video review : Total Recall

video review : Total Recall

Douglas Quaid’s wife is hot, especially when she’s fighting up a sweat. He loses her, along with the normal life he thought he had, after going to Rekall, a corporation that sells fake vacation memories via brain implants. He chooses the Mars trip with the option of being a “secret agent”.

Things go wrong immediately and that’s when the adventure begins. It’s also when the confusion begins as Quaid tries to determine what’s real and what isn’t. The plot sometimes lapses to trite; the hero is prone to corny one-liners; but Total Recall is ultimately a trip that’s both fun and memorable.

my rating : 4 of 5

1990

video review : Falling Down

video review : Falling Down

The most interesting character here is an Army-Navy store owner who also happens to be a sexist racist neo-Nazi. “I’m your friend”, he says to the movie’s actual bad guy, but Bill Foster doesn’t want a friend. He just wants to go home to his wife and kid. The problem is that he’s divorced and the wife has a restraining order against him. He was an abusive husband, she suggests to police, and a nut. His breaking point comes when he gets stuck in a traffic jam one hot day.

From there, the former Notec worker abandons his car and goes on a one-man rampage on his way back “home”. The violent outbursts he lets loose when confronted with even the most minor of annoyances from the people he encounters along the way; his rage is often laced with socio-political rants; serve as an action-packed plot device. It’s the overall believability factor; some of the things he and other characters say or do are over the top; that goes against it.

my rating : 3 of 5

1993