In the original post-download fight scene he's fighting more human opponents. They're sweaty, overweight, covered in wounds. They scream and grimace as they are hit. They and Quaid's blows are clumsy and desperate. These are all things that make the fighting more relatable to ordinary human experience, and thus more realistic and gritty. Whereas in the remake it's a larger group of clean, masked and identical assailants. Everything about them says 'we are not characters'. And if they are not characters, the audience has less reason to worry the hero is in any danger.
Also in remake there is also robots that looks assentially the same as this cops same white armor same movement. Its honestly gets way too boring after a while like that marvel move where they fought endless bots in the end.
Agree w all of it but, also, Arnie is big enough that him fighting vs four plainly clothed, plain guys and wining is believable, while in the remake, they're armored special-force dudes. Each of them seems to weigh significantly more (whit armor) than rQuaid so the whole scene is cartoon-like in the way he handles them. At least dance-like. Breaks immersion.
I felt the Matrix style camera movement was the biggest distraction to the engagement of this scene. It made what he was doing much less impactful because of the silly circle and distance. Arnold's scene was close up and gritty which created much more tension...
People always whine about how awful Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzneggers are, i don’t care, I will always be completely entertained and engaged by their screen presence more the snark and overbearing fake charm and endless yapping of The Rock or John Cena. Sylvester and Arnold could stare and deliver exactly the emotional punch needed, or make the audience understand the stakes at hand, both had genuinely unique movies under their belt too, they didn’t just cash in they tried to do new stories. I don’t see The Rock doing something like Cobra, Nighthawks, Cliffhanger or on the other hand Total Recall, Predator, The Running Man. They did classic blockbusters but they also provided vehicles for cool interesting concept-films. They never bore me personally, when they’re on screen I’m just completely attentive.
I think that, in that moment, I didn't need to see an actor, but rather experience how Arnie and Sly would handle the situation. :) By the way, over the years they have both developed into respectable actors.
@@GuineaPigEveryday In all fairness, the industry itself changed, and no one is making those kinds of films anymore. The Rock and John Cena, whatever their aspirations, have to adapt to the current landscape.
Arnie was just the rock before the rock. He's a slightly better actor but just like the rock, he basically just plays an action or comedy version of himself ever so slightly tweaked
it makes sense in the world. Arnie Quaid works on construction so is going to be strong. And clearly works out. But not everyone who works out is a combat master, so his fighting is raw and quite unskilled (his memories and training are only just starting to re-emerge). The raw power is what carries him through and it makes sense he has that. Doug Farrell doesn't look amazingly strong but is throwing people in combat armour around like ragdolls. It breaks immersion.
This is really the problem with the PG-13-ification of violence. By removing the sound fx and squibs that make violence feel more real, it creates this bizarre distance and I think it takes the viewer out of the movie. If you don't want to show graphic violence in your movie, fine, then choreograph a fight that doesn't involve those kinds of hits/kills. But I think it's oddly jarring to see what should be horrific violence done in such a sanitized way. If people criticize violent movies by saying they desensitize viewers to the violent acts, id argue that pg13 action movies are actually worse. They remove the weight and danger that violence actually poses to people. Either represent violence and bloodshed in a way that respects life and its fragility, or dont.
Completely agree! I think what’sgood about the Captain American elevator fight is he’s trying to incapacitate people rather than kill them so it changes the choreography to reflect that.
We can also attribute this 'PG13-fication' of Hollywood action films to the gun fu choreography of the 80s Hong Kong stunt choreography influenced by Jackie Chan and John Woo, where the flow and rhythm of the action is an important part of the scene and kinda turns violence into an art form making it less raw and brutal and more clean and aesthetic. Directors who grew up on 80s films and Jackie Chan movies attempted to replicate the flow and rhythm of the HK action films in their works but added their own MTV video twist, since if memory serves me correctly, a lot of these new and upcoming directors back then were from the MTV generation and some also started out by directing MTV videos.
@@johnlloyddy7016 Yes and no -- keep in mind that there was nothing clean about John Woo's aftermath. A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled were squibbed to the gills, and gallons of bloow flowed in the aftermath of those shootouts. Jackie Chan? Sure, he avoided a lot of the bloody squibbing of the 80s ultra-violence era, but John Woo absolutely embraced it, and I would say that John Woo was to Hong Kong cinema ultra-violence what Paul Verhoeven and Joel Silver were to Western Cinema ultra-violence.
The difference, IMO, is that fight scenes used to look better because they were a lot more _raw_ and looked less choreographed back then. Action movie fights used to look like it could be regular guys having a punch up with some gritty sound effects and squibs thrown in to make it more dramatic, then the Matrix came along and every fight choreographer had to have 27 black belts and fights started looking obviously choreographed, which has the effect of breaking the audiences suspension of disbelief.
Absolutely. If you look at 80's hong kong action they initially had weight to all of the choreography but then devolved into basically dance choreography. After the matrix the over choreography ruined hollywood aswell. Jackie Chan in his first three decades was constantly hurt in the context of the movies (and real life) and battling through was what really sold the action. Like when him and an opponet took a few moments to rub their shins or when he was trapped in a deadend and was brutalized with thrown glass bottles. Once he got to hollywood he became a cartoon.
The fight scene in the remake looks like a video game cut scene. The original scene looks like a real, terrifying situation. You can buy that Arnie could kill 4 guys in that situation, by taking the initiative but in the remake, you can tell that a bunch of stuntment are taking turns getting punched.That remake sucks ass. A fucking elevator through the Earth. My fucking God.
Pretty cringe take. Someones a boomer who doesn't play video games, cuz no game plays like that. Also video games are dope so what tf is your point? Remakes far better. And more accurate. Cope and seethe.
@@RevRyukin7 what are you talking about? It's literally like in some video game, when you can easily beat up five low level mobs even if they look like pros in full tactical gear. Are you 10 yo or something?
My friend Steve Lambert, who was a Gung Fu master and member of The Five Dragons (Al Leong, James Lee, Douglas Wong and Eric Lee) was in Total Recall. He was the guy on the escalator who gets sprayed and thrown. Sadly, Steve passed away a couple years ago, but he was absolutely brilliant and his work in Martial Arts and Film live on.
Sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. But thanks to bringing him to my attention, I'm now watching RUclips videos on his career! And as someone who works BTL in the film industry, I love hearing about my fellow crew members.
This is the first rated R movie I was allowed to watch with my dad. I was only 11. My dad has passed now and I still watch this at least once a year. Makes me think happy thoughts about my pops. Thank you for your video
@@na7uree540 I’m sorry to hear about your loss :( it is amazing how films can connect us to those we love even (especially?) when they’re no longer with us. Thanks for sharing about your pops.
I feel that in the remake fight (with him taking on like 12 faceless dude who all have guns and armor but he easily dispatches the roomful of them without a scratch) it just screams "now he's dreaming, this is a video game its not real" whereas in the original it maintains a flavor of mystery right up to the end of the film whether he's in the artificial experience or not.
Total Recall 1990 is up there with T2 and the Matrix for 90s sci fi action. Unlike those other visionary classics, it acknowledges class as having a role in human fate.
The violence in Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall is so much more visceral, especially when Douglas Quaid has to defend himself from Harry and his men. This is a fight where, even though the hero is portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, there is no promise Quaid will survive. This is a ferocious street fight with a sense of jeopardy and true risk In only moments of brutality, with straightforward, easy to follow camera work, it creates an emotional investment in "Arnold" Quaid. Like him, the audience is confused as to how he "switched on" into a trained killer and is in for the ride all the way to Mars By comparison, in Total Recall 2.0, the inciting violent encounter between "Colin" Quaid and the Next Gen Stormtroopers, it looks more like a "non-skippable cut scene" from a pretentious hideo kojima video game The cinematography is *_TOO_* sophisticated and self-congratulatory, the violence is *_TOO_* smooth with obsequiously compliant assailants, so much it instantly removes the audience from the moment and attention lapses because they think there is no danger Violence is ugly and not a bloodless dance routine, which is why Total Recall 1990 is the superior film
Problem with the remake imo, is that the action scene doesn’t have a ‘punch’ to it. The original does, the sound effect, emphasis on certain actions and the blood.
