This is not a review of the movie Total Recall; I haven't watched it recently. No, this is the review of the DVD itself.See, a friend of mine asked me today for some TV series I'd recommend. So I decided to look over my collection tonight for something to suggest. And as I was perusing the shelves, I came across what has to be the worst "special edition DVD" I own -- Total Recall.
For starters, observe the packaging above. It comes in a round tin shaped like the planet Mars, exactly the size of the disc. It rolls right off your shelf. (That little paper thing next to it was just for the store. It disintegrated in fairly short order after you removed the shrink wrap.)
Then it has the worst DVD commentary track I have ever listened to. (The part I heard, anyway; I couldn't stomach the whole thing.) This is The Room of DVD commentaries. Paul Verhoeven (director of the film) and Arnold Schwarzenegger got together to record it.
For the entire time, Schwarzenegger is basically narrating everything that's happening on screen. "In this scene, my character doesn't know if his wife is telling him the truth or not." Meanwhile, Paul Verhoeven is describing minutia about camera angles. "This shot is a set. This shot is green screen. Back to the set. Back to green screen." (As with Arnold's comments, we can see this.)
But pushing it all over the top is the contest they seem to be having to "out-accent" each other. It's a good thing neither is actually sharing anything insightful; you'd be hard pressed to understand it.
This DVD marked a turning point for me where I became much more choosy about buying DVDs for the special features. If the disc were to just accidentally roll away some day, I'm not sure I'd miss it.
4 comments:
I'm pretty sure you would NOT miss it. Especially since, well, the movie's rather bad.
I've watched it again recently, and I found it okay in a few places, and really terrible in several places.
(Although I found it rather cool when it was first released...)
FKL
I had a moment where I thought about defending it, but it was a popcorn movie when it came out...20 years ago this summer.
That stings a bit. Ouch.
And I've had this little sucker roll across the room several times, along with its partner in crime, the original Batman Soundtrack tin. That's pretty much when I stopped with the collectible packaging.
my Homer Simpson-Head season 6 plastic case says "hi!" (and then "doh!")
I gotta jump to the defense of one of my favorite movies, even without nostalgia goggles TR is a great sci fi spin on memory implant vacations. and sure it might seem hokey with the alien stuff but then that means it was just a memory and not real, right? isn't that what they advertised to sell him in the movie?
what bothers me is that the blu-ray I bought doesn't seem to be anything different than a DVD that's on a blu-ray disc. but it does have a normal-size case...
the mole
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