The only thing worse than a boring movie is a boring movie with as great a potential as this. This is a world where a corporation uses people known as Cutters to edit and filter the memories of those that have died. Sins are forgotten, and anyone can be anything. Any premise where an organisation is trying to control human nature is typically well received. The Matrix, Fahrenheit 451 or their lovechild Equilibrium are all examples of great movies of our time, and I suggest watching any of these that you haven't yet. This one, however, you can feel free to pass over. 

Robin Williams is one to rarely dissapoint. When not making us laugh, one can expect him to provide an enigmatic or, at the very least, a passionate character. Remember What Dreams May Come, now that was a great movie. In this film however, passion seems in short supply as Robin attempts to bring life to a one-dimensional character that at no point seems interesting. 

In the course of the story, secondary characters come and go, and that's pretty much all they do. Instead of focusing on the intricacies of their personalities or organisations, they're introduced and then taken away just as quickly. It's hinted that certain characters have a past with other characters, but it's never touched on. Things that would explain motives throughout the movie are left as a half-sentence here and there. 

Entire lifestyles are talked about, and then forgotten. An anti memory-editing group seeks to destroy the corporation, and although they seem to have a fully complex organisation and culture, they describe them in less than three scenes. At the very least this could have added a hurdle to Williams' character. 

Another aspect of the movie left untouched is the use of memories. Robin's a Cutter with access to the most depraved and lowest of human activity, but yet we see nothing. This may have just been the morbid curiosity of a bored viewer, but I think that this could have aded much to a flavourless 90 minutes. 

In short, go out of your way to see Total Recall instead.

Dan Cosgrove
d.cosgrove@partyinkingston.com