Many sci-fi fans were worried that Len Wiseman's remake of "Total Recall" would spoil fond memories of Paul Verhoven's 1990 genre favorite. In the end, they needn't have been concerned. Yes, the new "Total Recall" is dreadful, but it's so unexpectedly dull that nothing in the remake is likely to take up even an iota of memory space. Colin Farrell is pretty, but dull. Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale are pretty, but dull. And it's all dull despite (and because of) Wiseman's trademark chop-everything-to-bits directing style that relegates some truly fine production design to the poorly lit, poorly framed, poorly edited scrapheap. Futuristic action movies shouldn't double as sedatives, but this one does.

- Dan Fienberg