In the remake the camera is performing most of the action, which is distracting. I find the original fight scene more effective. The actors are performing the action, and the camera finds the most effective angle, while the editing defines the pace. I generally detest many modern action movies because of their overuse and abuse of dynamic and impossible cg camera motion. It takes the viewer out of the reality of the scene. The Matrix basically originated it, but in that movie it was well motivated because we were in an artificial, hyper-real world.
@@aliensoup2420yeah. They’re trying to make it exciting by making the camera exciting. But the fight should be the excitement! We don’t whirl cameras around in MMA or boxing or other martial Arts!
The finale of this shot is the best. When he is standing over all the dead guys with the gun in his hand and the blood is on the walls and the shot is very very wide. That is a panel straight out of a comic book
"Consider that a divorce!" The original is full of good lines and writing that I can still remember even though I haven't seen it in years. I remember I watched the remake once... Can't remember it at all hardly
So on my 30s birthday I want to a cabin in Norway. I'd bought this film on dvd earlier that day in the nearest town. Found it in a bargain bucket. Well this famous scene started and it kept cutting to black. I thought the dvd player was broken. Turns out the dvd was a Swedish censored copy, so in a rage I frisbeed it off the balcony.
@@ricardogalvan1031 I think they may have got to a point where they said enough was enough after hundreds of years of pillage, and then they went and ruined the film ☹️
The problem with intricately choreographed balletic action is that it kind of looks like the bad guys are co-operating with the choreography. Which they are, of course, because they're stuntmen. But in the Verhoeven version, the slightly clunky fight moves come off looking more real, precisely because they're not so perfectly choreographed.
The irony is that Richter never did go to the party. Jokes aside, Total Recall is my favourite Arnie film. It's possibly my actual favourite film. Though Starship Troopers Ive seen more.
Verhoeven has always been my favourite director up to Denis Villeneuve. Both use action as a method of storytelling, not just because 'car go boom'. I did watch a youtube essay claiming that even Showgirls was genius.....but even I struggled with agreeing to that.
@@nu1x Conan the Barbarian vs Conan the Destroyer has the same argument as the two versions of Total Recall. Barbarian was dark, gritty, and felt more fantasy. Destroyer was overproduced, too big a cast, and much more bright and colorful, but didn't seem as tense as the first movie at all.
my personal disliking with over the top action scenes like in the remake is that it doesnt seem possible. the first one feels legit, its one gunman who didnt shoot because he didnt react quick enough to being kicked in the chest, far from realostic but it feels plausable. the police in the back rows wouldnt have waited when the main character starts grappling with the close officers
Entirely unrelated to the fight choreography, but I love that you can see the "concrete" wall shake a little when Arnie slams the guys into it. There's something endearing about little 'low-budget' moments like that in 90's films, it makes them feel more human compared to the CGI-packed stuff we have now.
I personally don't like the overly choreographed fight scenes in movies these days. They look too obviously scripted, which kills my suspension of disbelief.
Definitely part of the fashion at the moment. LIKE STORIES OF OLD (a youtube channel) had a pretty good video on the current trends in fight choreography - though I'd place it in a larger conversation about movement culture/
I think in far too many action movies, they forget the character in the action scenes. They forget if it even makes sense if a character can do kung-fu. They forget if they've ever even shot a gun. They forget if they might fight in a less structured way. They forget if they'd use their environment. They forget everything because they want to do a particular move.
While this is true in a lot of what you're saying, I'm not sure that applies to Total Recall, considering that Quaid was supposed to be a hyper-competent super secret agent, holding a rating with everything that fired a projectile or held an edge, and the combative training to kill several men in physical combat. But he was "asleep" before that. It wasn't that he just "magically" had those abilities. It was that he had them all along, they were just suppressed/buried.
The cinematography process in 2012 is much more elaborate and complex, yet it gives us just another generic and forgettable fight scene with no emotional connection to the protagonist.
I don't care if you're the toughest badass that ever lived. There's no "air" time in real life. No one in the real world can fist fight his way out of a ten-man squad with submachine guns.
Yeah, and the way the guy does it is even unrealistic. There's no concern for fighting smart, using cover, waiting for the right moment or any of the things that would convey to the audience that this is a dire situation. It's just "I'm a superhero, so I'll effortlessly take on this whole squad of troopers out in the open in hand to hand combat." The remake character just doesn't show any respect for the danger he's in. With Arnold, you see his character clearly respect the gun as a weapon that could kill him.
Precisely BECAUSE the hero is not fucked up, the story lacks gravitas. The death and rebirth of the Hero is super important, examples being movies like "Yojimbo" and every other Hero Comeback story with great impact.
there's lots of body horror in the first total recall, adding to the feeling anything can happen. It opens with that dream sequence and arnie's face getting destroyed
There are two things I liked of the 2012 remake, the first one is that the roads from the future city look like they could be from the same universe as "Minority Report" and also a good choice to cast Bryan Cranston as Cohagen, even though Ronny Cox is still a good "rotten bastard" in that film. The original one, will always be a classic and since I live in Mexico City, it is great to visit some of the filming locations in my daily life, or at least when I happen to visit those locations.
This scene, and that final shot of the fight scene, the composition is akin to a Renaissance painting. The brutal fight scene into beautiful composition is memorable and really sets the tone and trajectory of the film.
Each shot is just framed so well! You see the action and the target in the same shot, close enough to understand it but wide enough so you don’t get lost. It’s super clean.
So I hate the 2012 fight scene. I know that if you're on a SWAT type team you have a lot of training. Weapons and hand to hand training. Even if you're on a crappy SWAT team you'll just shoot and hit your target from 10 yards away. The Bourne movies changed fight scenes in movies forever bringing in a realism that is cool but your "Jason Bourne" character still has to have realistic enemies to fight. The 2012 movie SWAT team are basically a bunch of Star Wars Stormtroopers.
I really like how you've mentioned 'movement culture' in this video. I never really put much thought into how types of combat fall in and out of popularity, as when I view an action film I just immediately think 'oh it's this kind or that kind of an action flick.' Movement culture is going to be one of those things that always come to mind when I watch older or newer action movies now.
Well, it was intended to be a tv show and it never went to series, so they made a TV movie out of it. It’s still a remake tho! It may not be cynical one but there is so many similar scenes, it’s wild.
@@_shotzerowhat do u mean there is ‘so many similar scenes’ its the same script for both, he had to cut it down the first time, he didn’t ‘remake’ the scenes, he did the same script but with bigger budget and more time
Great subject matter for a video to explore. Me and my film bros for decades always have defended the violence in this and the Director's previous film RoboCop as not realistic violence or cartoonish violence or violence that is just a series of quick-cuts, extreme close-ups, rapid-fire editing in low lightening that results in incomprehensible action. His movie's violence always seems to follow the satirical themes of his movies and have a seriously dark comedy vibe element through line running through them. But the action itself reminds me of Jackie Chan action where there is actual imagination and creativity in each action set piece that has an inspired way each person is dispatched and inventive solution to how the hero gets out of each violent situation. They all have an almost musicality and balletic rhythm to all of it they follow that has an ebb and flow. The Auh-nold action scene using the dead body as a human shield as he dispenses with his adversaries is a step by step master course on the building blocks of comedy. The body keeps getting hit with more bullets as the scene goes on, becoming more and more mutilated and disfigured till it's wildly ridiculously over the top and then culminates with Auh-nuld remorselessly tossing the bullet riddled corpse aside like discarded trash nary a second thought, like a cold efficient world class spy would, which just the matter of factness of the zero empathy given to his ruthless top tier skill set is poker face hilarious. Tarantino violence can also often be so heightened and stylized to the point of parody, but just on the edge of it, but his violence also usually has a streak of black comedy running through them. And people always die memorably.
