Classic Movie Picks: January 2013

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Tuesdays in January: Great Capers
A month of bank jobs, jewel heists, and art thefts! This is one of my favorite film genres; I just love watching the gang assemble and layout a plan, then seeing how it all plays out. The films range from clever comedies like The Pink Panther (1/1) and The Lavender Hill Mob (1/29) to gritty noirs like Rififi (1/1) and Bob le Flambeur (1/8). As a fan of the genre, I've seen quite a few caper movies; however, about half the titles in this series are films I'd never even heard of! These are a few of the ones I want to check out this month:
1/1, 2:15 AM - Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

1/8, 10:15 PM - Seven Thieves (1960)

1/15, 8 PM - The League of Gentleman (1960)

1/22, 4 AM - The Anderson Tapes (1971)

1/23, 6 AM - The Split (1968)

1/6: Starring Sessue Hayakawa
12 AM - The Cheat (1915)
1 AM - The Dragon Painter (1919)
Sessue Hayakawa rose to stardom during the silent era, the first Asian actor to reach that status in Hollywood. I'm having a hard time thinking of any Asian actor since Hayakawa who has risen to the same level of popularity and industry clout. Tonight you can see the film that made him a star (even though he plays the villain), The Cheat, and one of the films made by Hayakawa's own production company, The Dragon Painter.

1/7: Bill Paxton's Picks
8 PM - Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
10:30 PM - The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
12:30 AM - California Split (1974)
2:30 AM - The Last Detail (1973)
Oftentimes, the celebrity guest programmers select films which seem a tad safe and predictable, e.g. Lawrence of Arabia, Network, My Fair Lady. So, it is refreshing when someone picks films which are rarely shown on TCM, as Bill Paxton has done this month. Two European art house classics followed by two prime examples of 70s American cinema.

BONUS PICK: 1/7, 4:30 AM - A Soldier's Story (1984)
Catch an early performance by Denzel Washington in this drama, directed by Norman Jewison, about racism in the army during WWII. (By the way, Washington also gives a great performance in Flight, which may still be playing in a theatre near you.)

1/13, 10 AM - Les Miserables (1935)
A musical version of "Les Mis" is now on the big screen, the latest in a long line of film adaptations from Victor Hugo's classic novel. (Of course, the current film is really more of an adaptation of the stage musical; therefore, it's heavy on music, light on context.) This 1935 version is regarded as one of the best adaptations and features two of the top actors of the era, Fredric March and Charles Laughton, going head to head as Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert.

1/16, 2 PM - The Detective (1954)
Alec Guinness was surely one of the most versatile actors to grace stage and screen. He is best known today as Obi Wan Kenobi of Star Wars (the only performance from the Star Wars series to earn an Academy Award nomination), or for his Oscar-winning performance in the WWII drama Bridge on the River Kwai. However, I think my favorite Guinness performances are in comedies, like tonight's film. He plays Father Brown, a country priest who sets out to catch an art thief. The role seems to have made an impression on Guinness, too - he and his wife subsequently converted to Catholicism.

1/20: Danny Kaye's 100th
It is my personal opinion that Danny Kaye was one of the greatest American entertainers of the 20th century. Actor, singer, comedian, showman - he could even dance a little. The TCM programming elves must agree with me as today they devote all programming to Kaye. The featured films are all delightful, exuberant comedies - I would particularly recommend The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (6 PM), Hans Christian Andersen (8 PM), and A Song is Born (12 AM). Also in the mix is an episode of The Danny Kaye Show (6 AM), Kaye's variety show from the mid-60s, and his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show (10:30 AM) in 1971. 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Classic Movie Picks: December 2012

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

My monthly post is late this time due to technical difficulties. I’ve just moved into a new house and am currently making do without internet (how will I live?!) and cable (seriously, how will I live?!). Everything was supposed to be hooked up earlier this week, but I was subsequently told by Time Warner Cable that it couldn’t be done since the neighbor’s dogs happened to be outside when the technician arrived. So, I’m now forced to make another appointment based on the schedule of these dogs – capricious, free-living animals, who come and go as they please with no sense of obligation to their neighbors’ need for cable TV. So, I don’t know when I’ll be able to get TCM again, but here’s what I would watch if I could.

