Get out while you still can.

There have been rumblings of turmoil behind the scenes of World War Z for a while now, but Vanity Fair has opened the can of worms with their article on just how bad the production has been. The budget is rumored to have ballooned to around $400 million which would surpass Pirates of the Carribean: At Worlds End for the most expensive movie ever made. Stories of rewrites, changing of story locations, and the shooting of an additional 30-40 minutes to help the incoherent ending have all led many to believe that the film will never overcome it’s troubled production. It’s no wonder some are already predicting that World War Z will become one of the biggest flops ever. But even if the film proves to be a bust, it wouldn’t be the first time production problems and ballooning budgets proved disastrous for a film. Here are 5 films that also followed suit, essentially ending the careers for many involved. (There are so many films that were box-office failures that could be included in this list. I chose 5 films that were plagued with production problems, earned less money than the cost of the film, and also proved damaging to the careers of those involved.)

#5. John Carter (2012)

Maybe if there was a missing clown fish and an adorable robot, the film could have been a success

John Carter had so much potential to be one of the best films of 2012. It was Andrew Stanton’s first live action directing gig, having previously directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E and also helping co-write the Toy Story films. It was poised to be Taylor Kitsch’s breakout film, the first of three high profile acting gigs that year (the other two being Battleship and Savages). And most importantly, the source material was Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series, most particularly The Princess of Mars. After going through development hell, with Robert Rodriquez set to direct at one point, Disney finally took a chance on Andrew Stanton and greenlit the film. When initial shooting ended in late 2010, a month of reshoots were then scheduled. While reshoots are typical of most films, Stanton admitted to reshooting much of the film twice. Soon rumors began of the film going over budget amid production turmoil. While any production problems were originally denied, Stanton later contributed many of the reshoots to his workflow with animation. Marketing for the film was equally troubling, with Stanton resisting Disney’s marketing ideas, and instead insisting they go with his. The trailers for the film were misleading and confusing, while the the original title for the film, John Carter of Mars, was eventually changed to John Carter, infuriating hardcore fans of the books and neglecting newcomers who had no idea the story took place on the red planet. In the end, John Carter earned a little more than $282 million on an estimated budget of $350 million with a net loss of about $67 million dollars.  While Andrew Stanton’s career is safe for now (he’s currently directing Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo) he probably won’t be directing any big-budget live-action films anytime soon. The film’s failure did lead to the resignation of Rich Ross, then head of Walt Disney Studios, and also may have sparked a trend of Taylor Kitsch’s films being received poorly both critically and commercially (both Battleship and Savages went on to underperform at the box office). In the end Disney counted it’s losses and moved on to other properties including this year’s The Lone Ranger, which I predict will also wind up being a dud.

• Estimated Budget: $350 million
• Box-office Total: $282 million
• Net Loss Total:  $67 million
• Careers Affected:  Taylor Kitsch, Rich Ross, and potentially Andrew Stanton

#4. The Postman (1997)

 In 1995 Kevin Costner starred in, produced, and according to some rumors, eventually took over directing of what was then the biggest budget film ever made: Waterworld. Like the other films on this list, Waterworld was plagued with production issues (a Hurricane destroyed the huge set built on the water), ran overbudget (the original budget of $100 million soon reached over $175 million) and eventually affected the careers of director Kevin Reynolds and some would argue Kevin Costner. Thus it seemed ironic that Costner would follow up a big budget post-apocalyptic film with another big budget post-apocalyptic film (technically  Tin Cup came in between those films, but Costner’s role in the development of that film was small compared to Waterworld and The Postman). David Brin wrote the book that The Postman is based on, and after seeing Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, thought that Costner would be great in the role of the unnamed Postman. Eventually his wish came true, as Costner came on board to not only star in, but also direct. While the film wasn’t plagued by any production problems like Waterworld, there was some minor squabbling behind the scenes. Visual effects supervisor Tricia Henry Ashford was fired several weeks before the end of production due to creative differences, as she wanted to do many of the special effects in post production whereas Costner wanted to do them on location in-camera. Still the film had a massive budget at the time, $80 million, most likely due to the huge set pieces. In order to create the Bethlehem set, a huge mining pit in Tuscon was used. At two miles wide and almost a 1/4 mile deep, the set was one of the largest ever dressed. Another massive set piece for the Bridge City location was built on the side of Boundary Dam in Washington which supplies much of Seattle’s power. In the end, The Postman wound up being a bloated 178 minutes (two minutes shy of three hours) thanks to Costner’s overindulgent shooting. The film only grossed a little over $17 million, bringing a net loss of $62 million ($89 when adjusted for inflation). While Kevin Costner’s career wasn’t too tarnished, he never would retain the star power nor accolades he once had.  He would only direct one other movie afterwards, returning to the genre that brought him so much praise earlier in his career (Dances with Wolves), and craft the highly underrated Open Range. Sadly, Costner has not returned to the peak that his career was once at, but he continues to put out good work every now and then, with the Hatfields & McCoys and hopefully Man of Steel being recent examples.