Really enjoyed this longer format video. Hadn't seen the remake until watching but you've made me appreciate some of it. The Arnie version is one of my favourite movies for so many reasons, but I didn't expect these few scenes to be as interesting as you made them. Hoping you do more!
@_shotzero - Speaking of brutal fights, my memory is that the fight between Alabama and Virgil in True Romance is one of the most realistically visceral I've seen on film.
Since Neo popularized the 'skinny' action hero focus has shifted from brisk force to grace and acrobatics. My mind is drawn to a movie right on the curve of the change, Blade with Wesley Snipes, an excellent action movie with satisfying fights, and a film where every blow told a 'story'. So perhaps that's what is comes down to, 'the fight must help tell the bigger 'story,' and not be there for its own sake.' Even choreographed -looking fights can be good, IF the choreography tells the story and reveals the characters. Ps Applying this rule suggests that: 'if your (fighting) 'moves' are interchangeable between characters then your choreography is bad.'
When the Total Recall remake came out, there were a BUNCH of BTS videos, and they kept talking about this sequence. They were gushing over and over - especially Bruckheimer - about how this "has never been seen in a movie before." They were so interested in the execution of this SHOT that the final result lacks emotion. Like action sequences that do 1,000 cuts - blip blip blip blip - there's no emotion. What makes the original Arnie/Verhoeven movie action sequences work, just like Bourne and Matrix, is that you not only have enough wides to know the geography, but reaction shots from the characters to convey mental state and emergency problem solving. That translates into a more EMOTIONAL action sequence, which has a more lasting impact than, "Isn't it so cool how we made the camera zip around the room really fast?! Oh, by the way, our main character is fighting for his life - and he has NO idea that he can fight like this..."
Great commentary. I grew up in the ultra violent, hard R years of Hollywood and miss it. I absolutely LOVE the brutality in Dredd and had hoped it was the start of a renaissance. Unfortunately, ignorant movie goers compared it to The Raid and thought Dredd was ripping it off. I'm sure it's a good film (I could not make it more than halfway through before I just got bored of t it, honestly. I've seen everything it does, more or less, in the dozens of Chinese kung-fu movies I've seen) but the pacing, brutality and simplicity of Dredd are just so good. It's definitely on my "I watch at least once a year" list.
the problem with real modern cinematography is how everything is choreographed way too clean. the original, the scene you showed us looks like a believable street fight. sure it had some WWE-tier moves, but the camera work and it not being a "single" dragging shot is what gives it more believability rather than one long shot, having the hero take everyone out in the same scene. it almost immediately puts new Quaid on an inhuman level which immediately puts a disconnect for the audience in terms of investment since at this point, we've seen everything Quaid can do for the rest of the movie
I think what they meant in the early script, is that the mizzle of the gun is quite literally against Arnie's head. So he would move his head forward and either to the left or the right of the barrel. The assailant would then shoot right next to and past his head.
I love the original Total Recall. Man is it a blast. The old Bond movies have great fights too considering they’re PG. The train fight in From Russia With Love is intense.
Glad you enjoyed it!! :) We are a filmmaking channel but our founders (Mel and Stu) both do martial arts so we got a keeeeen interest in fight choreography.
Can you do a video on the fight between Hector and Achilles from Troy. My favorite fight scene of all time, and always felt more real than other fights. Would love to get your perspective!
The shooting was NFG as well, 80s and 90s ultra-violence at its finest. Only a few games from 2000s and up managed to weight the same, Tomorrow Never Dies, Fear, Condemned and other games that understand firing a gun or brawling is a brutal thing.
“Quaid freaks out & is sent home”?? He slaughters the entire staff in the most brutal, fucked up ways! He stabs a metal bar through a guys skull for gods sake! Haha!!!
The remake lost me at the very beginning. Original movie: couple walks on Mars, dude falls down and cracks his helmet causing a freakish decompression death in which his eyes inflate grotesquely, and he wakes up from his nightmare. Simple, quick, memorable. Remake: Some messy crappy unremarkable action scene with poor editing and lens flares and the thing that wakes him up in a fright is being caught by some friggin Lasso of Truth looking thing. CRAAAAAAAAAP. IMO, they should've skipped doing a remake of the Paul Verhoeven film and instead do a more faithful adaptation of the original short story and being more of a grounded, existential SciFi drama because Colin Farrell has the acting chops to do that and it'd turn out a remake that gives you a completely different experience and mood even tho they come from the same source. The road not taken, I guess. The remake we got still sucks. 12 years later and nothing has changed, that remake was just a pointless nostalgia cashgrab that wastes some good money and lead actor that should've been used for something better and worthwhile.
I feel like original scene is indeed realistic and intense, but the remake adds this sense of "it's manufactured/artificial/unreal", because that's kind of the point, we question reality of what's happening, how has he been changed by the procedure, where's this sudden machinistic skill coming from? Is it a game or reality? Gives a good sense of dissonance to his initial meek persona.
@@_shotzero I really like that moment you show, where he's standing hands behind his back shaking with fear, and then suddenly you see the fear drain out of him, and for a moment he is still, like a robot, and then he proceeds to kill them all. Great moment of acting on Colin's part. It's a perfect image of "hit the switch inside his head". This movie was the first version of Total recall that i've seen so i can admit i'm slightly biased towards it, but i can clearly remember enjoying it a good amount, it's kinda similar to Minority Report, but i think i like this movie just a tiny bit more.
A) It was too fast. Way too fast. B) Tried to make his situation seem more amazing while instead actually.. C) Showing how dumb they were rather than how skilled he was and D) back to why I hate third person shooters... I don't want crap between me and the action blocking my vision.
It occurred to me about a minute before you showed it (which means ultimately of course it occurred to you far before it did to me!) but I was wondering if you were going to show similarities to the Matrix for the remake. The camerawork is very similar, but using the straight lines rather than circular allowed it to be a 'side-grade' or 'alternate' version that is it's own thing that while related, is not derivative. It's nice seeing commentary on older movies nowadays that can appreciate both periods for what they are. I have some younger friends (early-mid 20's) that loved Starship Troopers when I showed it to them, and Tremors and similar films they watched on their own, while I in my early 40's appreciate them of course but also love the modern age of cinema we currently have. Gives me hope for the future honestly.
Holy shit! I just caught something I never noticed before! When Arnold pulls the two dudes back before knocking them into each other, he hits the wall behind him, and it bends inward, a wall made of concrete! Revealing that it's just a sheet of some kind. I can't believe I am just now seeing that, for as many times as I have watched this.
I will always prefer the 1990 Total Recall because 1, it stars Arnie when he was still a huge box office draw, 2, it's the original film adaptation, 3, it was released during my childhood which gives it nostalgic value. With that said, as much as I dislike the 2012 remake, I have to give it credit for being an adaption that is closer to Quaid's character in the source material.
Thought this would be about Recall but because you showed us how a story is shot with close up and far away and then other movies using the same theme like Bourne at the end shows how often it is copied to make us the audience feel for the character. In fact let’s do a Recall Remake with Jason Bourne !!