Lubitsch Fridays

12/7, 12 AM – The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
12/14, 9:30 PM - Design for Living (1933)
12/28, 1:30 AM – That Uncertain Feeling (1941)
TGIF becomes doubly true this month with films by master director Ernst Lubitsch in primetime. There seems to be a Lubitsch revival of late and I think some of the credit goes to Nora Ephron’s film You’ve Got Mail. Whether you like that film or not, before Ephron’s remake, how many people had really even seen Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner? Now, it’s a Christmas mainstay on TCM (and deservedly so!). I’ve picked this film and two other Lubitsch comedies as my recommendations for the month, but if you tune in on any Friday night, you will surely be entertained. What makes his films great? People often point to the “Lubitsch Touch” – the director’s knack for using unexpected details to delight the audience. I think that Lubitsch films also feature some of the most interesting female characters of the era; independent women who often rebel against the expected.

12/21: Waiting for the End of the World

7 AM – The Lost Missile (1958)
8:30 AM – The Satan Bug (1965)
10:30 AM – The Last Man on Earth (1964)
12 PM – The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
2 PM – Five (1951)
4 PM – Panic in Year Zero (1962)
6 PM – The World, The Flesh and The Devil (1959)
Rogue missiles, deadly viruses, nuclear war – many films have made a guess at what could eventually bring an end to civilization as we know it. Lately zombies are a popular culprit, also calendars. December 21, 2012 marks the end of the Mayan calendar; therefore, the end of world as well. If you’re able to watch movies in your underground bunker or emergency ark, today’s TCM line-up may be instructive (if you survive).

Directed by Vincente Minelli

12/15, 4 AM – Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
12/18, 10 PM &12/24, 4:30 PM – Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Since I read a biography of Vincente Minelli last year (A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minelli by Mark Griffin), I’ve been motivated to see all the films by this talented and diverse director. This month I’m looking forward to revisiting an old favorite – Meet Me in St. Louis – and discovering something new – Two Weeks in Another Town. Each film shows a different aspect of Minelli’s filmography. St. Louis is a buoyant Technicolor musical showcasing his frequent leading lady, and one-time wife, Judy Garland. On the other end of the spectrum, metaphorically speaking, Two Weeks features another key Minelli collaborator, Kirk Douglas, in a drama about the darker side of Hollywood.

12/16, 8 PM – Carol for Another Christmas (1964)

Usually the thought of another twist on A Christmas Carol wouldn’t excite me; however, this film sounds like a rarity worth checking out: a made-for-TV movie with an anti-war theme written by Rod Serling and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, starring Sterling Hayden, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, and Peter Sellers. Since it aired only once, in 1964, chances are you haven’t seen this one either.

12/24, 12 AM – Auntie Mame (1958)

Who can sleep on Christmas Eve anyway? Live life to the fullest! Ring in Christmas morning with Mame!
(And if you’re able to watch this, it means you have survived the Mayan apocalypse - even more reason to celebrate!)

BONUS: TCM has two evenings of special programming which I also wanted to give a mention:
12/3, 8 PM - Baby Peggy
1 movie, 1 documentary, and 3 shorts starring one of cinema’s first child stars, “Baby Peggy.”
12/10, 8 PM - Academy Conversations: The Art of Production Design
This special presentation of 4 artfully-designed films is co-hosted by two Oscar-nominated production designers, Guy Hendrix Dyas and Lilly Kilvert.

Classic Movie Picks: November 2012

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Star of the Month: Constance Bennett
11/6, 8 PM - Lady With a Past (1932)
11/6, 9:30 PM - Sin Takes a Holiday (1930)
11/20, 8 PM - After Office Hours (1935)
11/20, 9:30 PM - Merrily We Live (1938)
I know Constance Bennett primarily for her delightful performance as a society ghost in Topper (showing 11/20, 11:15 PM), so I'm looking forward to seeing more of her films in the light comedy vein. I love the ease she brings to comedy, but the real highlight of any Connie Bennett film is watching her wear stylish clothes while swanning through gorgeous art deco interiors.