• Estimated Budget:  $80 million
• Box-Office Total: $17.6 million
• Net Loss Total:  $62 million
• Careers Affected: Kevin Costner

#3. Ishtar (1987)

The perfect sand dunes!

There are so many things that can be said about Ishtar. Before reporting on the production problems of World War Z, Vanity Fair published a great article on the journey of Ishtar’s eventual flop at the box-office. It’s a great article that I highly recommend reading, but I’ll just sum up many of the issues mentioned therein. While working on Reds in the early 80′s, Warren Beatty brought in his friend, Elaine May, with whom he worked with on the film Heaven Can Wait, to help polish the script. With Reds eventually becoming a big hit commercially and critically and winning many Academy Awards, Beatty wanted to return the favor and produce her next film which she would write and direct. With studios caving in to Beatty’s demands, they agreed to finance the film that would later become Ishtar. Not only would he produce, but Beatty would also star, alongside Dustin Hoffman who likewise was returning a favor to Elaine for her work on the film Tootsie, which also became a huge success. It wasn’t long though before problems on set began to build up. With shooting to take place in Morocco, it soon became obvious that there was no infrastructure in the country to help support a big Hollywood production. Beyond the production itself, there was  political tension in the North African region as well, with the Moroccan army fighting the Polisario Front guerrillas at the time. All of this pales in comparison to the actual production woes itself. Stories of animal trainers looking for specific blue-eyed camels, searching for the perfect sand dunes to be in shots and then deciding flat land would be better, and in-fighting between May and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, production designer Paul Sylbert, and even actress Isabelle Adjani (whom Beatty was dating at the time). Unsure of how to approach the film, May kept second-guessing herself, eventually shooting lots of film and going over budget. It all culminated with the final battle scene, an area May had no experience in, having come from a background in comedy. With frustrations from Beatty at an all time high, he confronted May who interjected, “You want it done? You shoot it!”  The crew returned to New York to finish principal photography, but by then the damage was done. There Beatty confessed to former Columbia CEO, Vincent Fay, that May couldn’t direct, but refused to allow her to be fired. To make matters worse, the new head of production, David Puttnam, had a disdain for excessive Hollywood productions and didn’t care for Beatty. So when he announced that he would not interfere with postproduction on Ishtar, it was seen as a way to subtly undermine Beatty, Hoffman, and May. Still problems continued in postproduction, with May leaving the direction of dialogue looping to Beatty,as well as the insurmountable task of making a movie out of 108 hours of film shot. In the end, Ishtar landed in theatres in Spring of ’87 after it’s original deadline of Christmas was missed. While it early screening tested well, the film barely opened to #1 at the box-office, having nearly beat out the #2 film, The Gate, a low-budget horror film. It would go on to only gross $14 million in America, becoming one of the worst box-office bombs ever, and establishing itself in Hollywood lore as one of the most plagued productions ever. While May would go on to write a couple more screenplays (with her script Primary Colors getting nominated for an Oscar), she would never fully bounce back from the damage Ishtar caused. Beatty’s career also seemed to take a turn after Ishtar; his clout and star power never really returning, he eventually settled down with Anette Bening in 1992 and has done little film work since.

• Estimated Budget:  $55 million
• Box-Office Total: $14.3 million
• Net Loss Total:  $40 million ($82 million adjusted inflation)
• Careers Affected: Elaine May and to an extent, Warren Beatty

#2. Heaven’s Gate (1980)