@@_shotzero Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Max Von Sydow, Mel effing Blanc, Mind control beer, hockey fights, donuts, and a dog. What more do you need to know? edit: have a few beers before you watch it for full effect.
Excellent analysis and the references to fighting styles at the times was really interesting. You do have a few spelling mistakes though. Eg : Paul Verhoeven
Very well done vid mate, I was captivated throughout. Colin is a great actor but no one can beat Arnie in an action movie. The new one was cool looking but too sanitized imo. Arnie in a crazy, early 90's gorefest with his hilarious one-liners ftw. 😁
I grew up on 80’s action movies, but I had forgotten The Neck Snap that was such a great trope in the fighting scenes Arnie’s fighting this kind of predates Steven Seagal’s approach. But works much better with Arnie rather than a tub of lard and people just flipping around him
I believe it depends on the current audience when it comes to remakes. I liked True Grit a lot, and an older gentleman I was working with at the time still liked the old version with John Wayne, I guess it depends on the writing, directing, and acting on if any film will work, whether it’s an original or remake.
NO NO NO NO now you leave me with my own oppinion, I am used to having a youtuber telling me which movie is better. This feels wrong now, you can't just do that to me! (just kidding, great video man)
The remake of totall recall is not as good as the original, but the production design was top notch and the design for the robots was probaly the best I've seen, its a pity it was wasted on such a "meh" story, I can't understand why they couldnt do the same "mars" plot again.
Verhoeven is a genius. If I was trapped in an alternate dimension where the 90's never ended, I'd be ok with it so long as Paul just kept makin' bangers. 😂
That first fight sets the tone of all the action and violence that is to follow. Even the rats get blasted in the same fashion. All in is always better IMO. The 1990 version has more in comon with Deadpool when it comes to violence. Arnie gets kicked in the balls, sliced with a knife, almost ground up with a rock drill, tossed in to Mars' charming atmosphere AND he uses some poor dead schmuck as a human shield. He's also WAY more intense, even just judging by the memory implant scene. "My name is not Quaid!" Having seen the 1990 Total Recall, this remake didn't stand much of a chance with me, whereas The Thing blew my hair back in every way. I had seen the 50s version on TV and it scared me a lot as a kid, but "The Thing" instilled paranoia and horror on a whole new level. Shame for the 2012 Total Recall. I could not stop comparing it.
its usually blasphemy to say this but sometimes its better to adapt book material in a less direct way then we get masterpieces like arnies total recall, also arnies running man, the shining and the lord of the rings trilogy. For tis reason i am worried about this new running man movie as its gonna be closer to the original novel which was kind of lame.
I think the only thing i can bring up is how martial arts and Asian action changed Western cinema, i guess you could say Chuck Norris was among the first to introduce Karate to the screen but it wasn't until the middle of the 90's that more flamboyant styles of action and fighting started to emerge. Asian cinema had thrived on the spectacle of Kung Fu and Wushu, and with directors like John Woo starting to make their debuts in the West with their more explosive and expressive style of Gun Fu a whole other world of action cinema was opened up to people and would inspire future directors and action choreographers, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and hell even Van Damme inspired kids to take up martial arts and some of those kids became movie makers and stunt men, it all leads up to The Matrix in '99 which exploded the popularity of Hong Kong action so if you weren't already being inspired by movies like Hard Boiled you certainly were by everything that came after.
I love remakes also... as long as the don't trash the first one or replace the central philosophy or thesis (like Disney keeps doing. They don't just race swap, idc about that- but they rewrite the meaning of basically everything- hence they steal the name)
In the original post-download fight scene he's fighting more human opponents. They're sweaty, overweight, covered in wounds. They scream and grimace as they are hit. They and Quaid's blows are clumsy and desperate. These are all things that make the fighting more relatable to ordinary human experience, and thus more realistic and gritty. Whereas in the remake it's a larger group of clean, masked and identical assailants. Everything about them says 'we are not characters'. And if they are not characters, the audience has less reason to worry the hero is in any danger.
Good breakdown. Totally agree! Especially the relatable bit.
Also in remake there is also robots that looks assentially the same as this cops same white armor same movement. Its honestly gets way too boring after a while like that marvel move where they fought endless bots in the end.
Agree w all of it but, also, Arnie is big enough that him fighting vs four plainly clothed, plain guys and wining is believable, while in the remake, they're armored special-force dudes. Each of them seems to weigh significantly more (whit armor) than rQuaid so the whole scene is cartoon-like in the way he handles them. At least dance-like. Breaks immersion.
Well said.
I felt the Matrix style camera movement was the biggest distraction to the engagement of this scene. It made what he was doing much less impactful because of the silly circle and distance.
Arnold's scene was close up and gritty which created much more tension...
The thing about Arnold is that he always had amazing charisma. Even if he isn't the best actor, you want to watch him.
People always whine about how awful Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzneggers are, i don’t care, I will always be completely entertained and engaged by their screen presence more the snark and overbearing fake charm and endless yapping of The Rock or John Cena. Sylvester and Arnold could stare and deliver exactly the emotional punch needed, or make the audience understand the stakes at hand, both had genuinely unique movies under their belt too, they didn’t just cash in they tried to do new stories. I don’t see The Rock doing something like Cobra, Nighthawks, Cliffhanger or on the other hand Total Recall, Predator, The Running Man. They did classic blockbusters but they also provided vehicles for cool interesting concept-films. They never bore me personally, when they’re on screen I’m just completely attentive.
I think that, in that moment, I didn't need to see an actor, but rather experience how Arnie and Sly would handle the situation. :)
By the way, over the years they have both developed into respectable actors.
@@GuineaPigEveryday In all fairness, the industry itself changed, and no one is making those kinds of films anymore. The Rock and John Cena, whatever their aspirations, have to adapt to the current landscape.
Arnie was just the rock before the rock. He's a slightly better actor but just like the rock, he basically just plays an action or comedy version of himself ever so slightly tweaked
Arnies' Quaid fights like a huge guy that finally realizes he can just hulk smash people. It works for me
Me: takes 7 minutes to explain why this scene is so good.
You: nail it in 20 words.
it makes sense in the world. Arnie Quaid works on construction so is going to be strong. And clearly works out. But not everyone who works out is a combat master, so his fighting is raw and quite unskilled (his memories and training are only just starting to re-emerge). The raw power is what carries him through and it makes sense he has that.
Doug Farrell doesn't look amazingly strong but is throwing people in combat armour around like ragdolls. It breaks immersion.
This is really the problem with the PG-13-ification of violence. By removing the sound fx and squibs that make violence feel more real, it creates this bizarre distance and I think it takes the viewer out of the movie. If you don't want to show graphic violence in your movie, fine, then choreograph a fight that doesn't involve those kinds of hits/kills. But I think it's oddly jarring to see what should be horrific violence done in such a sanitized way. If people criticize violent movies by saying they desensitize viewers to the violent acts, id argue that pg13 action movies are actually worse. They remove the weight and danger that violence actually poses to people. Either represent violence and bloodshed in a way that respects life and its fragility, or dont.
it is pretty wild that we see more blood in a fistfight than we do in a gunfight with three times as many people
Completely agree!
I think what’sgood about the Captain American elevator fight is he’s trying to incapacitate people rather than kill them so it changes the choreography to reflect that.
We can also attribute this 'PG13-fication' of Hollywood action films to the gun fu choreography of the 80s Hong Kong stunt choreography influenced by Jackie Chan and John Woo, where the flow and rhythm of the action is an important part of the scene and kinda turns violence into an art form making it less raw and brutal and more clean and aesthetic. Directors who grew up on 80s films and Jackie Chan movies attempted to replicate the flow and rhythm of the HK action films in their works but added their own MTV video twist, since if memory serves me correctly, a lot of these new and upcoming directors back then were from the MTV generation and some also started out by directing MTV videos.
