10 Worst Times Movie Actors Were Combined With CGI

7. Arnold Schwarzenegger - Total Recall

Total Recall fat lady mask arnold schwarzenegger
TriStar Pictures

Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall is full of magnificent practical effects, which only makes this particularly lame effort all the more noticeable.

At one point in the film, Arnie's Douglas Quaid attempts to sneak through customs undetected, wearing a disguise so nobody will recognise him. Instead of a fake moustache or a big hat, Quaid opts for a mechanical-lady suit, which turns him into a middle-aged red-headed woman.

Unfortunately, the suit malfunctions and Quaid's disguise starts to unravel, with the lady's face parting down the middle and showing us a rubbery, fake-looking Schwarzenegger head underneath. The effects on the lady herself are hardly convincing, but Arnie's expressionless blob of a face is especially naff, since it is so clearly not the real actor himself.

We should mention that it's not fully clear whether or not this is a CGI effect, or some sort of rubber mask. But either way, it looks terrible, and it's disappointing that a film with such great effects work couldn't nail what looks like a relatively simple moment.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!