11/9: Man With No Name Trilogy
8 PM - A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
9:45 PM - For a Few Dollars More (1965)
12 AM - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)
For something on the opposite end of the spectrum from Connie Bennett, try Clint Eastwood in a trio of Spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone. Before he was Dirty Harry, before he achieved directorial acclaim, before he chastised an empty chair - Clint was The Man With No Name, a lone gunman based on the ronin of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. While they may not feature art deco high rises, Leone's films do have an abundance of style; notably, the famous score by Ennio Morricone which complements the stark desert landscape to create an iconic representation of the Old West.

11/14: Sister, Sister
6 AM - Little Women (1933)
8 AM - Fog Over Frisco (1934)
9:15 AM - Double Wedding (1937)
10:45 AM - The Sisters (1938)
12:30 PM - My Sister Eileen (1942)
2:15 PM - Two Sisters From Boston (1946)
4:15 PM - A Stolen Life (1946)
6:15 PM - Born to Kill (1947)
Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters... - so goes the song from White Christmas. That lyric could describe some of the siblings in today's line-up of films with a sisterly theme - the March girls from Little Women, Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair in My Sister Eileen. This line-up also teaches us that if Bette Davis is your sister, you'd be better off as an only child. This is a perfect day of films for November, the beginning of the holiday season and a time to be with your family, or, on the other hand, to think about why you don't want to be with your family.

11/26, 6:30 PM - The Steel Trap (1952)
I already picked this film when it made its TCM premiere last January because it sounded interesting and co-starred Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. If you missed it then, don't miss it this time - what a gem of a thriller! Cotten plays a middle manager at a bank who devises a plan to rob the bank over the weekend and escape to Brazil with his wife. However, Murphy's Law is in full effect every step of the way. If he decides to turn back, can he replace the money by Monday morning? I was squirming in my seat the whole time, hoping that Cotten could come away clean one way or another.

11/30, 11:15 PM - Touchez Pas Au Grisbi (1954)
Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, a.k.a. Don't Touch the Loot, was directed by Jacques Becker, a former assistant to the great French director Jean Renoir. With this film, Becker set off a new era of French crime films featuring experienced pros whose codes of honor are threatened by changing times - see Rififi, Bob le Flambeur, Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge. In Grisbi, the wonderful Jean Gabin plays a gangster who comes out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their loot is demanded as ransom.

Classic Movie Picks: October 2012

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Classic Horror for Halloween
I can't let this month go by without picking some movies from TCM's line-up of classic horror showing Wednesday nights (and throughout the week during the day) and culminating on Halloween with the Universal horror films from the 30s and 40s. You've got your pick of all the great spooky movie subjects - vampires, zombies, mummies, monsters, hauntings, and, of course, mad scientists who train animals for evil purposes. If you've seen the iconic versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. why not try some of these variations on the theme?
10/3, 12:15 AM - House of Dracula (1945)
10/3, 1:30 AM - Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)
10/20, 10:15 AM - The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
10/27, 6:30 PM - The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
10/31, 4 PM - The Devil Bat (1940)
10/31, 2 AM - The Mummy's Hand (1940)

Hollywood Goes to Washington
10/5, 8 PM & 11:15 PM - A Night at the Movies: Hollywood Goes to Washington (2012)
10/12, 11 PM - The Great McGinty (1940)
10/26, 8 PM - Advise and Consent (1962)
10/26, 10:30 PM - All the President's Men (1976)
As this election year goes into the home stretch, TCM premieres it's newest original documentary about the history of politics on film. They'll also be showing political films each Friday in primetime and I've picked out three that I'm looking forward to. After looking over the schedule, it seems that these movies almost always deal with the corrupting influence brought on by political power. Even the morally upright Mr. Jefferson Smith is shown in contrast to crooked Washington "insiders" such as fellow senator Joseph Paine. However, in the movies at least there are Mr. Smiths and in real life politics there are more often Senator Paines. (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington will show immediately after the premiere of the documentary special at 9 PM on 10/5.)

