6. Poor Villains
Though the names Lori and Cohagen are there, Wiseman's Recall doesn't have anywhere near as good a grasp on its villains as the original pic. While Richter has been omitted entirely - and we'll get to that later - there's still enough to work with here to make compelling foes for Farrell's Quaid. Bryan Cranston is a superb actor and well-cast in the role of primary antagonist Cohagen - though it's odd to see him sporting hair after working so long on Breaking Bad - but his character is poorly-written and underdeveloped; he only makes his presence truly felt in the later stages of the film, giving us little time to appreciate his menace, and the final showdown against Quaid is completely unmemorable, despite having only seen the film three days ago. The eye-popping Mars finale of the original is reduced to a boring, forgettable mano-y-mano fight, and frankly, it's difficult to even remember how Cohagen kicks it (he is incinerated). Kate Beckinsale is more compelling as a re-purposed version of Lori, played by Sharon Stone in the original. Though she fills out the requirement of Quaid's pseudo-wife well enough, she is essentially Lori and Richter from the original film conflated into one character, a more menacing and physically imposing antagonist than Cranston's Cohagen, though again, her demise is not particularly memorable, and one can't escape the feeling that Wiseman through Beckinsale in there primarily because she's his wife, and he has a weird fascination with watching her make out with other guys.