BLUE SKIES ON MARS: A Total Recall Fanedit by Jorge
 a TRUE FANEDIT by jorge A chronological re-order of Total Recall for a fresh new ride. Your life is just a dream. member ratings: |
(13 votes, average: 8.54 out of 10, rated)
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INTENTION:
It takes the briefest of glances at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting career, which includes “Predator,” “The Running Man,” “Commando,” “Twins” and “Red Heat,” to realize that “Total Recall” ranks among his finest work. “Total Recall” is full of the musclebound action that Arnold’s fans enjoy. It also means that this Mars-bound movie is violent, nasty and expensive.
How violent? Try a bloody shootout on a Martian escalator between Arnold and armed goons, in which Arnold holds up the cadaver of a slain bystander as a bullet shield; or savor the climactic fighting scene in which the musclebounder causes an adversary’s forearms to be severed between a rising elevator and a rock ledge.
In the midst of all the gunfire, the bone-crunching and the Martian local color (a collection of latex-faced mutants), the producers try desperately to come up with that anthemic Arnold retort, the sardonic (and of course, mispronounced) one-liner that will please the crowd. There are plenty of them.
EDITING DETAILS:
I kept wondering if there might be another film lurking in there. One less action oriented and more mind-altering fun. So the attempt is to trim away the over the top action. Gone is much of Michael Ironside’s scenery-chewing Richter. he’s still in the film but he’s menacing in the background.
And since this film involves memories and perception of reality, what better way to really stir things up than with the good ol’ mementomix.
So just as a reminder: color is the present and B/W is the future in backwards chronology.
Hope this fanedits creates a memory of a lifetime.
WARNING!!!: This fanedit is not for everyone. It’s not intended as a “fix” but as a new ‘ride’.
if you didn’t enjoy the broken chronology of MEMENTO or thought THE DARK KNIGHT:Remixed by jorge didn’t work
then I would suggest you skip this fanedit because it’s more of the same.
Also, many enjoy the Over-the-top camp humor and action. That is also mostly gone in this fanedit.
Is anyone left? Well then you might enjoy this re-arranged, tone down version.
Don’t say i didn’t warn you.
CUTLIST:
new opening scene
trimmed bedroom scene
trimmed breakfast scene
trimmed the caves scenes
benny doesn’t get close ups that indicate he’s a suspicious character.
trimmed the recall offices
trimmed dr edgemar scene
added some nice cam shake for the explosion
trimmed the catfight
deleted the chase on Mars; no shooting the glass, no golfcart chase in the tunnels
deleted the battle in the bar. also the sealing of venusville.
Added several volcanic mind-trips, courtesy of Kuato
trimmed the harry fight to make it faster
trimmed the last resort. no girl with 3 boobs.
trimmed phone booth man.
no Richter chasing Quaid on earth
no bag lady fighting Quaid for the case
trimmed front reception guy that kept looking at Quaid. that guy was just creepy
deleted jonny cab’s explosion.
trimmed Quaid and Hauser at the warehouse
Eliminated hologram sound effect.
deleted the mars arrival and the exploding mask.
trimmed Quaid richter fight. no more ripped arms.
trimmed the explosion/depressurace scene
trimmed the mars atmosphere scene
new ending
many more trims to remember
Awards:
Disclaimer: You must own the original movie before acquiring any FanEdited movie. We here at FanEdit.org respect the company’s copyrights, and don’t want to infringe on any company’s rights. Thank you, FE!
Maybe downloadable from Fanedit.info (enter and download at your own risk and responsibility)
| FANEDITFORUM LINK | IMAGES / COVER ART | TECH INFO | VIDEOS / TRAILER |
EXACTLY as Jorge states in his “Warning” above, this edit is NOT for everyone. Not all the action is gone from this edit, but it is toned down a great deal. In my opinion, there is a good balance of action and plot now.
Having said that, this edit IS for ME.
I always liked “Total Recall” and can watch the original in the context of it being 20 years old/filmed in 1990/and it is ultimately an “Arnie action movie”. I also have been a huge fan of the Philip K. Dick short story, “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”, that the movie is loosely based on.
I liked the re-arranged scenes and the flashbacks/dream sequences/the past. I warn you, the manner in which Jorge presents this edit does require more than casual viewing to follow the “new” story. Jorge wisely differentiates the past and present by B&W and color. Although, I can see that some viewers may take issue with the going back and forth between the past and present without any plot cues to require it.
As far as the technical aspects of the edit: great seamless edits, great audio and okay video quality.
