...or it could just be depth...less...ness
Some of this article writers can go overboard with the terminology but it's true in this case.
Arnie's performance wasn't shallow but it can be one sided in the sense that True Lies/Last Action Hero/Predator can be considered as him performing with depth while Conan/Running Man/The 6th Day/Kindergarten Cop and Batman and Robin can be considered as some of Arnie's depthless performance where he gets away with Keanu Reeves acting but replace tortured soul with muscle or bulk.
Arnie plays an interesting depthless character in Total Recall though. Unlike his other movies where it's hit or miss and it's easier to say it's just Arnie's muscles making up for his lack of acting chops, this movie holds both Arnie with depth and Arnie without one which is why it still worked. Plus the depthless Arnie is less action hero and more in the realms of Keanu Reeves' Matrix performance except it's still not tortured lost soul but impatient, semi-horny, semi-looking for his destined lover, semi-unsatisfied successful blue collar construction worker, semi-amnesiac, semi-mid life crisis depth.
I won't spoil the movie for those who haven't watched but let's just say there's two Arnie and when they meet, that's when Arnie's depth shows but in a unique manner because often times when people judge depth, they're focusing on one actor but this time what adds depth to Arnie's performance is the way depthless Arnie interacts with campy Arnie and the two merge as a product of one despite being separated thus resulting in one of the few rare depthful performance in movies where a character comes face to face and interacts with his twin/clone/etc.
- carpe noctem
