TOTAL RECALL: CFQ Spotlight Podcast 3:31

We Can Remember It for You, But It's Gonna Cost Big Time: Colin Farrell's internal world gets rocked in TOTAL RECALL.
We Can Remember It for You, But It's Gonna Cost Big Time: Colin Farrell's internal world gets rocked in TOTAL RECALL.

What is reality? What is identity? How long can a soul survive when one’s perceptions and one’s self are subject to electronic editing at a moment’s whim? These and many other fascinating questions are raised and almost immediately dropped in TOTAL RECALL, director Len Wiseman’s retelling of the Philip K. Dick tale of an ordinary working Joe discovering his own secret life courtesy of  a recreational brain reprogramming service. The story was previously brought to the screen by Paul Verhoeven, with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring, but does stripping the film of Verhoeven’s camp, satirical outlook and bringing in Colin Farrell as a more credible protagonist automatically mean the scenario regains the challenging, visionary paranoia of the Dick original?
Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons come together to explore thematic opportunities offered and missed in this latest remake, as well as dissecting the appeal of the film’s post-apocalyptic world and evaluating whether the core concept of the Rekall memory implant system makes any sense to begin with. Click on the player to hear the discussion.

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TOTAL RECALL: Kate Beckinsale Video Interview

Actress Kate Beckinsale (wife of TOTAL RECALL-director Len Wiseman) talks about her first time playing the villain and about the film’s “reality versus illusion” theme.
TOTAL RECALL is a remake of the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwazenegger, about a man who pays to have an action-adventure memory-vacation placed in his brain, only to find out that he really is a spy – or is he? Len Wiseman directed from a new screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback, based on Ronald Shusett & Dan O’Bannon’s adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.”

TOTAL RECALL Trailer #3

Colin Farrell stars in the remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, inspired by the Phillip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.” This trailer (like the ones that preceded it) suggests that the story line follows the original film fairly closely, including the ramped up action that was added to turn Dick’s paranoid contemplation of the nature of identity into a blockbuster action film. Kate Beckinsale replaces Sharon Stone; Jessica Biel replaces Rachel Ticotin; and Bill Nighy is along for the ride.
TOTAL RECALL opens Friday, August 3, 2012.

Underworld: Awakening: CFQ Spotlight Podcast 3:3

Deal Me Some Death, Baby: Kate Beckinsale does even more of what she does in UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING.
Deal Me Some Death, Baby: Kate Beckinsale does even more of what she does in UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING.

The UNDERWORLD franchise’s relentless, death-dealing vampire, Selene (Kate Beckinsale), goes under ice at the beginning of UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING, and so does most of the series’ political intrigue, swapping out the power struggles from the previous entries in favor of even more chases, gunplay, and explosions — lots and lots of explosions. Awakened into a (nominally) future world where humanity has decimated the vampire covens and their natural enemy, the werewolf-like lycans, Selene finds herself protecting the fate of the young vamp/lycan hybrid Eve (India Eisley), and on the run from a sinister pharmaceutical corporation, all in glorious 3D. You will believe a metal-barbed whip can poke your eye out.
Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski and Dan Persons set their logic centers to neutral and debate what’s fun (i.e. Kate Beckinsale in skin-tight leather) and what’s not (plot) in this fourth installment, and whether there’s any future to UNDERWORLD’s future. They also discuss their gut-reactions to the latest crop of genre trailers, and Steve talks a little about a safe-driving film with a surprising production credit. Plus: What’s coming in theaters.

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