Total Recall (2012)
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: August 3, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
25
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 2, 2012
The richly constructed first hour is so superior to any feat of sci-fi speculation since "Minority Report" that the bland aftertaste of the chase finale is quickly forgotten. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 1, 2012
Farrell's diction is a noticeable upgrade from Schwarzenegger's but there's also his superior portrayal of sweaty apprehension and killer instinct. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 1, 2012
Total Recall is well-crafted, high energy sci-fi. Like all stories inspired by Philip K. Dick, it deals with intriguing ideas. It never touched me emotionally, though, the way the 1990 film did, and strictly speaking, isn't necessary. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 2, 2012
Total Recall is a doggone good time, with a bunch of nifty technical and visual flourishes, competently managed plot twists and elegant, Wachowski-esque action choreography that eventually becomes deadening because there's just too much of it and it's dialed up too high. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 3, 2012
Director Len Wiseman is good on action, and Patrick Tatopoulus's dystopic production design is within hailing distance of "Blade Runner," his chief influence. But essentially this is a big-screen video game. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellAug 2, 2012
Wiseman's PG-13 remake isn't as funny, or vivid, or splatter-tastic. It contains no mutants, inflating heads, trips to Mars, or freaky little psychic dudes named "Kuato" emerging from people's stomachs. But it does a decent job setting up an unsubtle dystopia. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenAug 2, 2012
Today's Total Recall does nothing to tarnish the image of yesterday's – 22 years from now, I expect it to be hailed as a classic. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 2, 2012
Strip away the video-game visual effects, the endless chases and zero gravity shootouts, and Total Recall comes down to this: What is reality? Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 2, 2012
The movie marches in predictable formations as well. But when Biel's rebel pulls over in her hover car and asks Farrell if he'd like a ride, your heart may sing as mine did. Read full review
60
Time OutA. A. DowdAug 5, 2012
Wiseman's Total reboot won't betray your fond memories of its iconic predecessor. But those hoping for a real head trip - a truly cerebral Dick adaptation - will have to keep waiting. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweAug 2, 2012
The outcome is engaging enough, although not entirely satisfying from either a genre or narrative standpoint, lacking both substance and a degree of imagination. Read full review
55
MovielineAllison WillmoreAug 2, 2012
The two films have the same underlying bone structure, sure, but this new Total Recall is made of more serious, more humorless stuff. It looks simultaneously lavish and interchangeable in its explosions and shoot-em-ups with a dozen other recent action movies, and in its sci-fi stylings with a dozen others in the genre. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsAug 6, 2012
Set in a high-tech yet shabby future, the remake of Total Recall is a fully realized piece of production design. But its script, credited to six authors, is more like a preliminary sketch. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliAug 2, 2012
For all of its dazzlingly rendered cityscapes and nonstop action, this revamped Total Recall is a bland thing - bloodless, airless, humorless, featureless. With or without the triple-bosomed prostitute. Read full review
50
Washington PostJen ChaneyAug 2, 2012
So what makes this 2012 Total Recall superior to the Arnie model? For starters, there's an actual actor in the starring role. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 2, 2012
Instead of drawing the audience in, the action scenes merely blur together. And the intriguing, thoughtful concepts at the story's core are glossed over. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 2, 2012
The only laugh to be had in Total Recall, a ripsnorting sci-fi action extravaganza that starts well and works its way down to average, is in the opening credits, where we learn that the movie's primary production company is called Original Film. Really? Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 2, 2012
This one is somberly kinetic and joyless. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissAug 2, 2012
The new PG-13 movie is a fairly close adaptation of the Verhoeven, and lacks not just the earlier film's newness but its vigor, density, humor and R-rated juice. It's like the dinner-theater revival of a classic play, whose single asset is to remind those present how good the original was. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 2, 2012
I rarely pinpoint the exact moment when a promising action movie turns into a pulpy, asinine mess, but I can do that with Total Recall. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangAug 2, 2012
Crazy new gadgets, vigorous action sequences and a thorough production-design makeover aren't enough to keep Total Recall from feeling like a near-total redundancy. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 1, 2012
This Total Recall is fast, furious, and frequently confusing fun, but to be completely honest, it lacks the snappy, weirdo vibe of its predecessor. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 1, 2012
The biggest flaw of the 1990 Total Recall was how disappointingly banal the endgame was. Wiseman adds some special effects and Michael Bay-style pyrotechnics, but the result is similar. It's doubly deflating because one of the great advantages of remaking a movie is being given the opportunity to correct problems - something not attempted here. Read full review
42
The PlaylistTodd GilchristAug 2, 2012
A pastiche of almost too many movies to count as a remake of just one, Total Recall is mindless, middling fare that fails to utilize – much less expand – the provocative concepts at the core of its iconic 1990 predecessor. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasAug 1, 2012
Wiseman's Total Recall isn't intellectualized like "Blade Runner," or even that much more sophisticated than his "Underworld" movies. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 1, 2012
It's a bit of a flavourless CGI-fest, without the character and comedy of the Arnie version, and it never really gets to grips with the idea of "reality" as a slippery, malleable concept. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 27, 2012
Perhaps no more absurd than the Verhoeven version, but certainly less amusing. Farrell and Beckinsale emerge unscathed, but the endless scrabbling for novelty and reinvention leaves this feeling unaccountably stale and familiar. Read full review
40
Total FilmRob JamesAug 17, 2012
Entertaining in small doses, but gruelling at two hours, Wiseman's derivative, spec-hackular upgrade bins the twisted wit and meaty thrills of the Arnie original. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 3, 2012
There isn't anything in this Total Recall to match the immortal Arnold Schwarzenegger send-offs, "See you at the pah-ty" and everyone's favorite alimony killer, "Consider this a divorce." Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 2, 2012
Like a drug that starts with a rush and ends with a headache, Total Recall is too much of a good thing. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 2, 2012
This premise contains the seeds of an interesting economic and political allegory, but the ambitions of the filmmakers - lie in the direction of maximum noise and minimum sense. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineKate ErblandAug 2, 2012
Hardcore genre fans will likely be quite disappointed to find a film that trades vision and originality for something best described as bland and inoffensive. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 2, 2012
There's a lot of eye candy in what ends up being a slick, breathless and at-times enjoyable sci-fi update. Unfortunately, it's what Wiseman forgets to do that makes the biggest difference in his film -- and which keeps it from becoming much more than a glossy missed opportunity. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 1, 2012
It's big and it's loud, but ultimately not much more than that. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithAug 3, 2012
As for a villain, you could do worse than Bryan Cranston as the evil political overlord who is trying to stamp out the resistance -- When he goes mano a mano with Farrell, it's not spine-tingling. It's embarrassing, like watching a dude beat up his dad. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJohn SemleyAug 1, 2012
Len Wiseman's Total Recall's a trifling mess, as superfluous as a third breast. Read full review
30
Village VoiceChris PackhamAug 5, 2012
Where Paul Verhoeven's original was testosterone-stupid and, therefore, fun, Wiseman's film is just boring-stupid. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 2, 2012
The remake has no grace notes, or grace, no nuance, no humanity, no character quirks, no surprises in the dialogue and no humor. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie OgleAug 2, 2012
The new Total Recall fails on the most basic levels: Its characters are dull, and its action is duller. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 2, 2012
Since the new Recall is totally witless, don't expect laughs. Originality and coherence are also notably MIA. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 2, 2012
There's something sadly poetic about a movie dealing with disappearing memories that vanishes from your mind while you watch it. Read full review
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