The Beginning of the End of Director-Controlled Films

The film that started it all: Heaven’s Gate. Yes, there had ben box-office flops before Heaven’s Gate, but with films like Jaws and Star Wars creating the ‘summer blockbuster’, the emphasis on box-office results was at an all time high. Thus when Heaven’s Gate did bomb, studios took notice. Heaven’s Gate is largely credited for bringing an end to the director-driven films that led to young talent such as Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, and William Freidkin creating such classics as The Godfather I and II, The French Connection, and Chinatown. Heaven’s Gate also contributed to the collapse of United Artist, which was eventually sold to MGM, as well as help shift the power of movie productions back to studios, who were scared to repeat the events that led to the diaster of Heaven’s Gate. But to understand how it got to this, one has to only go back a couple of years earlier. Michael Cimino was fresh off of The Deer Hunter, having co-written, produced, and directed the film, and winning big at the Academy Awards, scooping up Oscars for many categories including Best Director and Best Picture. Needless to say, Cimino was hot property. After his pitch to United Artists to make Heaven’s Gate was put on hold in the early ’70s, he was able to use his newfound clout to convince UA to resurrect his film. With an initial budget of $11.7 million and and a release of mid December, principal photography began on April 16, 1979. However, the film soon fell behind schedule, largely due to Cimino’s perfectionist eye for detail. One example of Cimino’s demands involved the long street set for the Casper, Wyoming. He demanded it be rebuilt because it reportedly “didn’t look right” as it wasn’t wide enough. Instead of just dismantling one side and moving it six feet, Cimino demanded that both halves be dismantled and each moved three feet apart. For the beginning courtyard scene at Harvard, an entire tree was cut down, moved in pieces, and then rebuilt. He even went as far as to have an irrigation system built under the area where the final battle took place so that the grass would stay healthy and green. Cimino’s perfectionism also led to multiple retakes, even for small scenes such as a man dropping his pants. He reportedly halted shooting until a cloud he liked made it’s way into the camera’s view. Allegations of heavy drug use, along with Cimino’s alleged desire to surpass Coppola’s record of shooting a million feet of film, may have also contributed to the ballooning budget. By the time shooting commenced  the film’s budget was now around $30 million. But Cimino still had the task of putting together the film in the editing room, slaving for months and undoing much of the work that Oscar-winning editor William H. Reynolds had previously done. By June, Cimino had a work print that reportedly ran almost 5 1/2 hours (or 325 minutes.) After executives refused to release the movie at it’s current length, Cimino continued whittling down the film over the summer and fall until he reached the premiere length of 3 hours and 39 minutes. But after a disastrous premiere, the film was pulled and again whittled down to two hours and twenty nine minutes. By this point, however, the damage had been done. The film’s final cost came to $44 million while only earning a measly $3.4 million at the box office. Michael Cimino’s career would never be the same, putting out only four more films, all of which were essentially duds. More importantly, the western genre would largely become considered too risky, with only a flash re-emergence in the early nineties with films like Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven.

• Estimated Budget:  $44 million
• Box-Office Total: $3.4 million
• Net Loss Total:  $40.5 million ($112 million adjusted inflation)
• Careers Affected: Michael Cimino (along with the demise of UA and the disappearance of Westerns as a major genre

#1. Cutthroat Island (1995)

All aboard the sinking ship!

When discussing box-office bombs, many films are mentioned like Ishtar, Heaven’s Gate, Battlefield Earth, or even more recent films like John Carter and Speed Racer. However, Cutthroat Island many times seems forgotten. Perhaps this is humanity’s way of plausibly denying it ever existed. What’s interesting is that if Cutthroat Island were to be made today, it probably would be a huge hit. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has revitalized the pirate genre, which is ironic since it was Cutthroat Island that nearly killed the genre all those years ago. It’s a shame because Cutthroat Island had all the benchmarks of being a success. It’s director, Renny Harlin, was hot off of two big hits in a row: Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. Geena Davis was one of the most bankable and talented actresses at that time, starring in big hits like The Fly, The Accidental Tourist (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar), and Thelma and Louise (which also won numerous awards). Thus it came as no surprise when Renny Harlin, who was married to Gena Davis at the time, pushed to have Davis star in Cutthroat Island. After all, an actress mostly know for light comedies could easily be made into an action star.  Michael Douglas was originally going to play the role of William Shaw, but eventually backed out after Davis’ role was expanded leaving Douglas’ character diminished as a result. With Douglas’ departure, Gena Davis tried to bow out as well, but contractual obligations said otherwise, leaving her to go down with the sinking ship. Apparently Douglas shared a sixth sense with other actors Harlin pursued, as talent like Tom Cruise, Charlie Sheen, Liam Neeson, and Jeff Bridges all turned down the role. Thus, desperate times called for desperate measures as Matthew Modine was approached to play Shaw. Modines last role before Cutthroat was TNT’s biblical adaption of Jacob. That’s correct, Modine’s last project was a made-for-TV-movie. However, the one potentially redeeming factor was that Matthew Modine had fencing skills. Still, Carolco Pictures was willing to bank $98 million into the film, which would be plenty of money for even today’s standards. But as past trends show, production issues usually precede box-office flops and this film certainly had some. The original director of photography, Oliver Wood, had to be replaced during shooting after breaking his ankle. Production designer, Mario Kassar, decided to start building sets and ships before the first revised script was even ready, much of which was completed without Harlin’s input as he was busy trying to replace Douglas’ role. Upon arriving in Malta to begin shooting, Harlin immediately requested changes made to the sets and script as he wasn’t happy with it. Another incident involved broken sewage pipes which caused raw sewage to pour into the tank where the actors would be swimming. Years later, Matthew Modine would blame the budget spiraling out of control due to the fact that Harlin would always have three cameras rolling at the same time, as well as having an inordinate amount of V8 juice shipped to Malta for Harlin and Davis to consume. In the end, Cutthroat Island debuted at #13 at the Box Office and only managed to gross $18 million in total revenue. It’s been speculated that Carolco Pictures was close to bankruptcy before even green-lighting Cutthroat, leaving no money to market the film once it was complete.  Regardless, Carolco Pictures had two failures that year: Cutthroat Island and Showgirls, which certainly lead to it’s eventual demise. Sadly too, Gena Davis’ career was also effected as she never returned to the pre-Cutthroat height of her career. While Renny Harlin was able to continue directing, he’ll forever be attached to the fiasco that was Cutthroat Island.

