Thursday, August 2, 2012

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, August 3rd)


Andrew: Hello readers! It’s time once again for our weekly preview, but this one promises to be a short one. There are only two wide releases this week – Len Wiseman’s remake of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall, and a third installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Sarah, let’s start with the bigger of the two, Total Recall. For those unfamiliar with the original film, the remake appears to be pretty similar.

It stars Colin Farrell as a workingman named Doug Quaid (previously played by AH-nuld). He’s unhappy with his blue-collar job and yearns for a more exciting life. Going against the advice of his co-workers he goes to a business called Rekall who offer to implant false memories in you for a recreational experience. From there all hell breaks loose as he can’t tell if he’s truly the spy it appears he is, or if it’s all just the memory given to him by Rekall. (Check out the trailer below.)

Official Trailer for Total Recall

Sarah, you’ve never seen the original so what are your thoughts on the premise of this film?


Sarah: I like the cerebral thriller feel to this movie. Since I don’t know how it ends from the original, I am looking forward to the thrill of figuring out what’s real and what’s fake.

This movie also stars two of Hollywood’s hottest women, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel. It looks like Beckinsale plays Farrell’s wife…or is she? And Biel is an agent that claims to partners with Ferrell. I will be interested to see how these two play off of each other.

A: I also love the concept of the film. I loved it when I first saw the original version; I loved it when I read the short story by Philip K. Dick that it’s based on, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” when I was in high school, and I still love it.

But here’s my hesitation with the remake: I like Wiseman’s other films (Underworld, Underworld 2 and Live Free or Die Hard) for what they are – mindless action films. But with a concept like this, and from the looks of the trailer, I’m worried that Wiseman is going to ignore the more cerebral aspects of the plot and it’ll just be a shoot ‘em up.

S: Yeah I can see where that might be a little bit of an issue. But this cast is so amazing, that I feel like if someone doesn’t bring some sort of quality to this film that it will be disappointing for a lot of people.

I don’t have super high expectations for this movie since I have nothing to go on, so that might make me a little more excited for this one. I think it will be a fun action movie.

A: I’m totally with you on the cast. It LOOKS like the cast should do a great job carrying this film. I like Farrell and think he’s just needed more leading opportunities like this film and last year’s Fright Night. Beckinsale looks like she’s having a blast just in the trailer alone; you can never go wrong with Bryan Cranston or Bill Nighy; and even though it looks like he’s not in it much, we really like John Cho.

Ok, so this will be a film we check out for sure this weekend. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days? Not so much. You wanna take lead on this one?

S: This is yet another movie based on the Wimpy Kid book series. Definitely geared toward the kid crowd. Which is good because for the past couple of weeks it has been all about the big action blockbusters. This one will get all the families back out into the movies this weekend.

Official Trailer for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days


Will we see it? No. But you can bet that this one will make a bunch of money.

A: I’ll have to take your word for it since I haven’t seen either of the first two. But clearly they make SOME sort of money, otherwise they wouldn’t keep making them.

Ok readers! Be on the lookout for our review of Total Recall at some point this weekend! And as always, thanks for reading! 

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