As you may recall, or even Rekall, the troubled hero of the original 'Total Recall,' played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, goes to a brain-bending establishment called Rekall Inc. to buy a virtual vacation, one that's all in the mind. Now it's Colin Farrell who goes to the same company, where he's told, in the same spirit of dangerously genial salesmanship: 'We'll provide you with a complete set of memories all your own.' For those of us who saw the original, the problem with watching this totally dehumanized remake, which was directed by Len Wiseman, is that we, too, have a set of memories all our own: specific memories of the 1990 movie - which was clever and playful, as well as exciting and hugely impactful - and general memories of a time when going to see an action adventure could be giddy fun.
也许你还记得，在老版的《全面回忆》(Total Recall)中，阿诺•施瓦辛格(Arnold Schwarzenegger)饰演的身陷困境的男主角来到一家名为“Rekall”的公司，购买一次全程都在大脑中展开的虚拟旅行。如今在由伦•维斯曼(Len Wiseman)执导的新版影片中，来到这家公司的变成了柯林•法瑞尔(Colin Farrell)，同样也得到了亲切到危险程度的推销：“我们将为你提供一整套你自己的完整记忆。”对于看过老版的观众而言，观看这部毫无生气的翻拍片的问题在于，我们也拥有一套自己的记忆：我们对上世纪90年代那部老版影片的特定记忆，它新颍独到、好玩有趣、令人激动且极具冲击力，还有对那个时代的整体记忆，当时去看一部动作冒险片也是一件让人心驰神迷的趣事。
The first question posed by the new production is why. The original, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was a sci-fi classic, and a terrific piece of filmmaking for its time, so why try to top it? That's easy. Remakes aren't supposed to top originals, or even to match them. They're meant to draw new revenues from new audiences; most of the people who'll pay to see this film weren't born when the first one came out, or if they were they didn't know Arnold from Elmo. Another question is harder, but maybe more instructive to answer: What does this film say about the state of the movie business?
这部新影片引发的第一个问题是为什么要翻拍。老版《全面回忆》由保罗•范霍文(Paul Verhoeven)执导，是一部经典科幻片，在当时算得上是一部制作非常精良的电影，那么为什么还要翻拍它呢？这个问题很简单。翻拍片不一定要超过老版，甚至也不一定要跟老版旗鼓相当。它们的目的是吸引新的观影人群，从而产生新的票房收入；大多数会花钱去看这部新片的人在老版上映时都还没有出生。就算已经出生，他们当时看的也还是儿童电视节目“芝麻街”中的埃尔莫(Elmo)，根本不知道施瓦辛格。另一个问题则更难回答，但是或许更有启发意义：这部影片体现出电影业的哪些现状？
The basic plot has been retained. (So has the hooker who flashes her three breasts, in case you were wondering.) After something goes horribly wrong during the memory-implant session, the hero, Douglas Quaid, finds himself caught up in an epic battle he doesn't understand at first, and struggles to figure out who he really is. Unlike the original, which was set in the future both on Earth and on a Mars that's either real or a dream, the new one takes place entirely on an Earth that's staggering under the load of overpopulation and really bad weather - 'Blade Runner' meets Malthus. The main locales are the United Federation of Britain, where the upper classes live, and the dystopian precincts of the Colony, which could have passed in our time for Australia. The two regions are connected by a giant elevator that makes the trip - through the center of the Earth - in 17 minutes, if I'm not mistaken; if I am, it's still a big whoosh.
影片的基本情节都得到了保留。（不用猜了，老版中那个有三个乳房的妓女角色也保留了下来。）在记忆移植环节出现一些极其严重的差错之后，男主角道格拉斯•奎德(Douglas Quaid)发现他被卷入了一场他起初并不明白的宏大战斗中，并竭力想弄清楚自己到底是谁。老版把背景设在了未来世界，在亦真亦幻的地球和火星上，新版则与此不同，故事全部在地球上展开，这时的地球在人口过剩的重压和极其恶劣的气候条件下不堪重负，这倒是像《银翼杀手》(Blade Runner)与马尔萨斯(Malthus)的论点结合在了一起。（译者注：前者涉及了科技在未来对环境和社会的影响，后者则以人口论而知名。）故事的主要发生地为上等阶层居住生活的大英联盟(United Federation of Britain)和与此形成反衬的殖民区，在我们的时代可能被认为是澳大利亚。这两个地方由一部穿过地球中心的巨型电梯连接，如果我没搞错的话，从一地到另一地的行程只要17分钟；即使我搞错了，那也仍然是一段速度飞快的行程。
To give the new version its due, the visuals are great, especially if you're partial to oppressiveness: a Londonesque megalopolis thrust skyward in a jumble of shifting platforms and seemingly infinite tiers; a spectacular - though also interminable - hover-car chase; multilevel leaps, preposterous crash landings, soulless interior spaces that make Hong Kong's malls seem warm and cozy by comparison. (The production was designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, and photographed by Paul Cameron.)