The video quality isn’t the best. I am not sure if this is because the source (DVD?) is of poor quality. I took a look at my store-bought DVD and it wasn’t any better.
I found the “open your mind” transitions to be very effective and helps create that weird, eerie, mind trip this edit is.
I found it interesting how Jorge has the past and present meet up for the finale of the movie. The last scene of the movie is perfect. Arnie’s face says it all. (I am trying not to give away the ending).
My only “real” complaint of this edit: the “Johnny Cab” scene! I hated it in the original and hate it here! Jorge, Jorge, Jorge …really? UGH.
Review by flyboy707 — July 12, 2010 @ 4:55 am
I agree that this fanedit is not for everybody. While I enjoyed “Blue Skies on Mars” I still prefer the original as silly as it is. I think the ultimate downfall of this version is that if you haven’t seen “Total Recall” you’ll most likely be scratching your head trying to understand what’s going on.
As described in the fanedit info, B&W is suppose to be the future and color the present. This is all fine and dandy until during one scene it goes from color to B&W. That left me scratching my head trying to figure out how you can go from present to future. And then it happens again at the very end when it goes from B&W to color. I couldn’t figure out exactly how it played with time as described by Jorge. Flyboy707 does mention in his review that it requires more than a casual viewing so it’s possible I wasn’t as involved in the viewing as I should have been.
I also agree with Flyboy707 that the “open your mind” sequence is amazing. My only comment here is that I felt it should have happened 30 seconds later. But the editing and new audio mix is outstanding.
Unfortunately the video isn’t very good. You’ll notice compression in many scenes. While not a deal breaker it would have been nice if the video was a bit crisper. This could be from whatever the source material is. I never saw the DVD version, and it’s been a couple of years since I watched my copy on BR. Perhaps a tweak of the video compression setting or a “BSOM v.2″ using a different source will help.
Overall, if you like “Total Recall” you should give this one a watch. Perhaps a second viewing will change my opinion on the overall story, but as of right now I think it is a little muddled if you’ve never seen “Total Recall”.
Entertainment: 7/10
Video: 6/10
Audio: 10/10
OVERALL: 8/10
Review by thunderclap — July 12, 2010 @ 10:45 pm
The original is far from a favorite of mine, but knowing Jorge’s track record of quality edits, I wanted to see this one for sure. He has done a nice job of rearranging things and presenting an alternate storyline. The transitions were very smooth. I’ll give this an 8.
Review by Ripplin — July 13, 2010 @ 1:20 am
This is a great edit.
I did not catch the moment where it goes from color to B&W during a scene in a middle of the movie as Thunderclap noticed
(maybe it was just a smooth transition between a shot of a taxi in present day, and Arnold in a taxi on Mars? Anyway).
Of course it should be easier to watch for someone who already saw the original, but I think that it works even better than in
The Dark Knight remixed by Jorge, because the story of Total recall screamed for that treatment even more.
I did not feel bored at any moment, the whole edit flows VERY well.
I’m one of those suckers for Arnold’s silly one-liners and over the top gore in the original…but I was warned!
Maybe I also waited more new twists in the story, but after all the whole movie is already a big giant twist.
The new reorganization of the scenes and the new feel of this edit is way enough to please the audience without adding more
useless complexity.
Video and audio editing are Jorge’s level: top.
Video quality could have been better though (but I’m not sure the original DVD was great quality anyway)
All in all this is what fanediting is all about, and what Jorge usualy do best: making great companion pieces to original movies.
9/10 because it was near perfect, minus the few things I said above.
Review by TMBTM — July 13, 2010 @ 11:22 am
I’ve always found Total Recall to be a so-so kind of movie, but Jorge has crafted a version I can enjoy much more. I give this edit a 9/10, as I too believe Johnny Cab should be demolished at a wrecker’s yard.
Review by jamiemark — July 14, 2010 @ 4:21 am
*Spoilers ahead!*
When I started up the movie I was feeling duly impressed with the presentation, and the first part of the movie with it’s ‘open your mind’ was great. I thought that maybe it be some kind of mind power thinghy, that this way of playing with time back and forth was a result of the psychic powers of Quato (if that’s how you spell it). Anyway, I was interested in seeing how Jorge would make this play out.
After the second viewing of the alien site on Mars things starting going down hill for me. It was getting increasingly difficult to make sense of some stuff, but as I’ve watched the movie quite a few times before I still knew the plot. The turning off of the air is not shown, but we are faced with it’s consequenses later…as an example. Why is Benny the taxi driver even there with the rebels? But perhaps it isn’t so important, aren´t we just getting a glimpse of the memories of a heroic adventure on Mars, as percieved by Hauser/Quaid?