@@johnlloyddy7016 Yes and no -- keep in mind that there was nothing clean about John Woo's aftermath. A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled were squibbed to the gills, and gallons of bloow flowed in the aftermath of those shootouts. Jackie Chan? Sure, he avoided a lot of the bloody squibbing of the 80s ultra-violence era, but John Woo absolutely embraced it, and I would say that John Woo was to Hong Kong cinema ultra-violence what Paul Verhoeven and Joel Silver were to Western Cinema ultra-violence.
🙏RIP squibs. You are greatly missed.🙏
The difference, IMO, is that fight scenes used to look better because they were a lot more _raw_ and looked less choreographed back then.
Action movie fights used to look like it could be regular guys having a punch up with some gritty sound effects and squibs thrown in to make it more dramatic, then the Matrix came along and every fight choreographer had to have 27 black belts and fights started looking obviously choreographed, which has the effect of breaking the audiences suspension of disbelief.
Absolutely. If you look at 80's hong kong action they initially had weight to all of the choreography but then devolved into basically dance choreography. After the matrix the over choreography ruined hollywood aswell. Jackie Chan in his first three decades was constantly hurt in the context of the movies (and real life) and battling through was what really sold the action. Like when him and an opponet took a few moments to rub their shins or when he was trapped in a deadend and was brutalized with thrown glass bottles. Once he got to hollywood he became a cartoon.
The fight scene in the remake looks like a video game cut scene. The original scene looks like a real, terrifying situation. You can buy that Arnie could kill 4 guys in that situation, by taking the initiative but in the remake, you can tell that a bunch of stuntment are taking turns getting punched.That remake sucks ass. A fucking elevator through the Earth. My fucking God.
Yeah sad ..
Pretty cringe take.
Someones a boomer who doesn't play video games, cuz no game plays like that. Also video games are dope so what tf is your point?
Remakes far better. And more accurate. Cope and seethe.
The way the camera yanks around in the remake isn't impressive at all, it's awful.
@@RevRyukin7 what are you talking about? It's literally like in some video game, when you can easily beat up five low level mobs even if they look like pros in full tactical gear. Are you 10 yo or something?
@@RevRyukin7 Remake is bad. Overproduced, no Mars. It's an adventure movie refitted to an action movie. Doesn't tell a story like the first one.
My friend Steve Lambert, who was a Gung Fu master and member of The Five Dragons (Al Leong, James Lee, Douglas Wong and Eric Lee) was in Total Recall. He was the guy on the escalator who gets sprayed and thrown.
Sadly, Steve passed away a couple years ago, but he was absolutely brilliant and his work in Martial Arts and Film live on.
Sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. But thanks to bringing him to my attention, I'm now watching RUclips videos on his career! And as someone who works BTL in the film industry, I love hearing about my fellow crew members.
The Trilogy is: RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers.
You'll never get another Paul Verhoeven.
don't forget showgirls!
@@noBfilmThere is no Showgirls in Ver-Hoe-Ven
Came here to say that man
The Starship Troopers movies are parody in the source material really deserves better.
@@jacobstaten2366 No he nailed it. Comedy is a better vehicle for scary topics. And you can't fight the truth: violence is authority.
This is the first rated R movie I was allowed to watch with my dad. I was only 11. My dad has passed now and I still watch this at least once a year. Makes me think happy thoughts about my pops. Thank you for your video
@@na7uree540 I’m sorry to hear about your loss :( it is amazing how films can connect us to those we love even (especially?) when they’re no longer with us. Thanks for sharing about your pops.
@@_shotzero 100% it really is a wonderful part of being human. Appreciate it!
I feel that in the remake fight (with him taking on like 12 faceless dude who all have guns and armor but he easily dispatches the roomful of them without a scratch) it just screams "now he's dreaming, this is a video game its not real" whereas in the original it maintains a flavor of mystery right up to the end of the film whether he's in the artificial experience or not.
*"Total Recall: 1990"* is the real deal, the classic, which I have watched multiple times. I've seen the 2012 remake only once. That's it.
Same
Nuff said.
I got about 20 minutes into the remake. You did well to watch the whole movie.
Total Recall 1990 is up there with T2 and the Matrix for 90s sci fi action. Unlike those other visionary classics, it acknowledges class as having a role in human fate.
And you can't remember a single line from 2012. 1990 makes up a good part of my dialogue for the day.
The violence in Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall is so much more visceral, especially when Douglas Quaid has to defend himself from Harry and his men. This is a fight where, even though the hero is portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, there is no promise Quaid will survive. This is a ferocious street fight with a sense of jeopardy and true risk
In only moments of brutality, with straightforward, easy to follow camera work, it creates an emotional investment in "Arnold" Quaid. Like him, the audience is confused as to how he "switched on" into a trained killer and is in for the ride all the way to Mars
By comparison, in Total Recall 2.0, the inciting violent encounter between "Colin" Quaid and the Next Gen Stormtroopers, it looks more like a "non-skippable cut scene" from a pretentious hideo kojima video game
The cinematography is *_TOO_* sophisticated and self-congratulatory, the violence is *_TOO_* smooth with obsequiously compliant assailants, so much it instantly removes the audience from the moment and attention lapses because they think there is no danger
Violence is ugly and not a bloodless dance routine, which is why Total Recall 1990 is the superior film
Great analysis. People could just read this instead of watching my video! Hahaha. (But plz watch my video).
@@_shotzero "I was born in a small village . . . no, you can't skip this scene."
New Subscriber
@@The_Assassin_of_The_Gray With each new sub, my masters changed along with the videos they made me post.
Problem with the remake imo, is that the action scene doesn’t have a ‘punch’ to it. The original does, the sound effect, emphasis on certain actions and the blood.
Absolutely!
In the remake the camera is performing most of the action, which is distracting. I find the original fight scene more effective. The actors are performing the action, and the camera finds the most effective angle, while the editing defines the pace. I generally detest many modern action movies because of their overuse and abuse of dynamic and impossible cg camera motion. It takes the viewer out of the reality of the scene. The Matrix basically originated it, but in that movie it was well motivated because we were in an artificial, hyper-real world.
@@aliensoup2420yeah. They’re trying to make it exciting by making the camera exciting. But the fight should be the excitement! We don’t whirl cameras around in MMA or boxing or other martial
Arts!
Practical effects + real (no CGI) blood = perfect combo
@@_shotzero Great comparison!
The finale of this shot is the best. When he is standing over all the dead guys with the gun in his hand and the blood is on the walls and the shot is very very wide. That is a panel straight out of a comic book
"See you at the party, Richter!" always gets me.
"Consider that a divorce!"
The original is full of good lines and writing that I can still remember even though I haven't seen it in years.
I remember I watched the remake once... Can't remember it at all hardly
God I love the squibs in Total Recall. They're so visceral, one of the things that I always remembered from watching as a kid
So on my 30s birthday I want to a cabin in Norway. I'd bought this film on dvd earlier that day in the nearest town. Found it in a bargain bucket. Well this famous scene started and it kept cutting to black. I thought the dvd player was broken. Turns out the dvd was a Swedish censored copy, so in a rage I frisbeed it off the balcony.
Compared to Norway, were the Swedes like the more sensitive, gentle vikings?
@@ricardogalvan1031 I think they may have got to a point where they said enough was enough after hundreds of years of pillage, and then they went and ruined the film ☹️
Steal their fish.
The problem with intricately choreographed balletic action is that it kind of looks like the bad guys are co-operating with the choreography. Which they are, of course, because they're stuntmen. But in the Verhoeven version, the slightly clunky fight moves come off looking more real, precisely because they're not so perfectly choreographed.
