Sharon Stone Archives - Jeremy C. Processing

Director – Timo Tjahjanto – 2025 – US – Cert. 15 – 89m

A professional hitman takes his family on holiday to rebuild their trust, embracing and revelling in the violence that erupts around him – out in UK cinemas on Friday, August 15th

“Who are you people?”, asks one of two investigating officers of a man (Bob Odenkirk) and his dog in an interrogation room in the bookend device that opens and closes this sequel. Flashback: he is a married man Hutch with a wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) and two teenage kids Brady (Gage Munroe), 17, and Sammy (Paisley Cadorath), 12. As the days of the week go by – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – mum gets the kids fed and off to their school (which we never see) and she drives off to her demanding real estate job (which, again, we never see).

We do see his work, though. Some days, he lies in, his head flashing back to disturbing and violent memories. Some days, he works: for instance, the day when he enters a hotel lift and brutally fights to the death with the three bodyguards protecting a suited convention guest who has in his possession the Card which our man has been instructed to retrieve.… Read the rest

Total Recall

Director – Paul Verhoeven – 1990 – US – Cert. 18 – 113m

***

UK Release: July 27th 1990

Arnold Schwarznegger’s mind has been stolen – and he’s got to go to Mars to get it back! The seeming perpetrator of this heinous crime is Recall Incorporated, a travel company with a difference: they implant memories of the required holiday destination and period in the client’s brain, and it seems to him that he’s having that holiday then. Recall’s latest deal even allows the client to take a break from his/her personality for the period purchased. Arnie opts for two weeks on Mars as a secret agent.

While the requirements of megabudget Hollywood film making often water down the end result, the premise of this film – fashioned after SF author Philip K. Dick’s We Can Remember It For You Wholesale – is not only imaginatively preposterous but also so utterly cinematic that it has a phenomenal amount going for it right from frame one.

Add to this not only Schwarznegger but his contractually binding choice of director being none other than Dutchman Paul Verhoeven (The Fourth Man, 1983; Robocop, 1987) plus a final price tag which might well be as high as $70m, and you can see why expectations on this movie are so high.… Read the rest