Arnold Schwarzenegger film with an interesting sci-fi premise but it was never a film I felt the need to see more than once or over analysis past that initial viewing. I honestly couldn’t remember a great deal of it coming into this remake. It’s enjoyable enough but I’ve no knee-jerk reaction against the 2012 movie just for existing the way some will have. I thought this was a fairly well done remake. It pays tribute to the original and the source material from Philip K Dick, but it manages to put its own take on the story. Farrell’s a believably out of place regular guy as Quaid and it’s enjoyable to watch his progress through these series of events. Beckinsale is also in top form, playing one of her better roles, and pulls off the dedicated uber assassin really well. Biel was also fine but could have been played by anyone.The CGI, set dressing, costumes, stunts and effects were all also top notch helping to bring this world to life. That all said, there’s nothing really which stands out about this film. It’s an enjoyable action sci-fi romp but it’s not going to have any lasting impact. It’s a little generic overall and it pulls from a lot of other greater sci-fi franchises. I’ve seen other reviewers saying they got a little bored after a while and, while I personally felt I got my money’s worth, I can see where they could be coming from. It’s a perfectly enjoyable movie and a fine companion to the 1990 film, but I don’t see it blowing anyone’s mind. 3.5/5

#410/#127 Total Recall (2012)

Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) is a factory worker looking for a little more out of life. Living in the slums of the Colony (formally Australia) and commuting, via a giant gravity lift through the centre of the planet, to the super rich United Federation of Britain day in and day out isn’t what he imagined for himself. Deciding to have a little fun he visits Rekall, a company which can give you any memory you want. There however, he seemingly trips some dormant memory to a hidden past life as a government spy turned traitor and quickly finds himself being hunted down by the authorities, the woman he thought was his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and a woman (Jessica Biel) he’s been having mysterious dreams about recently.

I have seen the 1990 version of Total Recall but I have no real attachment to it personally. It’s a fun Arnold Schwarzenegger film with an interesting sci-fi premise but it was never a film I felt the need to see more than once or over analysis past that initial viewing. I honestly couldn’t remember a great deal of it coming into this remake. It’s enjoyable enough but I’ve no knee-jerk reaction against the 2012 movie just for existing the way some will have.

I thought this was a fairly well done remake. It pays tribute to the original and the source material from Philip K Dick, but it manages to put its own take on the story. Farrell’s a believably out of place regular guy as Quaid and it’s enjoyable to watch his progress through these series of events. Beckinsale is also in top form, playing one of her better roles, and pulls off the dedicated uber assassin really well. Biel was also fine but could have been played by anyone.The CGI, set dressing, costumes, stunts and effects were all also top notch helping to bring this world to life.

That all said, there’s nothing really which stands out about this film. It’s an enjoyable action sci-fi romp but it’s not going to have any lasting impact. It’s a little generic overall and it pulls from a lot of other greater sci-fi franchises. I’ve seen other reviewers saying they got a little bored after a while and, while I personally felt I got my money’s worth, I can see where they could be coming from.

It’s a perfectly enjoyable movie and a fine companion to the 1990 film, but I don’t see it blowing anyone’s mind. 3.5/5

  1. leezy2 posted this