Star of the Month: Spencer Tracy
So, this month Wednesdays are for spooky chillers and Fridays are for political intrigues; however, Mondays belong to Spencer Tracy. During his time as a top star, Tracy was not only popular with audiences, but he was revered by his peers in the film industry as evidenced by his 9 Best Actor Academy Award nominations and 2 wins. If you're not sure where to jump in with the Tracy filmography, you could do worse than TCM's line-up of Oscar-nominated performances on 10/15.
8 PM - Boys' Town (1938)
9:45 PM - Father of the Bride (1950)
11:30 PM - Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
1 AM - The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
2:30 AM - Captains Courageous (1937)
4:30 AM - San Francisco (1936)

10/18: Cinerama!
8 PM - Cinerama Adventure (2002)
10 PM - This is Cinerama (1952)
I love classic movies for their pure entertainment value, but I'm also bit of a filmmaking geek who enjoys learning about the technical processes and history behind the spectacle. So, I'm really looking forward to tonight's documentary about Cinerama and the legendary This is Cinerama, a travelogue-of-sorts designed to showcase the newly developed widescreen process. When you think about how far we've come with film technology, it's hard to imagine what a revelation Cinerama was at the time (at least for youngsters like me). The premiere of This is Cinerama sparked the first-ever front page movie article, written by film critic Bosley Crowther for the New York Times, and audiences were thrilled. This is Cinerama went on to be the 5th highest grossing movie of 1952! 
I can appreciate the irony that the Cinerama process was developed specifically for showing films on big screens in theaters - getting audiences away from their boxy 1950s TV sets - and now, 60 years later, I'm watching it at home on my widescreen TV. I know it's not quite the original Cinerama experience, but it'll have to do for now.

10/21: Rare Animation
8 PM - Gulliver's Travels (1939)
9:39 PM - Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)
11:00 PM - UPA Cartoons (1949-51)
12 AM - Silent Animation from NY Studios (1907-32)
1 AM - The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1927)
Tonight looks like a fun evening for kids or adults with 3 features and 18 shorts of rarely seen animations. Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug were both early efforts by Paramount to compete with Disney's animated films (Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves had come out in 1937). We'll also get some of the best shorts by UPA and NY Studios, both groundbreaking animation studios whose work has fallen out of circulation. However, Prince Achmed is perhaps the most unique film in tonight's line-up as it uses paper silhouette puppets against ornate backgrounds, rather than the familiar cel animation of the other features.

Classic Movie Picks: September 2012

by Lani


Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

First things first, as of this week the delightfully dark romantic comedy A New Leaf is finally available on DVD!  It stars Walter Matthau as a spoiled Manhattanite who can't accept the fact that he's broke. A solution to his money troubles appears in the form of a mousy, but rich, botanist played by Elaine May, who also wrote and directed the film. Their romance is a bit awkward, since Matthau plans to follow marriage with murder; however, the film overall is funny, sweet, and completely unique.  If you haven't seen this film, and don't mind taking a risk, buy this now (or at least rent it)!

9/2: Give 'em a hand
8 PM - Hands of a Stranger (1962)
9:45 PM - The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
11:30 PM - Mad Love (1935)
12:45 AM - The Hands of Orlac (1925)
In an interesting bit of programming, tonight the TCM elves have given us 3 versions of the same tale - The Hands of Orlac, Mad Love, and Hands of a Stranger - in which an experimental operation gives a concert pianist the hands of a murderer, hands which are not necessarily under his control. Then, in a twist, the elves have thrown in a film with an almost opposite story: In The Beast with Five Fingers a concert pianist's hand is severed, and the hand goes on to become a murderer itself!