• Estimated Budget:  $115 million
• Box-Office Total: $18.5 million
• Net Loss Total:  $96 million ($145 million adjusted inflation)
• Careers Affected: Renny Harlin and Gena Davis (as well as Oliver Wood, whose broken ankle kept him from working on his next film: Broken Arrow)

Director:  Paul Verhoeven

Cast:  Arnold Schwarzenager, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox, Marshal Bell, Mel Johnson Jr., Michael Champion, Roy Brocksmith

Introduction     Plot Summary     Impressions     Wrap-up

My rating:  Class M, dim red star (7/7).  This is—in some ways—an ambitious movie—but it utterly fails to capitalize on that ambition or its roots, and instead devolves into a violent and silly action-adventure movie with a deeply flawed premise.  Not even Ah-nold’s one liners can save this mess.

Introduction

Take two veteran screenwriters, Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, the guys who brought us Alien, and give them the rights to “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” a gem of a short story by Phillip K. Dick.  After a few years, give the project to Dino de Laurentis, with Shusett as producer and Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role.  Or possibly Patrick Swayze.  Bring David Cronenberg on as the director, but he wants William Hurt in the lead role.  Have Cronenberg and Shusett fall out over the continually redrafted script, and let de Laurentis lose interest after Dune flops and his production company goes bankrupt.

Enter Arnold Schwarzenager, who was initially rebuffed by de Laurentis as the star of the film, and have him persuade Carolco Pictures (the company that brought us First Blood and Rambo II in the ’80s) to buy the rights to the picture, with Schwarzenager as the star with veto power over producer, director, screenplay, costars and promotion.  By the time Schwarzenager personally recruited Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) to direct, the screenplay had been through forty-two drafts, and still lacked an ending (or even, according to some reports, an “act three”).

There was no way was this going to work out well.

It turned out to be a giant mess with aspirations to philosophical depth.  The script is riddled with scientific inaccuracies so great that they wreck the willing suspension of disbelief; the performances are rather lack-luster; the film is incredibly violent; and the resolution is deeply flawed.  Many, if not all, of the movie’s failings can be traced back to the movie’s own lack of identity, as it isn’t sure what it needs to be and indeed changes from one type of movie to another about a third of the way in.

On the other hand…the movie debuted at number one in the box office in its opening weekend, ultimately grossing over $250 million.  Critics seem to love the movie—Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars, and it’s rated 81% positive over at Rotten Tomatoes.  So maybe there’s something there I’m not seeing…

Plot (Contains Spoilers)

Short summary:  Boy wants to go to Mars, but he can’t afford it.  Boy goes to Rekall, Inc., instead, to buy the memories of a trip to Mars, complete with him being a secret agent and meeting a brunette (“athletic, sleazy and demure”).  The memory implant doesn’t work because someone has already done a memory wipe.  Boy wakes up claiming that they’ve blown his cover, so the Rekall folks wipe his memory (again) and send him home.  On his way home, Boy is attacked by his coworkers, and then, once home, by his wife.  Boy flees, chased by Boy 2.  Along the way Boy receives help from the previous version of himself through an old coworker at the spy agency, and goes to Mars.  Boy meets girl, who despises him for betraying them.  Boy leaves.  Boy meets his “wife” and one of the Rekall folks, who try to convince him that he’s having a psychotic episode.  Boy figures out they’re lying and combat erupts.  Boy is rescued by, and rescues, Girl.  Boy and girl flee to the rebels, but are captured by the government.  Boy is revealed to be a false persona created to destroy the resistance.  Boy and girl escape.  Boy and girl fight the government.  Boy and girl activate an alien underground installation which melts a glacier and oxygenates the entire planet.  The day is saved!