The irony is that Richter never did go to the party. Jokes aside, Total Recall is my favourite Arnie film. It's possibly my actual favourite film. Though Starship Troopers Ive seen more.
Love both these films!!!
Verhoeven has always been my favourite director up to Denis Villeneuve. Both use action as a method of storytelling, not just because 'car go boom'. I did watch a youtube essay claiming that even Showgirls was genius.....but even I struggled with agreeing to that.
Should I watch showgirls by curiosity?
I discover myself a curiosity for cheap horror or sexual drama@willumbermarchant5510
Conan the Barbarian is my fav Arnie film (the first famous entry in his career also).
@@nu1x Conan the Barbarian vs Conan the Destroyer has the same argument as the two versions of Total Recall. Barbarian was dark, gritty, and felt more fantasy. Destroyer was overproduced, too big a cast, and much more bright and colorful, but didn't seem as tense as the first movie at all.
my personal disliking with over the top action scenes like in the remake is that it doesnt seem possible. the first one feels legit, its one gunman who didnt shoot because he didnt react quick enough to being kicked in the chest, far from realostic but it feels plausable. the police in the back rows wouldnt have waited when the main character starts grappling with the close officers
7k subscribers on this just shows that YT doesn't promote quality at all . . .
This video was pure greatness!
Thanks for saying. We are actually building subs quite quickly just need to keep posting…
@@_shotzero I hope you continue growing and you have fun doing so. This high quality work, you deserve it.
@@Lothrean :) We also have a free substack if you wanna read some of our more 'field note' approach! shotzero.substack.com/
Entirely unrelated to the fight choreography, but I love that you can see the "concrete" wall shake a little when Arnie slams the guys into it. There's something endearing about little 'low-budget' moments like that in 90's films, it makes them feel more human compared to the CGI-packed stuff we have now.
I personally don't like the overly choreographed fight scenes in movies these days. They look too obviously scripted, which kills my suspension of disbelief.
Definitely part of the fashion at the moment. LIKE STORIES OF OLD (a youtube channel) had a pretty good video on the current trends in fight choreography - though I'd place it in a larger conversation about movement culture/
Verhoeven does, gore, squibs and bloodletting like no other. Guy is a genius.
I think in far too many action movies, they forget the character in the action scenes. They forget if it even makes sense if a character can do kung-fu. They forget if they've ever even shot a gun. They forget if they might fight in a less structured way. They forget if they'd use their environment. They forget everything because they want to do a particular move.
While this is true in a lot of what you're saying, I'm not sure that applies to Total Recall, considering that Quaid was supposed to be a hyper-competent super secret agent, holding a rating with everything that fired a projectile or held an edge, and the combative training to kill several men in physical combat. But he was "asleep" before that. It wasn't that he just "magically" had those abilities. It was that he had them all along, they were just suppressed/buried.
Total recall reboot was forgettable, nothing against the actors/director. You just can't beat OG Paul Verhoeven films.
The cinematography process in 2012 is much more elaborate and complex, yet it gives us just another generic and forgettable fight scene with no emotional connection to the protagonist.
I don't care if you're the toughest badass that ever lived. There's no "air" time in real life.
No one in the real world can fist fight his way out of a ten-man squad with submachine guns.
Yeah. I think that’s the hard thing with group fights, the hero should be getting fked up.
Yeah, and the way the guy does it is even unrealistic. There's no concern for fighting smart, using cover, waiting for the right moment or any of the things that would convey to the audience that this is a dire situation.
It's just "I'm a superhero, so I'll effortlessly take on this whole squad of troopers out in the open in hand to hand combat."
The remake character just doesn't show any respect for the danger he's in. With Arnold, you see his character clearly respect the gun as a weapon that could kill him.
Even John Wick uses cover. Sometimes.
Precisely BECAUSE the hero is not fucked up, the story lacks gravitas. The death and rebirth of the Hero is super important, examples being movies like "Yojimbo" and every other Hero Comeback story with great impact.
there's lots of body horror in the first total recall, adding to the feeling anything can happen. It opens with that dream sequence and arnie's face getting destroyed
The Northman is based on the Amlet story which predates Hamlet.
There are two things I liked of the 2012 remake, the first one is that the roads from the future city look like they could be from the same universe as "Minority Report" and also a good choice to cast Bryan Cranston as Cohagen, even though Ronny Cox is still a good "rotten bastard" in that film. The original one, will always be a classic and since I live in Mexico City, it is great to visit some of the filming locations in my daily life, or at least when I happen to visit those locations.
Ronny Cox was sublime. I quote him from this movie to this very day.
This scene, and that final shot of the fight scene, the composition is akin to a Renaissance painting. The brutal fight scene into beautiful composition is memorable and really sets the tone and trajectory of the film.
It's so good! Such a great frame - the placement of the elemtns is amazing without feeling overly art directed.
I think, the reason is "Paul Verhoeven" and his over-the-top, yet tongue-in-cheek film making.
PV is the best.
Little correction, the original story of The Northman is what inspired Hamlet. So The Northman is really just telling the original story.
"See you at the pauty Richtaa!"
Consider this a divorce!
@@_shotzero No, it's "Considah d-dat d-divorce!"
Excellent video. Verhoeven is an apt economist with his action shots.
Each shot is just framed so well! You see the action and the target in the same shot, close enough to understand it but wide enough so you don’t get lost. It’s super clean.
I can't remember where i heard it, but apparently its twisting and snapping of leeks that gives the most satisfying "bone breaking" sound
Love this detail Gonna try it!
I have been pretending to be cooking leek before with this trick.
Original total recall is my third action movie of all time, just behind terminator 2 in first and demolition man in second.
So I hate the 2012 fight scene. I know that if you're on a SWAT type team you have a lot of training. Weapons and hand to hand training. Even if you're on a crappy SWAT team you'll just shoot and hit your target from 10 yards away. The Bourne movies changed fight scenes in movies forever bringing in a realism that is cool but your "Jason Bourne" character still has to have realistic enemies to fight. The 2012 movie SWAT team are basically a bunch of Star Wars Stormtroopers.
I really like how you've mentioned 'movement culture' in this video. I never really put much thought into how types of combat fall in and out of popularity, as when I view an action film I just immediately think 'oh it's this kind or that kind of an action flick.' Movement culture is going to be one of those things that always come to mind when I watch older or newer action movies now.
@@mindcake8811 it’s a great term and it connects to the real world too: compare Cuban boxing to Russian boxing as well.
Michael Mann directed LA Takedown and it was his practice for Heat.
Well, it was intended to be a tv show and it never went to series, so they made a TV movie out of it. It’s still a remake tho! It may not be cynical one but there is so many similar scenes, it’s wild.
@@_shotzerowhat do u mean there is ‘so many similar scenes’ its the same script for both, he had to cut it down the first time, he didn’t ‘remake’ the scenes, he did the same script but with bigger budget and more time
I'm glad someone noticed and created a video about it. Thank you
As a game dev this channel really helps me think about how to stage scenes
Great subject matter for a video to explore. Me and my film bros for decades always have defended the violence in this and the Director's previous film RoboCop as not realistic violence or cartoonish violence or violence that is just a series of quick-cuts, extreme close-ups, rapid-fire editing in low lightening that results in incomprehensible action. His movie's violence always seems to follow the satirical themes of his movies and have a seriously dark comedy vibe element through line running through them. But the action itself reminds me of Jackie Chan action where there is actual imagination and creativity in each action set piece that has an inspired way each person is dispatched and inventive solution to how the hero gets out of each violent situation. They all have an almost musicality and balletic rhythm to all of it they follow that has an ebb and flow. The Auh-nold action scene using the dead body as a human shield as he dispenses with his adversaries is a step by step master course on the building blocks of comedy. The body keeps getting hit with more bullets as the scene goes on, becoming more and more mutilated and disfigured till it's wildly ridiculously over the top and then culminates with Auh-nuld remorselessly tossing the bullet riddled corpse aside like discarded trash nary a second thought, like a cold efficient world class spy would, which just the matter of factness of the zero empathy given to his ruthless top tier skill set is poker face hilarious. Tarantino violence can also often be so heightened and stylized to the point of parody, but just on the edge of it, but his violence also usually has a streak of black comedy running through them. And people always die memorably.
