Total Recall

As promised by last week’s trailer for the trailer, here is the actual trailer for Len Wiseman’s remake of Total Recall, which comes on like its own sudden rush of vaguely familiar memories. Much of the preview feels like a shadow version of Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 film, in fact, with slight glitches in the playback: The glimpses of Colin Farrell’s home life with Kate Beckinsale, conversations about “messing with your mind” with his drinking buddy, the look of the Rekall chair, and Farrell crashing through a security checkpoint all seem lifted nearly verbatim from the Schwarzenegger film. But then a blond John Cho shows up, some Mass Effect soldiers storm in, and the whole thing skitters off into a futuristic, flying-car-addled play on The Bourne Identity, with the soundtrack’s incessant bwaaaaaaamp-ing adding yet another layer of warmed-over repetition. The brief glimpse of a villainous Bryan Cranston—and complete lack of Mars, thrice-breasted women, stomach-mutants, and a sense of humor—provide some argument that this is a totally new take on Philip K. Dick’s story, but you’ll probably get the strange feeling that you’ve been here before.