Impressions

Visually, Total Recall has a lot going for it in some ways.  It was the last major science fiction film to be done without any significant CGI, using instead miniature effects (scale models), makeup and masks.  Most of those effects look pretty good, and many of them owe their success to Rob Bottin, the make-up and special effects wizard who brought The Thing to life.  The movie was filmed in Mexico City, using the public transportation system for a good part of the story, and successfully conveys both the future and Mars itself.

Jerry Goldsmith scored the film, and he put in a superb effort with a strongly martial orchestral soundtrack recorded by the National Philharmonic orchestra.  The soundtrack is probably one of the highlights of the film, making use of a metal percussive element as well as a seamless blend of orchestral and electronic elements which suit the opening of the film to a “T.”

The performances are, by and large, at least adequate and in some cases better than that.  Arnold Schwarzenager, in the role of Douglas Quaid, is perhaps a little out of his depth.  Surprisingly enough, I enjoyed him most in the opening third or so of the film, when he doesn’t have a clue what’s going on: his yearnings for something more, something different, seem real, and his confusion at the events surrounding him seems very real.  Unfortunately, however, when the movie makes its transition to the big action flick, Quaid somehow seems a little too flat, a little too cool, for what’s going on.  He’s Ah-nold in big action hero mode, complete with snappy one-liners, and somehow that cheapens the movie.  And Schwarzenager’s scenes as Hauser, the “real” personality before the memory overlay which created Quaid, come off as a grinningly evil caricature.

Michael Ironside, as the chief heavy for the bad guys, is wrath and anger personified.  Ronny Cox, in the role as the more cerebral evil mastermind, is delightfully smarmy, and the two together are fairly riveting on the screen.  Rachel Ticotin, in the role of Melina, Quaid’s one true love, is little more than adequate, though truthfully she doesn’t have much to work with.  Sharon Stone—in her first film role as Quaid’s ”wife”—is fresh-faced, beautiful, and fairly effective, especially when she realizes her cover is blown and she becomes angry.

Three other (unfortunately minor) performances stuck out—first, Robert (“Bobby”) Costanzo as one of Quaid’s co-workers who really works at the Agency.  The Brooklyn-born actor is a lot of fun to watch on the screen, and seems very real.  Another performance of note is Debbie Lee Carrington, who plays Thumbelina.  A “little person” and a stuntwoman, she, too, is a lot of fun to watch, and rather convincingly fires a machine gun in one memorable scene.  Finally, Mel Johnson Jr., as Benny, the mutant cab driver who betrays the heroes to the government, is a walking, talking stereotype, but he’s also magnetic and his performance is a lot of fun.

Thematically, the movie is a bit of a mess.  In terms of plot structure, it’s even worse.  Essentially, the movie starts out as a rather unconventional and thought-provoking story dominated by questions of identity and memory.  And then it changes, almost without warning, and becomes a violent roller coaster ride through vales of idiocy, paying only lip service to the themes and questions it invokes at the outset (with one startling exception).

Of course, there’s a reason for this, and it’s probably rooted in the unusual development history of the movie.  It’s based on a very short little story, and as Dan O’Bannon, one of the initial scriptwriters, would later say, the story merely gives the first act of the movie; acts two and three would have to be invented from scratch.  O’Bannon is the one who said they should take Quaid, the protagonist, to Mars, though his story would have been very different from what—eventually—made it onto the big screen.  David Cronenberg later stated that he was intrigued because the story started off as pure Philip K. Dick (“this very wonderful beginning”), but then no one knew what to do with it.  Cronenberg rewrote the script (12 times), and then, in a meeting, the following dialogue occurred:

Shusett:  You know what you’ve done? You’ve done the Philip K. Dick version.

Cronenberg:  Well, yeah.

Shusett:  No, no, we want Raiders of the Lost Ark Goes to Mars.

Cronenberg:  Well, Jeez, I wish we’d all had this discussion twelve months ago — it wouldn’t have wasted all our time!

(from Tales From Development Hell by David Hughes).  Cronenberg departed the project at that point, since his vision was incompatible with that of de Laurentis and Shusett.

So, ironically enough, a story about a man with two identities is embedded in a movie that’s not sure what it wants to be…a thoughtful and thought-provoking story about a man with no real past and the manipulative jerks who created him, struggling to become real, and a violent story about a rebellion against corporate tyranny for the sake of freedom.  It is this schizophrenic quality of the film that robs it of its power, though it does have other scripting issues.

