TRUE LIES
A film review by James J. Dibenedetto
Copyright 1994 James J. Dibenedetto
First thing--it's a comic book put to live-action film. A $100 million (or more, depending on the source) live-action comic book. It's not realistic in the least, and it's not ashamed. If you're the type of person who says "But there were 10 bad guys shooting at the hero! How could they all miss him?", you're probably not going to enjoy "True Lies". But if you can suspend your disbelief for 2 hours and 20 minutes, you're in for one hell of a ride.
The plot is pretty simple: Arnold Schwarzenegger is a spy (working for some really-ultra-secret outfit called "Omega Sector", powerful enough that field agent Arnold can get directly connected to the White House in a crisis), whose job is to hunt down terrorists. Trouble is, he's never told his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis), instead telling her that he's a computer salesman. The story gets moving as two apparently unrelated plots develop. In one, Arn, along with partner Tom Arnold, are on the trail of a radical terrorist group that might have nuclear weapons. This involves infiltrating a high-class party in Switzerland, and a horse-and- motorcycle chase through Washington, D.C., among other stunts. The second plot is more mundane: Arn thinks his wife is cheating on him. Arn decides to find out for sure, using all the resources at his disposal (wiretaps, bugs in his wife's purse, etc.) to do so. And then ... well, things get complicated, finally resulting in a truly stunning sequence involving helicopters, Harrier jets and people dangling from a crane hundreds of feet in the air.
All in all, it's great fun. The stunts are truly amazing--the Harrier sequence in particular. You can see every penny of the $100 million budget on the screen. And the acting? Big Arnie is good--he's mastered these kind of roles--taking himself and the film just seriously enough not to make it a farce, but no more. And Tom Arnold, as the wisecracking sidekick, is surprisingly good. Jamie Lee Curtis turns in a fine performance, especially when her character gets something to do.
To sum it up, I highly recommend this film. Just don't think about it too deeply.
-- Dr. James J. DiBenedetto - SUNY Buffalo School of Law Class of 1994 jjd@ubunix.buffalo.edu or jjd3@po.cwru.edu
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