Total Recall, Twilight, Buried: films on TV today

No, not Paul Verhoeven’s landmark 1990 virtual-reality thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the construction worker who suffers a “schizoid embolism” after having a memory implanted into his brain; rather, the on-paper entirely superfluous 2012 remake. But don’t dismiss it out of hand. Director Len Wiseman has the Underworld franchise and a Die Hard on his action-packed CV, and the claim is that this is not a remake but a new adaptation of the Philip K Dick book the first film was based on. The casting’s tasty: Colin Farrell plays a far more identifiable Quaid; Bill Nighy has fun as a resistance leader; Kate Beckinsale makes a deadly assassin; and Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston is always welcome, snacking on scenery as a ruthless dictator. (We’ll gloss over Jessica Biel’s contribution.) The “gravity elevator” adjoining Britain to Australia via the Earth’s core is monumentally well realised in CGI, too. More dour and less fun than the original, it’s not without a brain.

Twilight ★★★
11.05pm-1.25am C4

This original film in the vampiric-romance saga is a reminder of what set off all that angsty smouldering between Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the first place.

Transformers ★★★★
7.00-10.00pm E4

A teenager gets caught up in a war between the Autobots and the evil Decepticons in Michael Bay's breathtaking blockbuster. Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox provide the human element.

Kill List ★★★★
11.15pm-1.05am Film4

A pair of contract killers become the devil's mark in this inventive British horror from Ben Wheatley, the man who brought you Sightseers and A Field in England.

Buried ★★★★
11.25pm-1.20am ITV4

This thriller isn't one for those who don't like confined spaces or the actor Ryan Reynolds. He's the solo performer in a race-against-the-clock movie that finds him trapped six-feet underground somewhere in the Middle East, with only a quickly depleting mobile phone to raise the alarm.

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