By Frank Lovece

Special to the Record

*V2
IoTAL aECALL: Direled bv Paul
\&rhoeven. Scrcenplay by Ronald sh$eli and Dan OBannon and and C/BanGary Goldmin; scren slorv bv Shusell non and Js PovilL lnspired bv lhe shorl slolv "!iib K. Phillip You wholesald' bv Can Rmember ll lor Dick. Ediled by Frank J. Uricfe. Pholograph?d b't, Slarring Jerrv Goldsmith. Jo3I Vac.no. Music tv Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael lronside. Produced bv Buzz Feithans and Ronald Shuselt. TrFSlar Pictures. 109 minules. Ratd R. Opens locallv todav.

Arnold Schwarzenegger knows movies: If he couldn't get futuristic

"The Running Man" - and he just have to try didn't - then he'd again with "Total Recall." And damed if he didn't do better this time, with this 2lst-century tale of high-tech espionage on colonized Mars. Bettet' but not perfect'
Schwarzenegger has learned bY now to hook up with a world-class direcior on the way up, like James

sbience-fiation down Pat with

Arnold Sclwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin,

Sharon

xriitii

has an implant - he's been to Mars, but his memory of it has been wiped out by some mYsterious

'Cameron ("Aliens") on "The

This discovery leads

and.his mother
erybody and his wife

"Agency."

'

Terminator" and John McTiernan ("Die Hard") on "Predator.'l This time around, thd established Paul
Verhoeven,

hot from "Robocop,"

must have seemed an even safer bet. Yet while "Total Recall" is a rollicking amusement - a rollercoaster ride through a house of mirrors - it suffers from a nearcomplete lack of credibly hunan characters. What we endup with is just a slam-ban6 excitinggarre of
chess.

- to trY and capture him. Leading the pursuers is Richter (Michael Ironside), for whom the motivation is more personal thari professional. The perplexed Quaid winds uP on Mars, where he meets the brunette of his dreams (Rachel Ticotin),
kill or
.

everybodY or, literallY, ev-

and where an astonishing house.of games unfolds as he and the rebel underground find out who he was

*ffi *iffi
Arnold Schwarzenegger lights tremendous winds
tossed ofr by a sleazy salesman). Not surprisingly, the villains are nyah-hah-hah villainous, with Cox

The lead pawn is Doug Quaid

(Schwarzenegger),

and why the secrets hidden in his brain are so valuable and devastating.

worker married

to a

a construction

beautiful

That the characters throughout

blonde (Sharon Stone). Quaid has recuriing nightmares about q brunette on Mars - which has been coloniaed for its abundant mineral deposits, and where rebels want to

all this are more cardboard than

flesh doesn't detract from Verhoeven's rocket-sled pace and imagination; the guy could stage a great chase scene in a shower stall. He creates a "Perils of Pauline" cliff-

along with nefalious villains

in "Total Recall.

and spaceships are especially

cheesy, and thc matting, particularly in a scene where Quaid rides a Martian (model) train, shows itg

oVerfhrow'mining czar Cohaagen

(Ronny Cox). There are brief alluio South Africa - and Co"iotts ,haagen's'name doeB sound Afribut social commentary kaans - the windpw about the goes out
same time Arnold does. a memory center, where visions

This happens after Quaid visits

of

virtually reprising his corporate fascisi hom "Robdcop." Shtiron substituting for the traditional Stone, unfortunately, is a James buzz saw. Anyone who loved Bond girl outside a James Bond "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for its movie, rrnd her romantic scene old'movie homages will like "To' with Schwarzenegger is hilariously tal Recall" for the same reason * wooden on both their parts. Hilariously wooden also dethough the'movie goes too far in
hanger feel,
es-

all hair-trigger

hours up to the antielimactic ending. But unlike "The ?ermiRator," "Robocop," or other great recent
.s

eapqs, with "fututistic earth.borers

seams.

And Industrial Light &

ci,sn.ce;fictio n" as.ti,o{!,''fliokvr*'' there's no compelling theme to

Magic's stan4ard dramatic:5ilowing-cloudscape is really old by now. Considering the endless

make "T.o.tgl, Recall" anything

more than an entertaining

throwaway.

money reportedly spent on this movie, the special effects could

have been a

a two-week vacation can be im,platted in one'g brain without the

iirss and bother:of actually going anywhere. It seems Quaid alreadY

swiping Peter Weller's famous signature line from "The Adventureg of Buckaroo Banzai" ("No matter where you go, there you are," here

seribes the Martian sets and vehi-

cles, which look barely nroie real tnan in some of the 6efi.er !950s sci-fi flicks. The model landscapes

little more special. Same with the story. A lot of clever stuff goes, on, - some delicious plot twists, some hype gadgetry and it's a breezy couple of

direction. And maybe in Schwarzenegger's next futuristic sciencenctiiii nm; rh6 third time wiil be the charrn.

nothingness of "The Running Man," that's a step in the right

Then again, after the numbing