Total Recall Movie Review

It’s funny sometimes to revisit a twenty year old film that had groundbreaking visual effects for its day. In some cases (Terminator 2: Judgment Day comes to mind) the effects look about as good as anything today. More often than not, however, they look more like Total Recall There’s plenty to admire in Paul Verhoeven’s science fiction futuristic mind-bender if you can ignore what looks like cheesy B-movie effects. Then again, that B-movie look is somehow more fitting for the movie. After all, its story is the stuff of classic B-movie science fiction.

25 Years Ago This Month: April 1987

The Police Academy franchise continued in April 1987 with the fourth installment, subtitled Citizens on Patrol. Each film in the series earned less at the box office than the previous chapter leading me to wonder how they went on to make parts 5, 6, and 7. The only actor who could reasonably be called a star in the entire series is Steve Guttenberg and he bowed out after the third film. Everyone else was famous for nothing other than their roles in this lifeless, flaccid, completely unfunny comedy series. David Spade made his film debut here as one of the titular citizen police officers. Sharon Stone also makes an early film appearance.

25 Years Ago This Month: January 1987

The January doldrums. Studios traditionally hold back their best films for December to qualify for year end awards season and then dump their garbage in the first month of the year. It seems 25 years ago was hardly any different. The most surprising thing is that Woody Allen's Radio Days saw a January release and then managed to earn two Oscar nominations a full year later. Apart from the Allen highbrow fare there was a cheap comedy, a cheap teen comedy, two cheap horror/thrillers, and a cheap adventure film desperately trying to capitalize on the success of Indiana Jones.