9/3, 10:45 AM - The Dot and the Line (1965)
This Academy Award-winning animated short by Chuck Jones is simply delightful. Simple - in that the characters are a dot and a line; delightful - because it succeeds in giving these shapes personalities. A romance for the ages alongside Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Scarlet and Rhett, or Harry and Sally.

9/10: Choreo by Jack Cole
8 PM - Tonight and Every Night (1945)
10 PM - On the Riviera (1951)
11:45 PM - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
1:30 AM - Les Girls (1957)
3:30 AM - River of No Return (1954)
As a huge fan of movie musicals, I've certainly seen the work of Jack Cole; however, I was completely unaware of it. So I'm grateful for TCM's tribute to Cole this month and looking forward to learning more about this extremely influential, but little known choreographer. Plus, tonight's line-up gives me a chance to see some of my favorite musical stars - Rita Hayworth, Danny Kaye, and Gene Kelly - in films that aren't shown very often on TCM.




9/16: Around the World with Maggie Smith!
8 PM - Travels with My Aunt (1972)
10 PM - Love, and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973)
It may come as a surprise to some younger viewers, but Dame Maggie Smith, recognizable today as proper schoolmarm Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series and Downtown Abbey's Dowager Countess (the Edwardian version of the sassy grandma), was young once. But even as a young woman, like Angela Lansbury before her, Smith often played above her age. Never so much as in Travels with My Aunt, which casts the not-yet-forty Smith as a septuagenarian. The role was originally meant for Katharine Hepburn, but Smith was able to make it her own, earning a Best Actress nomination. In Love... Maggie is once again cast as the older woman opposite a younger leading man. However, she's playing much closer to her own age as a 40 year old "spinster" who has a love affair with an 18 year old college dropout (Timothy Bottoms) on a bus trip through Spain.

By Agatha Christie
9/23, 8 PM - Ten Little Indians (1966)
9/26, 2:15 AM - Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
I love mysteries and I'm on a bit of a Christie kick lately, so I'm looking forward to these adaptations of two of her most popular stories. Ten Little Indians diverges a bit from the original story, but retains the main plot of 10 strangers trapped in a remote location and bumped off one-by-one. Murder on the Orient Express hews much closer to Christie's book and features a formidable cast of stars including Albert Finney as detective Hercule Poirot. This film along with two other all-star adaptations of Poirot stories, Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), offer a great introduction to Christie's work.

Thursdays in September: Mack Sennett
Producer and director Mack Sennett was a comedy pioneer who worked with many of the great talents of the silent era including Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops, and Mabel Normand. TCM is showing 83 shorts and 4 feature-length films by Sennett every Thursday this month in primetime.

Happy 100th, Gene Kelly!

by Lani

Gene Kelly could do it all. He could dance, that's for sure. He could also make you laugh one moment and tear up the next. He sang some of the most iconic songs in movie history. He not only starred in movies, he directed them. His choreography was exciting, athletic, and endlessly inventive.

Born in August 23, 1912, Gene Kelly would be 100 years old today. He first appeared on the screen in 1942's For Me And My Gal. Ten years later, he received an honorary Oscar for "his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography for film." Throughout his career he starred in some of the best musicals of Hollywood's golden age, including the back-to-back triumphs of An American in Paris in 1951 and Singin' in the Rain in 1952. You can see both those films, as well as 10 more classics, during Turner Classic Movies' day-long tribute to Kelly. Click here to see the line-up.

One of the things I love about Kelly's films is his unique choreography. With each project he seemed to take the opportunity to push the boundaries of dance on film. Here are some of the dances that make me say "Wow!" every time I watch them.

In 1944’s Cover Girl, Kelly and Stanley Donen devised an ingenious number in which Kelly and his “alter ego” dance together through the streets of New York.


It may not seem amazing to us now, but Gene’s duet with an animated Jerry the Mouse in 1945’s Anchors Aweigh was a cinematic first. This dance was another collaboration with Stanley Donen and Kelly admitted that without Donen “calling the shots” the sequence could not have been filmed.


Kelly takes a squeaky board and a sheet of newspaper and makes them his dance partners in this solo set to “You, Wonderful You” from 1950’s Summer Stock.



