10 Movies That Prove The 90's Were The Golden Age Of Action

10. Total Recall

In recent years movies like Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian have shown that big-budget sci-fi movies can be mature, complex and thought-proving. Two decades previously, Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall showed that they could also be totally batsh*t insane.

Living up to its tag as one of the most expensive productions in history at the time, Total Recall's cutting-edge visual effects even earned a Special Achievement Academy Award. That's not to say that the movie was all style over substance, because Verhoeven made sure to include the subversive and satirical elements typical of his work along with plenty of blockbuster action.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's natural screen presence and charisma have rarely been utilized to better effect than they were here, the giant Austrian showing surprising vulnerability as a man trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't.

Over-the-top and excessive it may be, but the frantically-paced and massively entertaining Total Recall always keeps its tongue planted firmly in-cheek. It speaks volumes about how the project captured sci-fi lightning in a bottle that Len Wiseman's cack-handed remake cost twice as much to produce, made less money at the box office and wasn't even half as good.