Total Recall Forum

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As a trivia lover and someone who generally likes being a know-it-all, I enjoy listening to audio commentaries. A lot of the time they give the chance for the people who worked on a film to pull the curtain back, revealing some interesting facts about how their masterpiece got made.

The audio commentary for Total Recall is one of my favourites because it is the opposite of this. Star Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have missed the purpose of an audio commentary, filling the role of what Ridley Scott would call "Irving the Explainer." Instead of serving up some behind-the-scenes gems, Arnie uses the time to... well, check it out for yourself:

To be completely fair Arnie's co-commentator, director Paul Verhoeven, also strays into Captain Obvious territory more often than I'd like, but on the flipside he does tell some genuinely interesting facts about the making of Total Recall along the course of the film.

I would have never caught all the subtleties .

I've heard a few audio commentaries where people just describe what is going on, but not like this! This seems like it would be kind of boring to listen to.

Now I'm thinking about how good the commentary track for Tropic Thunder was...

You've got to listen to his commentary on CONAN with John Milius where's buzzed the whole time and going on about "Wow.... I get laid a lot in this movie."

@Tom_Pinchuk: Yeah, I really want to check that one out now! Also, you've made me wonder how I've gotten this far without either of the Conan movies in my collection.

@CharlesAlanRatliff: Now I need to see that with commentary.

I remember the T3 commentary being somewhat creepy at times.

@buzz_clik:

Slightly off-topic, but I used to work with a guy who left the USSR for Israel during the Soviet days. One of his first jobs once he got to Israel was to provide an illegal Russian language over-dub of Total Recall.