That said, and ignoring the script’s believability issues, the two parts of the film actually work—and even work well—independently of one another.  It is only their misbegotten marriage that creates the problem.  At least in part, this is due to the fact that once the action starts, it doesn’t stop.  Verhoeven’s pacing is strictly a sprint, and the breathless pace doesn’t really give the viewer much time to ponder questions of identity and memory until Verhoeven is good and ready to let those questions resurface.  However, the action movie doesn’t do much more than pay lip service to the philosophical question movie, and that fact mars the promise of the film.  To put it another way, the opening third of the film promises to deal with the issue of who Quaid is if his memories are all false, while the action movie doesn’t fulfill that promise.

Nowhere is this more evident than in what could have been one of the penultimate scenes of the movie.  After Quaid first encounters his one true love, Melina, on Mars, and is rejected as a double agent, he returns to his hotel room.  There, he encounters his wife and Dr. Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith).  Edgemar, the owner of Rekall, attempts to convince Quaid that he’s still sitting in the chair at Rekall, undergoing a psychotic episode and refusing to face reality.  All it will take, Edgemar says, is to take a pill, the psychological symbol of attempting to get well, to break the psychosis and return to normal.  Quaid’s wife, Lori, is there to beg him to take the pill and to return to her and their life together.  And in true action movie style, Quaid spots that Edgemar has a bead of sweat on his bald pate, deduces that everything is actually real, and that he must not take the pill.  Instead, he shoots Edgemar and raging combat ensues when the backup goons, and then Melina, ride to the rescue of their respective sides.

The scene quite competently eviscerates everything that the opening act sets up, establishing once and for all that the entire sequence of events is reality.  Instead of playing to the promise of the movie, the script actually rejects it as a cheap trick and never looks back.  That betrayal accomplished, the movie once again takes off at high speed, delivering non-stop—and stupid and senseless—action.

Some say that a willing suspension of disbelief makes the movie enjoyable, but frankly, Total Recall tests the viewer’s ability to willingly suspend disbelief in a number of ways.  Just off the top of my head, there’s a bug in Quaid’s head which can be blocked by a wet towel (which stays wet, no matter what), but not concrete, steel girders, etc.  That same bug, which is rather larger than a marble, can nevertheless be pulled out of Quaid’s head through the nose.  His mask, a total head covering, features a telescoping rod which would occupy some of the space of his head when not extended.  The bad guys carry guns on Mars, when a shot through one of the apparently ordinary glass windows will (and does) expose everyone to the nearly airless surface of Mars.  The Martian surface can effectively kill the main villain while an equal time of exposure not only fails to kill Quaid and Melina but also leaves no significant injury.  The Martian reactor, the product of alien technology, can give Mars sufficient atmosphere so that people can walk around in the space of less than four minutes.  And where does that atmosphere come from, you might ask?  It’s a glacier, buried under the martian soil.  It may, or may not, be a planet-wide feature….  I don’t mention Mars’ lesser gravity, since Hollywood never seems to pay attention to gravity when it’s less than Earth-normal, probably because no one has figured out how to do it convincingly and cheaply.

So…irreconcilable differences between the first part of the film and the middle and ending, paired up with a down-right silly story which ignores physical reality.  If it’s that bad, why do so many people like it?  I think it’s because, whatever else is going on, Arnold Schwarzenager has charisma to burn, and it’s a fast-paced, action-packed thrill ride which never lets up.  The violence, mild gore, shocking imagery and speedy transitions may well mean that most viewers simply sit back and enjoy the ride, without paying much attention to the movie’s defects.  In that sense, the movie is actually a triumph of the film-maker’s art, and it is a reasonably fun ride.

One last thought:  some of the quibbles I have with the movie could be said to employ a kind of dream logic, thereby deliberately playing to the question of whether or not Quaid’s experiences are real or not.  If that’s so, the movie is an even greater failure than I imagined, as Quaid’s memories of his trip to Mars as a secret agent will never be, in any way, compatible with reality.  When he wakes up, Rekall’s implanted memories will stick out like a sore thumb, and he’ll know them for what they are.

Wrap-Up

If you’re in the market for a big dumb action film that never lets up, and you’re prepared for that ride to ignore the laws of physics, Total Recall is well worth the price of admission.  If, like me, you expect your movies to make sense on every level—even if that’s only in terms of internal logic in the worst-case scenario—you might want to give this one a miss.  If the movie hadn’t promised more than the roller coaster ride it actually delivers, I might have been okay with it, but as it stands I have to consider the movie a failure.

It’s worth mentioning that a remake is due to hit the big screen this summer.

On the plus side, the movie did spur me to go out and pick up a Philip K. Dick short story collection containing “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” and that reading experience was definitely worth it.

