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Total Recall (2012), a review by Dragonfire

Total Recall (2012)



This is a remake of the 1990 movie.  I tend to keep an open mind about remakes and I have ended up enjoying some.  I know some people automatically dismiss remakes as being bad.  I don't do that.  I went to see this one yesterday morning - Friday - and I really enjoyed it. 

The basic plot is similar to the original movie, with Doug having a dream over and over and feeling dissatisfied with things.  He ends up at a place called Rekall, where fake memories are implanted in a person's mind.  Before the procedure is done on Doug, an armed SWAT team arrives, killing the employees.  Doug kills the entire team and escapes, something that surprises him.  When he tells his wife Lori what happened, she tries to kill him.  She ends up sharing that they aren't really married and she is there to watch over him and make sure he doesn't remember who he really is.  Doug gets away again and sets out to figure out who he really is.  Along the way, he encounters Malina, the woman from his dream.  The big difference is that Mars doesn't play a part in the story this time.  That didn't bother me at all.  The way the plot is changed works really well, and while some things are still predictable, that doesn't make the movie less entertaining.  Lori is the main person chasing after Doug, something else that is different.  I like that change.  She kicks serious ass and is not a person you want after you.

There is a lot of action in the movie and it is done well.  The effects are done well too, with some really cool looking things.  I like the look of the locations and futuristic things in the movie.  I did not like all the lens flare that was used. It was distracting at best and downright annoying the more it was used.  The movie is violent, though not too graphic or extreme.  The movie is rated PG-13, and really not a child friendly movie.  There is a woman with 3 breasts again, and they are shown briefly.

The characters are interesting, though they all could have been developed a bit more.  Lori isn't exactly a villain, but she isn't really likable either.  She does work well for the movie.  I like the casting of Beckinsale, Biel, and Farrell and think they all did well with their parts. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and think it is worth checking out.

I rounded up to 4 from 3.5 since I can't use 3.5 at epinions. 



I did get a review posted there if anyone wants to take a look.

Total Recall (2012)






(From Total Recall (2012) on August 5th, 2012)

Zombie Night, a review by addicted2dvd

Zombie Night: Unrated Version (2013/United States) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | The Asylum Home Entertainment Director: John Gulager Writing: Richard Schenkman (Story By), Keith Allan (Writer), Delondra Williams (Writer) Length: 88 min. Rating: Unrated Video: Widescreen 1.78:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 5.1 Subtitles: None

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Stars:
Anthony Michael Hall as Patrick
Daryl Hannah as Birdy
Alan Ruck as Joseph
Rachel G. Fox as Tracie Jackson
Shirley Jones as Nana
Jennifer Taylor as Karin

Plot:
As night falls in a small California town, the dead rise from its graves, mausoleums, and morgues. The townspeople must fight to survive until sunrise.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Feature Trailers
• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• Outtakes/Bloopers

This is actually a TV movie that originally aired this past year on the SyFy Channel. The first thing I notice is... Damn! there is a lot of trailers you have to get through before you can even get to the main menu! I don't mind trailers before the menu,,, but they shouldn't disable the menu button to easily bypass them if you choose to do so. It did allow you to hit next to skip the currently playing trialer... but that was it... and you couldn't skip the final trailer at all.

As for the movie itself... being a SyFy Original Film... I went into it with lowered expectations... as some of their movies can be rather cheesy. And it was probably a good thing I did so... I must say.. after finally finishing off the latest season of The Walking Dead... this one is a bit of a let down when it comes to zombie fun. I won't go so far to say this is a bad movie... but there isn't much here that I haven't seen elsewhere before... and the zombies themselves need a bit of work. Basically the best I can give this is an average film. I could see myself watching it again so will keep it in my collection. Though it isn't one I would watch often.



(From Monday Mini-Thon: Blu-Day on April 7th, 2014)

Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison, a review by Tom

04. Pursuit

- death gods in the death god realm discuss Ryuk, how he has to stay in the human world until the current owner (Light) dies. And also that Ryuk has two death notes, which is not normal. This means, currently there are at least two death notes in the human world (chapter 3)
- Light refuses Ryuk's death god's eyes deal (chapter 6)
- Ryuk complains about the meaningless of being a death god. Light sees it differently. In his opinion death gods have great effect on the human world. (chapter 5)
- Light tests on inmates how much he can affect the behaviour of this victims with manipulating their cause of death (chapter 6)
- Light finds out the results of his tests through the police files (in his father's files on his computer in the manga, chapter 6)
- Light asks out a girl in his class, because he needs her for his plan to get to know the name of the FBI agent following him (chapter 6)
- they both take a bus, the agent follows them. A criminal, manipulated by the death note, hijacks the bus. Light tricks the FBI agent revealing his name (Raye Pelber). The hijacker dies in an accident when getting of the bus (according to his death note entry)
(chapter 7, end of volume 1 of the manga)

As chance will have it, the first disc (four episodes) of the anime covers exactly the first volume of the manga.
The manga has 12 volumes in total, the anime has 36 episodes.


Movies: About everything of this episode happens in the movie. Main difference is, that in the movies, Light has a girlfriend, who is used here in the bus scene. Even though in the manga it is made clear, that Light does not have girlfriend, because noone is good enough for him, it makes scenes to give him one in the movies. For one thing they don't need to introduce another character for just one scene. Also some discussions with the girlfriend he has in the movies are telling stuff, he only thinks in the manga.


(From Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison on February 1st, 2009)