Great comment. Completely agree!
Really enjoyed this longer format video. Hadn't seen the remake until watching but you've made me appreciate some of it. The Arnie version is one of my favourite movies for so many reasons, but I didn't expect these few scenes to be as interesting as you made them. Hoping you do more!
@_shotzero - Speaking of brutal fights, my memory is that the fight between Alabama and Virgil in True Romance is one of the most realistically visceral I've seen on film.
Oooh! I’ve been meaning to rewatch True Romance. This is a good excuse!
A History of Violence! Please do that movie!
Remakes are fine, it just gets a little ridiculous when its every week.
Imo, a lot of older fight scenes look like a choreographed fight, whereas newer fight scenes just look like choreography.
I def think that's a movement culture / fashion thing.
Since Neo popularized the 'skinny' action hero focus has shifted from brisk force to grace and acrobatics. My mind is drawn to a movie right on the curve of the change, Blade with Wesley Snipes, an excellent action movie with satisfying fights, and a film where every blow told a 'story'.
So perhaps that's what is comes down to, 'the fight must help tell the bigger 'story,' and not be there for its own sake.'
Even choreographed -looking fights can be good, IF the choreography tells the story and reveals the characters. Ps Applying this rule suggests that: 'if your (fighting) 'moves' are interchangeable between characters then your choreography is bad.'
When the Total Recall remake came out, there were a BUNCH of BTS videos, and they kept talking about this sequence. They were gushing over and over - especially Bruckheimer - about how this "has never been seen in a movie before." They were so interested in the execution of this SHOT that the final result lacks emotion. Like action sequences that do 1,000 cuts - blip blip blip blip - there's no emotion. What makes the original Arnie/Verhoeven movie action sequences work, just like Bourne and Matrix, is that you not only have enough wides to know the geography, but reaction shots from the characters to convey mental state and emergency problem solving. That translates into a more EMOTIONAL action sequence, which has a more lasting impact than, "Isn't it so cool how we made the camera zip around the room really fast?! Oh, by the way, our main character is fighting for his life - and he has NO idea that he can fight like this..."
Yup. Sometimes the simplest filmmaking can be the best.
Quaide is Robocop (2014), when Robo takes over.
Great commentary. I grew up in the ultra violent, hard R years of Hollywood and miss it.
I absolutely LOVE the brutality in Dredd and had hoped it was the start of a renaissance.
Unfortunately, ignorant movie goers compared it to The Raid and thought Dredd was ripping it off.
I'm sure it's a good film (I could not make it more than halfway through before I just got bored of t it, honestly. I've seen everything it does, more or less, in the dozens of Chinese kung-fu movies I've seen) but the pacing, brutality and simplicity of Dredd are just so good. It's definitely on my "I watch at least once a year" list.
Why ch reminds me, I need to watch Total Recall again ;)
So stoked to have found this channel! Love your insight and how you bring up things like the cultural vision of a fight scene for the era.
Thank you and welcome!
I love when Arnie smashes the 2 guys into the "concrete" wall, you can see it flex 😂
This was a really great take. Super interesting, very well made and flowed perfectly. I'm subscribing for sure.
Thanks mate, I appreciate you watching *and* saying.
The fight between the 2 women is also one of my favourites ever, filmed really well.
Yeah, tis so good. Stoked when I found some of the BTS footage
the problem with real modern cinematography is how everything is choreographed way too clean. the original, the scene you showed us looks like a believable street fight. sure it had some WWE-tier moves, but the camera work and it not being a "single" dragging shot is what gives it more believability rather than one long shot, having the hero take everyone out in the same scene. it almost immediately puts new Quaid on an inhuman level which immediately puts a disconnect for the audience in terms of investment since at this point, we've seen everything Quaid can do for the rest of the movie
the original supports the story, what made 80s action so great
was just talking about this scene with one of my movie buddies the other day
I think what they meant in the early script, is that the mizzle of the gun is quite literally against Arnie's head. So he would move his head forward and either to the left or the right of the barrel. The assailant would then shoot right next to and past his head.
I agree. Redoing the same story is a really interesting exercise. The Beaver Trilogy for example.
I do not know this Beaver trilogy. Will have to check it out!
I love the original Total Recall. Man is it a blast.
The old Bond movies have great fights too considering they’re PG. The train fight in From Russia With Love is intense.
Will need to rewatch! Love a good train sequence.
what channel is this? this is great. thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!! :) We are a filmmaking channel but our founders (Mel and Stu) both do martial arts so we got a keeeeen interest in fight choreography.
Tbh Arnie could of probably killed most people with one hit back then, guy was built like a fucking nuclear reactor
Being a bodybuilder doesn't make you a good fighter. However he does moves like one.
He also moves and uses strikes that suit his build - it's all about power.
You like "Good" remakes
Can you do a video on the fight between Hector and Achilles from Troy. My favorite fight scene of all time, and always felt more real than other fights. Would love to get your perspective!
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve never seen Troy! 🙈 so will give it a watch.
The shooting was NFG as well, 80s and 90s ultra-violence at its finest. Only a few games from 2000s and up managed to weight the same, Tomorrow Never Dies, Fear, Condemned and other games that understand firing a gun or brawling is a brutal thing.
I liked both movies for different reasons. I’m truly a sci fi enjoyer, I thought the second film had some awesome sci fi concepts and world building
I like the remake, but the original is one of my all-time Favs: it has a specific mood i even can't describe but which i love.
“Quaid freaks out & is sent home”?? He slaughters the entire staff in the most brutal, fucked up ways! He stabs a metal bar through a guys skull for gods sake! Haha!!!
That was later on Mars, when they tried to return him to being Hauser.
Guess it's time to see it again
The remake lost me at the very beginning.
Original movie: couple walks on Mars, dude falls down and cracks his helmet causing a freakish decompression death in which his eyes inflate grotesquely, and he wakes up from his nightmare. Simple, quick, memorable.
Remake: Some messy crappy unremarkable action scene with poor editing and lens flares and the thing that wakes him up in a fright is being caught by some friggin Lasso of Truth looking thing. CRAAAAAAAAAP.
IMO, they should've skipped doing a remake of the Paul Verhoeven film and instead do a more faithful adaptation of the original short story and being more of a grounded, existential SciFi drama because Colin Farrell has the acting chops to do that and it'd turn out a remake that gives you a completely different experience and mood even tho they come from the same source. The road not taken, I guess. The remake we got still sucks. 12 years later and nothing has changed, that remake was just a pointless nostalgia cashgrab that wastes some good money and lead actor that should've been used for something better and worthwhile.
Arnie's Total Recall? Sorry pal, i think you just meant Total Recall
User name checks out 😆
@@_shotzero had to do it to em 🤷♂️
I feel like original scene is indeed realistic and intense, but the remake adds this sense of "it's manufactured/artificial/unreal", because that's kind of the point, we question reality of what's happening, how has he been changed by the procedure, where's this sudden machinistic skill coming from? Is it a game or reality? Gives a good sense of dissonance to his initial meek persona.
Love this interpretation!
