True Lies
TRUE LIES (15)
D: James Cameron
20th Century Fox/Lightstorm (James Cameron & Stephanie
Austin)
US 1994
141 mins (UK version: 135 mins)
Action/Thriller/Comedy
W: James Cameron [based on the screenplay "La Totale!" by
Claude Zizi, Simon Michael & Didier Kaminska]
DP: Russell Carpenter
Ed: Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt & Richard A.
Harris
Mus: Brad Fiedel
PD: Peter Lamont
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Harry Tasker), Jamie Lee
Curtis (Helen Tasker), Tom Arnold (Albert Gibson), Bill Paxton (Simon), Art Malik (Salim Abu Aziz), Tia Carrere (Juno Skinner), Eliza Dushku (Dana Skinner), Grant Heslov (Faisal),
Charlton Heston (Spencer Trilby)
To call True Lies an Americanised update on James Bond
would be a bit misleading, since it's equally as much a comedy as it is a spy action-thriller, adapted from little-seen French farce La Totale.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays government agent Harry Tasker,
who keeps his real employment a secret from his family, who are blissfully unaware he's jetting across the world on intrepid missions, instead they think he's in a boring business seminar
somewhere.
His wife, Helen, becomes bored with her mundane office
life and embarks on an affair with a used car salesman who claims to be a spy, taking all the credit for Harry's work.
Harry compromises his position to get a saucy-kind of
revenge on his unfaithful wife, but when the two are kidnapped by a real group of terrorists, the high jinks really begin.
The filmmaking standard is of the usual impeccable
standard from perfectionist James Cameron, utilising slick photography and editing and flawless visual effects to deliver the thrilling action whilst Jamie Lee Curtis provides all the comic
relief to steal all the limelight from Arnie.
8/10
