Directed by James Cameron Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Charlton Heston, Tia Carrere Review by Matthew Toffolo
SYNOPSIS:
Harry Tasker is a secret agent in the Bond style. But his wife Helen and family think he is a computer salesman. When Helen seeks out a life of excitement in the arms of another man, Harry sets out to give her the excitement she craves while simultaneously battling Arab terrorists in possession of an atomic bomb and causing his rival in love to change his trousers.
This is just one of those films that I'll always remember and enjoy watching through my lifetime because this was the movie that pretty much defined my teenage years. It was the ultimate Drive-In movie to see. It had action, comedy, romance and the plot wasn't too complicated so you were able to sneak in a few minutes of make-out sessions with your girlfriend during the flick.
True Lies is the ultimate FOREPLAY movie. Whenever you want to revamp your sex life with your significant other, watch True Lies and after 2 hours you'll look at your partner in a whole new way. It worked for me as a teenager, it worked for me in my 20s and it's still working for me in my 30s. James Cameron is the king of the action romance movies and he not only crosses generations, but he also crosses genders too. Every single person in humanity will get a different form of entertainment from True Lies.
Except if you're a hater and you're down on the popcorn movie. I had that pretentious stage in my 20s and then I got my head out of my ass and saw this film for what it was. Pure entertainment and nothing else. This film won't kill braincells because the plot, action scenes, overall filmmaking style and performances are actually very clever. So that's a lot to enjoy and a lot to learn from it too if you happen to be a storyteller. And we're all storytellers!
All in all True Lies is about a married couple who fall into a routine and are stale. The husband happens to be a spy and when a terrorist happens to come along to attempt to destroy the United States, it's a blessing in disguise for this married couple as it brings them closer together and revamps their marriage.
And from a structured standpoint, True Lies is also a landmark film. It actually has 2 1st acts in the movie. In basic terms, the film has two completely different storylines in the first 40 minutes and then those storylines merge together to give us your typical action climax and conclusion.
In movies, the first act is usually only 20-25 minutes in length. But True Lies gives us one story in the first 20 minutes: the terrorist plot. Then it stops that story completely and then is gives you another story for 20 minutes: the marriage plot. Then when you've almost forgot the first 20, it comes back merging both stories. From a Hollywood storytelling standpoint, that has never been done before and I can't think of one example of when it was ever done again.
Of course watching True Lies after the 911 attacks is an entirely different film because those terrorists actually did something whereas it was just something that happened in the movies when it came out in 1994. So a lot of the scenes are now taken much more seriously than they were initially intended to be.
And Tom Arnold. The guy who really has had no career since True Lies really pulls off a terrific performance. You wonder why no one else casted him in a similar role again.
James Cameron will probably be best known in his career for making TITANIC and creating the TERMINATOR series, but check out True Lies if you haven't seen it. It's a film you wonder why a sequel wasn't made. Now Arnold is in politics and I'd doubt he's ever coming back to acting.
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