Related articles

• TOTAL RECALL – First Promo Banner (geektyrant.com)
• ‘Total Recall’ Teaser Trailer Hits the Web (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• WATCH: ‘Total Recall’ Trailer Teaser Unleashed (huffingtonpost.com)
• New Total Recall One-Sheet and Motion Art Blow in from the Fringe (dreadcentral.com)
• http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/558053/total_recall_20_years_on.html

RYAN’S REVIEW

OK…..maybe I took a History of Pirates course in college, and received credit for it as part of my American history studies.  The class sounded really cool at the time and should have been really, but it was a disappointment in the end.  We more or less spent the summer semester watching movies about pirates, such as this one.  I do in fact really like this movie, but I have to be honest.  When this film is being viewed in a college class then both time and money has been wasted.

I find this film really exciting mainly because I was eleven years old when I first saw it and it was the most awesome movie ever.  I still enjoy this movie because while it is over the top and regularly ridiculous it is still awesome. This film is, or at least was, actually listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office bust of all time.  It is the movie that put Carolco Pictures in the tank being the last movie the studio made before filing for bankruptcy.  Carolco Pictures made many big time action movies during the 80s and early 90s, many starring Stallone or Schwarzenegger.  This movie literally put an end to pirate themed movies until Disney made Pirates of the Caribbean.   While the movie does deserve plenty of the criticism it receives the film isn’t as bad a plenty others that only stand apart because they made more money. This movie was made on a $98 million budget and had a US gross of only $10 million.  That is pretty low but I really don’t understand why more people didn’t go to see it.  I think obviously the world wasn’t ready for Geena Davis to be a powerhouse action star.

Geena Davis was actually married to the director of the film, Renny Harlin.  He obviously wasn’t thinking straight when he decided to cast his wife, and he practically killed her career.  Although they would do another over the top action movie a year later that I also love, it was the Long Kiss Godnight . I am a big fan of Geena Davis and irregardless how campy and goofy she might be in this role I still liked her as a pirate.  Her lines are dumb, but she looked so good and she is always kicking ass.  Matthew Modine did nothing to advance his disappointing career with this role.  His lines are worse than Davis’s and he doesn’t deliver them as well. I do like Frank Langella as the bad guy though, it’s a shame nobody saw this movie simply because he does do a good job.  He will never be able to top his best role as a villian though.

I have been pretty open about the fact that I can be a sucker for a stupid action movie so this movie is obviously right up my alley.  It is overloaded with action to the point that I am shocked the budget was on $98 million.  On top of all the action the movie does great work in production.  The costumes look good, the sets and ships look good.  The movie follows many cliches about pirates but I’d have to say that was appropriate for an action packed pirate movie.  I’m pretty sure Renny wasn’t after any Academy Awards when he made this one. He just wanted to make a fun action movie, and there is alot to be said about a fun movie you don’t have to put too much thought into.

AMBER’S REVIEW

Ryan told me this movie was still good even though it holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest box office flop in history. How can it still be good? That is like saying Gigli was a good movie. That movie may have even surpassed this one in box office flops. When we watched this movie the other night I thought I was going to die. This movie is completely boring and unrealistic. And although I really do like Geena Davis, I really can’t stand her in this movie. I also just in general did not like this movie. Unless you are an eleven year old boy, I wouldn’t recommend watching this movie. It is a total snooze fest.

NEXT MOVIE: The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Most of Recall is along those lines. It’s Verhoeven showing off. He mixes a rough, violent action picture with a high-minded sci-fi story and the result is rather successful. There are a handful of bad performances, but Schwarzenegger’s fine in the lead and the movie’s mostly him so it works out. There are also a bunch of good performances; while they can’t overcome the bad ones, they help.

Worst are Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside. Stone’s just plain bad, nothing special, but Ironside’s in a spot in Recall. He’s this big heavy (supposedly) but he’s opposite Ronny Cox, who knows how to play a big heavy. Ironside gets chewed up in their scenes together.

Mel Johnson Jr. is fairly awful, but Rachel Ticotin is all right. Marshall Bell and Ray Baker are great.

The film’s greatest asset is Verhoeven. He manages to make it a slyly absurdist comedy. With editors Frank J. Urioste and Carlos Puente, he constructs these wonderful tight scenes. His composition isn’t particularly thoughtful; he’s utilizing forceful action in the shots.

It’s pretty darned good.

