TRUE LIES (1994) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: James Cameron Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Tia Carerre, Art Malik, Bill Paxton, Grant Heslov, Elika Dushku, Charlton Heston
In the last 30 minutes of "True Lies," we get to see Arnold Schwarzenegger take out three-quarters of a camp of evil baddies armed with a pistol, a machine gun, and a combination of a machine gun and oil pump; see him leap off a dock after running from an incoming rocket aimed at him; see a huge bridge in the Florida Keys get blown away; see Arnold pull his wife from an out-of-control car, causing her to dangle from a helicopter; and see him attack a bunch of nasty terrorists in downtown Miami in a huge jet. I've seldomnly laughed harder.
Ian Flemming once said of the character he created, "Bond is what every man wants to be, and knows damn well he can't." Well, this is very true, and the subject of the film, Harry Travers (Ah-nold), is a regular everyday joe (with abs of steel) who is married to a career mom (Jamie Lee Curtis), has a daughter (Elisha Dushku), and has a busy computer salesman job...or does he? We meet Harry on one of his Bondish missions to an elite party in Sweeden where he must do something cool with a computer (how it all works is not relevant, as these tiny details are never relevant in the Bond films either). He works as a kind of superman, always shooting right on target, never being hit, and being able to walk right in front of a car that skids an inch from his face on ice. Then he can shoot a couple bad guys from behind a truck passing the bullet through the window. Then he returns home, sleeps with his bored wife, and talks endlessly about "the exciting world of computers."
The film is divided into three acts. The first one sets up this whole premise, where he lies to his wife about his boring job when he is in fact leading a great 007-style life, working for a highly secret branch of the government. His current mission has him doing something with some bad, insane Middle Easterns led by the great Art Malik. Also included somehow is the very elegant and sexy Juno (Tia Carerre). But this is all secondary to the deal with his wife, who may be cheating on Harry with a suave guy who says he's a spy like Harry (Bill Paxton). This is in the hysterical second act which is there to stretch the premise to its seemingly limitless limits. How this whole thing comes out is one of the true geniuses of this flick.
The third act is composed of Harry and his wife escaping and trying to stop the baddies from blowing up downtown Miami with a nuclear weapon. This is where many of the coolest stunts occur, with the bridges blowing up, and Harry taking on all the baddies with a jet in downtown Miami. While this is just breathtaking to look at, in another lesser film, this would be just there to look cool and that's it. In this film, it's not only breathtaking, but inspired.
The way this film is handled is with a kind of authentic absurdity. The filmmakers know the storyline is crap, and they handle it that way. They seem to revel in the enormous plot holes in the spy storyline. And they seem to take enormous glee in the whole affair subplot that dominates the second act. The action sequences are great to look at and downright hysterical. James Cameron goes for laughs with everything, but does not overdo it at all. The film is subtle in the way that this is all looked at with a kind of that's-the-way-things-are attitude, which provides for most of the jokes to actually be funny. While Arnold has done the hokey-comedy ("Twins") and the only-occasionally-funny ("Last Action Hero"), here he gets to do great comedy which is perfectly mixed with great action.
Arnold, in fact, has rarely been better. Yes, at first he seems miscast as the husband who has the boring job. I mean, look at him - he's built more than Conan on steroids and talks with an ominous and sometimes unintelligable Austrian accent (that's Austrian, not...oh nevermind). But he has a great knack for comedy, seeming to almost parody himself in his action flicks. And he has a great sidekick, the surprisingly awesome Tom Arnold, who wouldn't be his sidekick if this was "Eraser."
And somehow James Cameron pulls this all off. He's always been a great director, seeming to stretch the action limits in all kinds of directions. And everything looks great and not just like some cool special effects. This is much more satisfying than any of Arnold's other action flicks, with exception to the "Terminator" flicks (also directed by Cameron). What results is a cleverly written, beautifully executed action/comedy which is adrenalin pumping AND hysterical. No wonder this was one of the most entertaining films of 1994. I highly, highly, highly reccomend this incredible action pic to anyone who's tired of the same boring "Eraser"-esque action flick.
MY RATING (out of 5): ****
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