If you take in the ending, which I will now spoil, stop reading!, all of this is the mind of Arnolds character. But there are several scenes in which Arnold does not appear. This, to me, breaks the idea that it could work out that way. So I would have wanted only Arnold if this was the way it was planned to work. But then perhaps again they implant memories of other places so that it feels like a movie, kinda, for the mind traveler? Who knows?
*No more spoilers below*
Editing skills are obvious. I agree with most of what has been left out of the movie. But as the warning says, this is not for everyone. I didn’t keep that good feeling throughout the movie, and wasn’t really satisfied after watching. To use a Jorge rating: I give this a Yellow light. Go ahead if you think you’re in to this sort of thing.
Review by spelledaren — July 16, 2010 @ 8:14 am
***Spoliers ahead****
I was interested in this from the outset. Total Recall is a good film anyway, so a new take on it is most welcome. I did wonder whether this ‘Memeno-izing’ of films is becoming a bit cliche, I wasn’t really a big fan of Jorge’s Dark Knight. However in this case, taking your bulk-standard action film, where it is suggested that it could be all in his head, blurring the lines a little and then finishing the film and categorically stating….”yes it is!” was really cool!
To be honest, I wasn’t really sure where this was going – but it did strike me that it was really emphasised throughout the film that Quaid is literally living out the promised implant – so the ending came as no surprise. You’ll be pleased to know Jorge that afterward I went out for several cigarettes to think about what I’d seen and see if I fully got it and could put it all together!
Good work on removing plenty of the OTT action and ‘MMM, two weeks’.
Can’t fault it really – picture quality not so hot, but I’m guessing this is the fault of the source. So I’m going 10/10. Cool!.
Review by white43 — August 10, 2010 @ 1:48 pm
Blue Skies on Mars by Jorge
Review by Captain Khajiit
**Warning!**
**This review contains spoilers!**
I quite liked the original film, but always find alternate cuts fascinating. The faneditor’s way of reorganizing chronologies is not usually to my taste, but the subject matter of this film does lend itself to this approach and the faneditor constructed his new narrative skilfully, so I enjoyed the result.
Editing: The over-the-top action and humour of the original have never bothered me, but the new vision of the film worked better without them, so in removing them the faneditor exercised good judgment. The new narrative was well implemented and worked quite effectively. Overall, the editing is good. 9 out of 10
Entertainment: 8 out of 10 (theatrical – 8 out of 10)
Image and video quality: The video quality was disappointing and at times struggled to reach the average level of quality that I expect from a fanedit. 5 out of 10
Audio editing and audio quality: I listened on a 3.1 setup and was extremely impressed by the audio mix, which for a first attempt at 5.1 was superb. It went a long way towards making up for the video quality and greatly contributed to my enjoyment of this edit. 10 out of 10
Presentation: I prefer simpler menus and was more than happy with those provided. The cover art was superb. 9 out of 10
Overall: 8 out of 10
I recommend this alternative way to experience the films to everyone, whether they liked the original or not.
Review by Captain Khajiit — August 12, 2010 @ 2:53 am
One word…….Fantastic! After I finished watching this movie, I was still left in shock and awe at what I saw after it was all over. It is true from the disclaimer that this edit will not be for everyone, but for me I thoroughly enjoyed every second.
As many others have commented already the video quality is a little iffy, but I don’t think it is no fault on what Jorge has accomplished here. Meaning I own the Special Edition of Total Recall in the tin can and quite frankly the video is pretty mediocre at best. Just because the video was a little bit of a bummer doesn’t mean the video editing wasn’t superb. Thats where Jorge’s skills come in and it’s clearly evident he is in a class all by himself. However, what I already PM’d Jorge about, was that his main concern was how did his 5.1 mix come out because I guess his other releases were in 2.0. The answer to that is obviously perfect. There was no blunders nor any bad audio transitions to think of. Very high marks there. What impressed me the most with the sound mix was the one part where Quaid gets off the tram on Mars and then you have a really cool video effect, sort of dream-like, and you innercut that with different people he’s encountered. Voices are panning to different speakers, some are clear while others are slowed down and garbley. Same thing with the beginning with Quato. Man that was brilliant. First class audio editing there.
