Total Recall (30th Anniversary) [4K + Blu-ray + Digital] [4K UHD]

Fantastic disk! Great movie. If you are an Arnold fan, this is a must.

Great movie, plays fine

I say this a lot but this film is a must watch, full of twist and turns; they don't make them like this anymore.

I am still upgrading SOME blu-rays to 4K when it warrants one. Total Recall has always been rough on BD while the film itself is still a original classic.I'll get right to the main point. I popped this in on my correctly calibrated 65" LG 4K HDR/DV TV - and my initial impression was that it looked like Total Recall as I had known it - only on a 4K disc! It still had a grainy, dry and a kind of dark look to it and I felt 'this is why it came out at $15!' I was not too happy and not too disappointed. Then I remembered that this might be in Dolby Vision, so I switched it to DV - and THEN it opened the picture quality up!I guess this was mastered in DV because this title was one of VERY few DV titles that when switched to the DV version - there was a CLEAR difference in presentation! Other titles did not show such dramatic differences like this one did. The picture had gone from darker - to brighter. Colors had gone from muted and almost monotone - to popping with more distinction and impact. Detail had gone from BD quality - to a 4K arena picture! It still had that late 80's/early 90's 'dry' and more muted look, but the DV brought out more of the picture in every respect.The Mars scenes and the reds looked far richer than in HDR. I really did not pay attention to blacks, but since I had noticed a problem, it must have been pretty good for the picture. Detail was strong but grain was onto everything. Make no mistake, the film does look like a 30 year old film, although films far older look newer...The story and film are still great, but the tech no longer holds up for a film that takes place in 2084 and we are now going into 2021. Of course, the first old tech that stands out are the tube TV's! I know it is hard to guess (even though they should have guessed flat screen, as 16:9 screen were around then) things in the future, but if they would have guessed flat screen and 4K like Star Trek did - this film would not look as dated now. The picture quality on the screens with the scan lines also make it look dated, as do the cars. They tried.The sound is better than I recalled and it is in actually surround sound. Maybe I still don't have my Atmos speakers hooked up right (although the DV test played correctly...), but any Atmos effects that I heard sounded kind of matrixed and not distinct. I do not recall hearing Atmos from the rear, but I had a little 'bubble' in my ear at the time, but popped it out half way in, but I still heard nothing. Overall, the sound did very well in separating it from that 'dry, overblown bass' of the late 80's and early 90's films. Most from that era (unless of the largest budgets) just sound like that, which takes away from the experience.If this is as good as it gets - then you must get it. If they can do better, then I would wait. I WOULD wait if you do not have a Dolby Vision setup because that is the only way that this film looks good enough to satisfy me. Also, watching this was like watching the Twilight Zone of my real life! I recall (!) when this was the biggest thing out and Arnold was on a roll. The effects at the time were mind blowing and this was on cable so many times. It is weird how one minute Arnold is on top and this film and Ticotin were hot, then next - THIRTY-ONE years pass by and you realize that you are far removed from a teen, and that the next 30 years - won't be good! lol.

I've seen the new one and it just doesn't beat the original staring good old Arnold! The story is good; the twists and turns are excellent and the real mystery when answered at the end makes for a more fascinating worth wile ending!

Perfect

"Total Recall," (1990), a sci-fi action thriller set sometime in the future, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's based on "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," a short story by the noted sci fi author Philip K. Dick, was penned for the screen by Ronald Shusett, and was directed by Paul Verhoeven. It boasts a high-quality score by Jerry Goldsmith. And it's as easy to like as its affable, hugely muscular star, who, we know, has gone far in real life, too.The film's set in Mexico City future, and on the famously red planet, Mars, where they've found something worth mining, leading to its colonization from Earth. Unfortunately, however, the planet has no atmosphere, thus no oxygen: all settlers and tourists must stay within an immense dome, and pay the local administration for air. Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, supposedly an ordinary earthly construction worker, though married to the beauteous young Lori (Sharon Stone). But Quaid is actually a recently brainwashed incarnation of Hauser, who was a big man on Mars as an administration spy. Quaid dreams of the red planet, and is so strongly drawn back there that he goes to a firm called Rekall, that implants pleasant memories, of whatever virtual vacation a client might select, in the subject's brain. But Quaid pays extra to virtually vacation as a spy, in cahoots with Melina, the sleazy-demure girl(Rachel Ticotin) he's chosen from the book. Problems arise, and Quaid must beat it back to Mars.Verhoeven is a good action director -- he also gave us "Robocop--" and he's got a down and dirty Dutch touch. Sets are good: neither Mars, nor the city of the future, has too much of a cardboard look. And, in fact, just when things look most spacey, we're wittily, abruptly brought down to earth by something that still looks a lot like present-day Mexico City, to those who know it, or a can of Pepsi, a neon "lite" beer sign, or a sidewalk newspaper vending machine selling "Mars Today," in the familiar red logo of "USA Today." The citizens of Mars' Venusville, and its physical appearance, are spicy hot hot hot. The dialogue is witty -- Schwarzenegger gets off a couple of his famous one-liners, including "Consider this a divorce." The plot's good, and quick, satisfyingly complex, and has quite a few witty moments, too.Schwarzenegger receives strong backing from an athletic young Stone as his wife,and Latina Ticotin as the sleazy-demure other woman: they're quite likely the best parts either woman ever had. The supporting players are solid. That European hand of director Verhoeven is frequently evident. There's a lot more blood, sweat, and spit than we're used to seeing in movies, and a closer look is taken, for example, at some dying goldfish, than we're accustomed to. (Quite possibly, closer than we would prefer.)Verhoeven, unhappily, lets his special effects get the best of him in the film's last few minutes: they have a "Grand Guignol" quality not to everyone's taste. But it's an entertaining, interesting movie up until then.

Vintage and Classic Sharon Stone and Arnold, in 4K and very clean. This at the time was epic, and I love watching it even now. Today it is a superb Saturday Matinee, an the price for the 4K disk WITH digital download was cheaper then seeing it just one. When I need this in my SCI FI library, I grab it. Running Man was similarIs this Golden Globe caliber? No. Who cares? It is a great movioe, fun to watch, and the kids love it. Anyway, most of the Academy Award and Golden Globe movies nobody ever sees anyway. (Look at the top 100 movies and this will be verified).