The “I Like Myself” number from 1955’s It’s Always Fair Weather is an heir to Kelly’s iconic title dance from Singin’ in the Rain. In both dances Kelly expresses the joy that comes with new romance, but now he’s upped the ante and put the dance on rollerskates.


But Kelly didn't always need innovative choreography to make jaws drop. In this clip from The Pirate (1948) the most amazing features are Kelly's bare legs - Yowza! If you needed proof that dancing requires strength and athleticism, just watch this. (The "sexy Gene Kelly Pirate ballet dance hot legs" of the video's title start at about the 4 minute mark.)



I hope you'll join me today in celebrating one of the true shining stars of dance, theatre, and film by enjoying a Gene Kelly film (or at least these film clips). It will definitely make you smile, and possibly make you say "Gotta dance!" yourself.

Total Recall Review

by A.J.

The irony of this year’s Total Recall being produced by a company called Original Film is not lost on me. The 1990 version of the film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Verhoeven, and the 2012 version are based on a Phillip K. Dick short story called We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. The story concerns a clerk, bored with his life, who goes to a company to get the memory of an exciting trip to Mars implanted in his memory. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale is concise, explanation heavy, and has a twist ending like an old Twilight Zone episode.

In a moment of audience participation with the confused main character Quaid, you get the distinct feeling that you’ve seen this movie before, even if you haven't seen the original. Each film version  has its own idea of how to expand on the short story, unfortunately 2012’s Total Recall seems to be so concerned with not being influenced by the original that, except for some winks and nods, it mostly borrows from every other sci-fi and action movie from the past 30 years: floating cars from The Fifth Element, fighting style from The Bourne Identity, cityscapes of Blade Runner and Minority Report, a weightless action scene from Inception, even a little bit of The Matrix.

The biggest difference between the two films is that this one does not go to Mars. Mars is mentioned in passing (one of those winks). In the world of this Total Recall, the earth has been scorched by chemical warfare and the only inhabitable locations are The Colony (Australia) and the United Federation of Britain (Britain… I think, the movie isn’t too good about distinguishing location despite showing us a map at the beginning). Colin Farrell plays Quaid, an assembly line worker who longs for something more than his life of routine. He, like most of the public in this movie, commutes from The Colony to UFB via an elevator through the center of the earth. This tunnel is demonized by a rebel organization as a symbol of the oppression of The Colony under Britain led by Chancellor Cohaagen.

After a trip to the fake memory company, Rekall, which here is like a seedy opium den but was a respectable business in the earlier film, Quaid finds himself being pursued by robot police machines and his wife who is really a government agent. But maybe this is all just part of the memory adventure he bought from Rekall? This movie doesn’t seem too concerned with that question. It doesn’t seemed too concerned with anything other than sci-fi action, which is in itself pretty good. But why should I care? Quaid’s resistance contact played by Jessica Biel doesn’t seem too concerned about Quaid and neither does anyone else except for his wife (Kate Beckinsale) who has the singular goal of killing him. In the original, Quaid was easy to sympathize with and feel for; so many characters cared about him. Even Cohaagen cared about Quaid since they were friends before Quaid joined the resistance and he hoped they could be friends again.

It’s hard not to compare a remake to the original, and that’s not how you should critique a movie. But it’s especially hard not to when the original was so good at what is set out to do and holds up very well. In the 1990 movie, the Earth scenes were shot in Mexico City, the time was the discernible near future where there were TV screens in your wall, full body X-rays at public transportation hubs, video phones everywhere, TV ads on the subway… you get the drift. The future-scape of the new version is CGI, of course, but it is also such a “standard” vision of the future that it is forgettable and dull. Everything in the future is shades of gray and other dark, muted colors. With the original you could read the plot anyway you wanted and it worked: whether you thought it was all real, or just a dream Quaid purchased. The 1990 Total Recall was a thrilling adventure. The new one is an unrelenting chase, and when it is over not much different than before. Think for a moment and ask yourself, which would you rather pay for?