I did have 2 small slight gripes though. Just a couple minor observations I picked up on. The first one being is that after Quaid has taken the chip out of his brain and Rickter and his henchmen think he is still there that whole scene is in color. Then they find out Quaid isn’t there and Rickter shoots the rat, but it just magically turns to black and white. Which of course shouldn’t of happened because that effect when the reverse chronological (B&W) and chronological (Color) meet is suppose to be saved for the end when the different elements merge together for the first time. No biggie though. The last one is that you have 2 sets of credits which I don’t think you need. The one’s at the beginning are perfect, I don’t think you need the ones from the original movies’ at the end. A little overkill in my opinion. Just overlay that music with the credits that scroll up. I don’t know how that would affect Jorge’s use of the “blue skies” music, but maybe it can be shortened somehow. Anyway just rambling. Overall, it still came up aces in my book and is a testament to Jorge’s skills!
Video: 6 out of 10. Like was said before just average video. I don’t have the Blu-Ray to compare this too. This is the only real thing wrong with this fan- edit.
Audio: 10 out of 10. Perfect. Nuff said.
Editing: 9 out of 10. Just the 2 small gripes I stated before knocks it down just a notch, Everything else is perfect.
Entertainment: 10 out of 10. It gets this high ranking because for me anyway it is just that damn good.
Overall: 9 out of 10.
I respectfully bow down and salute you my good man. Good job Jorge!
Review by STANKPAC — August 14, 2010 @ 3:04 am
I’m not an Arnold fan. He’s never offered me anything other than OTT violence and one-liners, which is just not my thing. But I am a big fan of the Terminator films, because they are sci-fi films with Arnold in them, rather than the other way around.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about Total Recall. To me this is a movie that is both a sci-fi and Arnold film at the same time. I watch it for the sci-fi, but cringe at the Arnold. And so I was curious to see what Jorge planned for this film. When I read his thoughts on the film, I realized this fanedit was made just for me. And after watching it, I was thrilled to see that the Arnold factor was indeed greatly reduced.
Beyond that, I also really enjoyed the mementomixing of the film. This is an ideal movie to give this treatment to, and it works really well. In fact, I found myself disappointed when I realized the two narratives had joined and we would only be moving forward from that point on. Not that I would suggest anything different, but it was just a “awwww, too bad” kind of moment.
The change to color near the end was put in the perfect place, and the last shot of the edit left me with a big smile on my face.
Audio and video cuts were invisible. The video quality is a little rough as others have mentioned, but it wasn’t terribly distracting. I would be interested to see how this would look using the Blu source, however. I used headphones while watching so I didn’t get a chance to check out the 5.1 mix, but since I will definitely watch this again in the future, I will listen to it at some point.
I didn’t expect this to become my go-to version of Total Recall, but by turning this film into a sci-fi film rather than an Arnold film, Jorge has put his version on my shelf.
9/10
Review by TV's Frink — August 18, 2010 @ 1:02 am
Count me in the camp that enjoyed the original movie. Yes it was over the top, yes it comes across as dated, but I grew up in the 80s and Total Recall was a fun action ride with an interesting extra level of mystery if you wanted to stop and pay attention.
So, for a fan of the original movie, how does Jorge’s edit stack up? Very well indeed.
While it may not replace my original copy on my shelf, I will definitely re-watch this over the years and show to friends. If you want to show a newcomer what is possible with the art of FanEditing, this is an EXCELLENT example of what can be achieved. It is original, well executed, and highly entertaining.
**Possible Spoilers ahead**
Technical
Both Audio and Video are up to the standards that we’ve come to expect from Jorge. His layering of Kuato’s “Open your mind” line throughout the movie blend perfectly and work well at keeping the viewer aware of the greater questions that Quaid is facing. No harsh edits or transitions. Everything flows smoothly.
Story/Editing
Overall this was a joy to watch. The ‘memento’ treatment works very well and continuously forces the question of which reality is realThe structure ultimately leaves a few small holes such as not seeing how Quaid and Melina hook back up, or how/why Benni is with them. I assume that cutting the explanations out was the lesser of two evils for Jorge as their inclusion was probably both a problem for pacing as well as not terribly interesting. It is a minor issue and as we are dealing with a broken timeline become even less important.
The only thing that didn’t work for me was the montage of events which if I recall correctly occurs close to or at the shift to ‘normal’ time.It felt somewhat out of place and didn’t add much for me.
Overall Entertainment
This is a great ride. It’s not superior to the original, but it is great way to watch it with a fresh experience, and for me, that is one of the greatest things a faneditor can accomplish, breath fresh life into something well known and well-worn.
Overall score
9/10
Review by L8wrtr — August 31, 2010 @ 10:48 pm