CREDITS

Directed by Paul Verhoeven; screenplay by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon and Gary Goldman, based on a screen story by Shusett, O’Bannon and Jon Povill and a short story by Philip K. Dick; director of photography, Jost Vacano; edited by Frank J. Urioste and Carlos Puente; music by Jerry Goldsmith; production designer, William Sandell; produced by Shusett and Buzz Feitshans; released by Carolco Pictures.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (Douglas Quaid), Rachel Ticotin (Melina), Sharon Stone (Lori), Ronny Cox (Vilos Cohaagen), Michael Ironside (Richter), Marshall Bell (George), Mel Johnson Jr. (Benny), Michael Champion (Helm), Roy Brocksmith (Dr. Edgemar) and Ray Baker (Bob McClane).

Related posts:

• Starship Troopers (1997, Paul Verhoeven)
• Hollow Man (2000, Paul Verhoeven), the director's cut
• Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)
• Aliens (1986, James Cameron), the special edition
• Small Soldiers (1998, Joe Dante)

The 1980s had their share of science fiction/fantasy films, but as time passed (and Dune proved just not anyone could do it), they became lower budget and foreign-funded until they practically disappeared. Carolco put together Stargate, so it probably did have a lot of foreign money in it, but special effects had changed by the time Stargate came along… there was CG. Stargate hardly uses it, but, at the time, morphing was still big. Watching the film, I realized Stargate is one of the most influential films of the last twenty years. It’s content-less adventure (albeit, without the pop culture references now a cornerstone of blockbusters–thanks to Pulp Fiction of all things), it’s a blockbuster without integrity. Before Stargate, with the exception of Rocky IV, blockbusters tended to have some integrity. Stargate wasn’t even a blockbuster, but it was the prototype for the blockbusters immediately following–when Spielberg, in a sense, lost the blockbuster. The film’s legacy–and it does have one–is integrity-free CG. Computer generation imagery would not be a special special effect, it would be mundane. This legacy didn’t play out immediately (Dragonheart failed, for instance), but by 1996 and 1997, it was in full effect–and it’s produced absolutely nothing of value.

Again, Stargate isn’t too bad. It’s so bland–though one can amuse oneself by recognizing the Spielberg “homages,” there are plenty from Raiders of the Lost Ark–it just passes the time. Emmerich’s direction is okay. The film is very pretty and his shot composition is fine, uninteresting but fine. While the writing is incredibly stupid, since Devlin and Emmerich hadn’t yet hit the big time, it’s not offensive. I rented it because I’ve been watching Spader so much on “Boston Legal” I was curious and he’s fine. I’d forgotten Kurt Russell was in it (I think Stargate actually relaunched his brief mid-1990s film career, Kurt Russell has a lot of career relaunches). He’s awful when he’s supposed to be mourning (his son died playing with one of his guns, which I think Devlin probably lifted from “Beverly Hills, 90210”), but there are moments when he can’t help smiling. He’s good in those moments and he and Spader actually have a couple good scenes together. John Diehl shows up, getting more lines than usual. I won’t even discuss Jaye Davidson, though Emmerich and Devlin did always interestingly cast and miscast. For example, French Stewart is in Stargate. As a soldier no less.

Stargate isn’t worth getting virulent about. I suppose in recognizing its terrible aftereffects, one could easily rant (and I do realize I talked about the film for one paragraph of four–there’s just not enough in the movie to talk about it’s so shallow). Hollywood rarely produces–anymore–free dumb movies. Today (and immediately following Stargate practically) dumb movies come at a cost–the realization of sitting through the dumb movie and feeling stupid for it. In fact, I think film audiences have passed through that phase and now, they no longer expect to engage with filmic narratives… nor do they particularly want such engagement. As it works out, Stargate is, by default, a lot better tripe than today’s tripe.

CREDITS

Directed by Roland Emmerich; written by Dean Devlin and Emmerich; director of photography, Karl Walter Lindenlaub; edited by Derek Brechin and Michael J. Duthie; music by David Arnold; production designer, Holger Gross; produced by Devlin, Oliver Eberle and Joel B. Michaels; released by Carolco Pictures.

Starring Kurt Russell (Col. Jack O’Neil), James Spader (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Viveca Lindfors (Catherine Langford, Ph.D.), Alexis Cruz (Skaara), Mili Avital (Sha’uri), Leon Rippy (General West), John Diehl (Lieutenant Kawalsky), Carlos Lauchu (Anubis), Djimon Hounsou (Horus), Erick Avari (‘Good Father’ Kasuf), French Stewart (Lieutenant Ferretti), Gianin Loffler (Nabeh) and Jaye Davidson (Ra).

Related posts:

• Universal Soldier (1992, Roland Emmerich)
• Moon 44 (1990, Roland Emmerich)
• Paul (2011, Greg Mottola)
• Jurassic Park III (2001, Joe Johnston)
• Loose Cannons (1990, Bob Clark)