@@_shotzero I really like that moment you show, where he's standing hands behind his back shaking with fear, and then suddenly you see the fear drain out of him, and for a moment he is still, like a robot, and then he proceeds to kill them all. Great moment of acting on Colin's part. It's a perfect image of "hit the switch inside his head".
This movie was the first version of Total recall that i've seen so i can admit i'm slightly biased towards it, but i can clearly remember enjoying it a good amount, it's kinda similar to Minority Report, but i think i like this movie just a tiny bit more.
I think the camera work in the remake worked better in the previz. There was something "uncanny valley" about how it bounced around with real actors
A) It was too fast. Way too fast. B) Tried to make his situation seem more amazing while instead actually.. C) Showing how dumb they were rather than how skilled he was and D) back to why I hate third person shooters... I don't want crap between me and the action blocking my vision.
Fiiiiiiiine. I'll finally watch the remake.
Do an episode on it?
It's not worth it. Save your money ;)
o glad I found this channel cant wait for our next video.
Thanks! We’ve got a long list of stuff we wanna talk about. So please subscribe and keep an eye out!
@@_shotzero Doing videos on action scenes and how it helps tell a story is so rare for some reason. You guys are really unique.
@@PillarOfWamuu For better and for worse, we don’t just do action! But I’ll certainly be a core part of what we do - the people have spoken after all!
2:51 Ah, yes, the very realistic and brutal fighting move of smashing two dudes into each other.
We call it WWF for a reason!
@@_shotzero Great vid man! I was just poking fun, as anything Arnie did in the 80s and 90s was cheesy as hell, but I LOVE this era or Arnie movies.
It occurred to me about a minute before you showed it (which means ultimately of course it occurred to you far before it did to me!) but I was wondering if you were going to show similarities to the Matrix for the remake. The camerawork is very similar, but using the straight lines rather than circular allowed it to be a 'side-grade' or 'alternate' version that is it's own thing that while related, is not derivative. It's nice seeing commentary on older movies nowadays that can appreciate both periods for what they are. I have some younger friends (early-mid 20's) that loved Starship Troopers when I showed it to them, and Tremors and similar films they watched on their own, while I in my early 40's appreciate them of course but also love the modern age of cinema we currently have. Gives me hope for the future honestly.
Holy shit! I just caught something I never noticed before! When Arnold pulls the two dudes back before knocking them into each other, he hits the wall behind him, and it bends inward, a wall made of concrete! Revealing that it's just a sheet of some kind. I can't believe I am just now seeing that, for as many times as I have watched this.
Hahaha. Wow! I never noticed either. Great spot!!!
I will always prefer the 1990 Total Recall because 1, it stars Arnie when he was still a huge box office draw, 2, it's the original film adaptation, 3, it was released during my childhood which gives it nostalgic value. With that said, as much as I dislike the 2012 remake, I have to give it credit for being an adaption that is closer to Quaid's character in the source material.
You forgot manhunter 🤣
Love the Arnie version - can rewatch it anytime - couldn't finsih the Colin version.
Thought this would be about Recall but because you showed us how a story is shot with close up and far away and then other movies using the same theme like Bourne at the end shows how often it is copied to make us the audience feel for the character. In fact let’s do a Recall Remake with Jason Bourne !!
Wow! Matt Damon would have (still could?) make a great Quaid.
The "concrete" wall shakes when Arnold bangs them both against it in the beginning, ha
Hahahaha. AMAZING.
Need this.
Hamlet also gave us what is arguably the best retelling: "Strange Brew"
I don’t know this! Tell us more!!
@@_shotzero Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Max Von Sydow, Mel effing Blanc, Mind control beer, hockey fights, donuts, and a dog. What more do you need to know?
edit: have a few beers before you watch it for full effect.
Excellent analysis and the references to fighting styles at the times was really interesting.
You do have a few spelling mistakes though.
Eg : Paul Verhoeven
Yes sadly nobody caught them until it went live :(
@@_shotzero Signwriters and video titlers, both need spell check 🙄
@@_shotzero Sorry! Will keep that in mind in future!
Very well done vid mate, I was captivated throughout. Colin is a great actor but no one can beat Arnie in an action movie. The new one was cool looking but too sanitized imo. Arnie in a crazy, early 90's gorefest with his hilarious one-liners ftw. 😁
“Consider this a divorce”.
@@_shotzero 😂😂😂
I grew up on 80’s action movies, but I had forgotten The Neck Snap that was such a great trope in the fighting scenes
Arnie’s fighting this kind of predates Steven Seagal’s approach. But works much better with Arnie rather than a tub of lard and people just flipping around him
I believe it depends on the current audience when it comes to remakes. I liked True Grit a lot, and an older gentleman I was working with at the time still liked the old version with John Wayne, I guess it depends on the writing, directing, and acting on if any film will work, whether it’s an original or remake.
I forgot that True Grit was a remake - great example!
NO NO NO NO now you leave me with my own oppinion, I am used to having a youtuber telling me which movie is better. This feels wrong now, you can't just do that to me! (just kidding, great video man)
THANK YOU. That's exactly the vibe we are going for here so I'm stoked you noticed :)
The remake of totall recall is not as good as the original, but the production design was top notch and the design for the robots was probaly the best I've seen, its a pity it was wasted on such a "meh" story, I can't understand why they couldnt do the same "mars" plot again.
Verhoeven is a genius. If I was trapped in an alternate dimension where the 90's never ended, I'd be ok with it so long as Paul just kept makin' bangers. 😂
That first fight sets the tone of all the action and violence that is to follow. Even the rats get blasted in the same fashion. All in is always better IMO. The 1990 version has more in comon with Deadpool when it comes to violence. Arnie gets kicked in the balls, sliced with a knife, almost ground up with a rock drill, tossed in to Mars' charming atmosphere AND he uses some poor dead schmuck as a human shield. He's also WAY more intense, even just judging by the memory implant scene. "My name is not Quaid!" Having seen the 1990 Total Recall, this remake didn't stand much of a chance with me, whereas The Thing blew my hair back in every way. I had seen the 50s version on TV and it scared me a lot as a kid, but "The Thing" instilled paranoia and horror on a whole new level. Shame for the 2012 Total Recall. I could not stop comparing it.
“All in”. That sounds like a PV film alright!!!
its usually blasphemy to say this but sometimes its better to adapt book material in a less direct way then we get masterpieces like arnies total recall, also arnies running man, the shining and the lord of the rings trilogy. For tis reason i am worried about this new running man movie as its gonna be closer to the original novel which was kind of lame.
Great video! Nice channel! Subbed!
Thanks.
as soon as i saw Bas, instant like
I think the only thing i can bring up is how martial arts and Asian action changed Western cinema, i guess you could say Chuck Norris was among the first to introduce Karate to the screen but it wasn't until the middle of the 90's that more flamboyant styles of action and fighting started to emerge.
Asian cinema had thrived on the spectacle of Kung Fu and Wushu, and with directors like John Woo starting to make their debuts in the West with their more explosive and expressive style of Gun Fu a whole other world of action cinema was opened up to people and would inspire future directors and action choreographers, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and hell even Van Damme inspired kids to take up martial arts and some of those kids became movie makers and stunt men, it all leads up to The Matrix in '99 which exploded the popularity of Hong Kong action so if you weren't already being inspired by movies like Hard Boiled you certainly were by everything that came after.
I love remakes also... as long as the don't trash the first one or replace the central philosophy or thesis (like Disney keeps doing. They don't just race swap, idc about that- but they rewrite the meaning of basically everything- hence they steal the name)
Total Recall follows the PKD story rather faithfully for the first act. The rest of the movie is added by moviemakers.
1:26 Maybe I haven't seen it, this topic would make an amazing long form video.
loved the video , great work.