True Lies

Rating:
Summary: Could have been good. Instead, was directed by Cameron.
Review: True Lies (James Cameron, 1994)

Perhaps in the hands of any director who's not one of the Great Triumvirate of Hollywood Hacks-- Steven Spielberg, Joel Schumacher, and James Cameron-- True Lies would have been an interesting and funny satire on the mindless-action-film genre. After all, it was clever enough to actually pull in real action-film star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead, it comes off looking as if James Cameron actually took the script seriously, and the result is overlong, boring, and not too terribly fun to watch.

Harry Tasker (The Governator) is a secret agent whose wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) thinks he's a computer salesman. Harry finds out his wife is having an affair with a used car salesman, Simon (Cameron regular Bill Paxton), who's masquerading as a secret agent and taking credit for all the things Harry and his partner, Al Gibson (Tom Arnold, recently in Mr. 3000), are actually doing. For a lark, Harry kidnaps Helen, plays along with the idea that Simon is actually the secret agent, and that the agency wants Helen to work for them, all as an elaborate way to get her back. Hat is, until real terrorists show up at the assignation, leading into a comedy-of-errors-style second half of the movie.

You can see the potential, right? Even Woody Allen, the least funny man in America, could probably have gotten it right. Not so Cameron, who somewhere between T2 and True Lies really dropped the action-movie ball. (His humbling wasn't complete until the cinematic waste that was Titanic, but this was close.) Too much of the movie isn't played for the kind of laughs it should be, to the point where when it is played for laughs, it seems as if it's more the tension-relief laughter all good suspense movies need in order to keep the pace flowing. The problem is, if that was the intention, it doesn't work that way here. There's too much that could have happened and didn't, and too much that probably shouldn't have happened that did. The latter is probably the greater sin; the film runs two and a half hours, give or take a few minutes.

Could have been great. Is run of the mill. **

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Oh Yeah
Review: Arnold Schwarzenegger is special agent Harry Tasker, a top spy in the ultra-secret Omega Sector -- though to his wife, Helen, he's just a boring computer salesman. When Harry's two identities unexpectedly collide, he and Helen find themselves in the clutches of international terrorists, fighting to save their marriage and their lives. Jammed with incredible special effects, True Lies is an exhilarating mix of nonstop action and romantic comedy.

Rating:
Summary: Fast Action - Funny Script - Talent Galore
Review: Action abounds in this rollicky action film starring the Governor, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tom Arnold.

True Lies is pure fun. Not a high-minded film with a lot of deep symbolism, just a fun-filled action-packed romp through the Florida keys. The highlight is the Governor piloting a Harrier jet in search of his hostage daughter. Bad guys are on the run when he hunts them down with superior resolve, determination, and firepower!