Parents' Guide to

Total Recall (2012)

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Remake is better looking, less violent, less thoughtful.

Movie PG-13 2012 118 minutes
Total Recall (2012) Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 10 parent reviews

age 11+

This title has:

Too much swearing
age 10+

Wow Nudity!

Shows 3 breasts, watch out!

This title has:

Too much sex

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (10):
Kids say (36):

Paul Verhoeven's original 1990 Total Recall was cartoonish, with over-the-top violence; Len Wiseman's remake improves on it in many ways, though in other ways, it's slightly inferior. To start, Farrell is much better suited to convey Quaid/Hauser's intense emotional ordeal than Arnold Schwarzenegger was. And Wiseman creates a great-looking universe that combines previous Philip K. Dick adaptations: the rainy, mash-up feel of Blade Runner and the high-tech computer age of Minority Report. The overall look is smoother.

The martial arts action in this take on TOTAL RECALL is more streamlined and less mean and crude than in the Verhoeven version, but it's arguably less fun as well. And though the newer movie feels current in terms of its themes of corporate greed and the "Occupy" movement, it also irons out any of Dick's original sci-fi ideas, and it doesn't seem to have a particularly good reason to exist. If only we could have combined the best parts of both!

Movie Details

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