新版也有其可取之处，它的视觉效果非常棒，特别是如果你偏好看上去十分沉重压抑的场景的话：一个伦敦风格的大都市耸入天际，由无数的移动平台和似乎无穷无尽的层级组成；壮观的飞行汽车追逐场面（不过也十分冗长）；片中还有一些多级跳跃和违反常理的迫降场景，了无生气的室内空间画面使得香港的购物中心相形之下也显得温馨舒适。（该片艺术指导为帕特里克•塔托普罗斯(Patrick Tatopoulos)，摄影师为保罗•卡梅伦(Paul Cameron)。）
Yet it's often hard to tell where the story is playing out - with one whoosh we're down in the Colony, with another we're up in ex-Britain, though all of the corridors and tunnels look the same. After a while it doesn't matter, since the action is as repetitive as it is relentless, a succession of fights and frantic chases accompanied by those drums that have come to define the genre - pacemakers for heartless thrillers.
尽管如此，我们常常还是难以分辨故事到底在哪里发生。电影中的角色嗖地一下就到了殖民区，嗖地一下又来到了大英联盟，但所有的走廊和隧道看上去都一样。再过一会儿，场景问题就无关紧要了，因为全是重复不断的动作场面，接连不断的打斗、疯狂的追逐，伴着已成为这种标准的冷血惊险片特色的鼓点。
It's equally hard to evince any concern for the hero. 'If I'm not me then who the hell am I?' he asks anxiously, but his dilemma doesn't much matter, since he's no more a full-fleshed character than the hordes of robocops chasing after him. That's no knock on Mr. Farrell, who's a marvelous screen presence in the right circumstances - as the hapless hit man of 'In Bruges,' for example - and who invests these action sequences with formidable energy. He's simply stuck within the confines of a mechanistic script, along with Kate Beckinsale, as Quaid's wife, and Jessica Biel as the other woman in his wild adventures; both of them work hard for their salary too.
此外，我们也同样难以对主角产生任何关心。他在影片中焦急地问道：“如果我不是我，那我到底是谁？”但他的困惑无关紧要，因为他不再是一个血肉丰满的角色，与那群追杀他的机器战警无甚差别。这并非挑剔法瑞尔的表现，遇到合适的剧本，他的表现总是令人赞叹，比如他在《杀手没有假期》(In Bruges)中饰演的那个运气不佳的杀手，他在这一系列动作场景中也投入了巨大精力。他只是被一个机械的剧本所困，同样有此遭遇的还有在片中饰演他妻子的凯特•贝金赛尔(Kate Beckinsale)以及与他共同经历狂野冒险的另一名女子的饰演者杰西卡•贝尔(Jessica Biel)。
The original 'Total Recall' was built from bottom to top as a vehicle for certified stars. Mr. Schwarzenegger filled the bill, and then some; so did Sharon Stone, in the role of the wife. Audiences cared about them going in, and the movie capitalized on their presence with sexy riffs, smart jokes (including some crude but shrewd ones about Arnold's physique), a few whiffs of silliness, a sprinkling of grace notes to punctuate the thundering action. The remake has no grace notes, or grace, no nuance, no humanity, no character quirks, no surprises in the dialogue and no humor, apart from one moment when the hero displays a very special kind of phone and an awestruck kid says 'Where do I get one of those?'
老版《全面回忆》彻头彻尾被打造成了一部大牌明星云集的影片。施瓦辛格的表演出类拔萃，甚至尤有过之，在影片中饰演其妻子的莎朗•斯通(Sharon Stone)也是如此。这两人的出演吸引观众走进了影院，而影片也在这两位明星身上做足了文章，声势浩大的动作场面之间还点缀着性感的场面、机智的玩笑（包括一些有关施瓦辛格身材的粗俗但机敏的玩笑）、一些冒傻气的逗乐桥段以及不时出现的优美配乐。翻拍的新版没有优美配乐，没有优雅可言，没有细腻的表演，没有关于人性的东西，片中人物没有令人会心一笑的台词，对话也毫无惊喜或幽默之处。其中只有一个场景例外，当男主角拿出一部非常特别的电话时，一个惊叹不已的小孩问道：“在哪儿能买到这样的？”
Yet these deficits don't matter either, at least not to the movie's intended audience, because - getting back to that earlier question - the state of the movie business has been transformed by globalization. Foreign sales are now where the main action is. We may wonder why so many studio movies these days seem to have been struck from the same crude mold, but in many cases, including this one, they weren't made for us as much as for an international market where moviegoers respond more reliably to action, and the bedazzlements of production design, than to character or dialogue, let alone to humor, which translates chancily, if at all, into other languages. In that context, the new 'Total Recall' is not only instructive, but possessed of a perverse purity. Almost everything but the action has been distilled out.
不过上述种种不足之处同样无关紧要，至少对于其目标观众来说不重要。其中的原因又回到了前文谈到的那个问题，电影业的现状已经在全球化的影响下发生变化。如今，影片在海外的销售成为了重心。我们或许会奇怪，为什么当今有这么多影片似乎都是依照同一个模子制作出来的，但有很多影片并非为我们制作的，而是更多地针对国际市场，这部影片也是如此。比起角色塑造和对话，动作场面和让人眼花缭乱的视觉设计是更笃定能吸引海外观众的因素，幽默就更别提了。翻译成别的语言后，幽默效果就算尚有留存也会大打折扣。在这种背景下，新版《全面回忆》不仅具有启发意义，而且具备一种反常的纯粹性。除了动作场面之外，几乎所有东西都被提炼出去了。