True Lies (1994)

Theory of Forms generally refers to the way we picture materialistic items in our brains. Such as, when we think of a table we think of a perfect table. It has no flaws, no scratches and all the legs are all the same size so I don’t need to fold a piece of paper to even out the legs so the table won’t wobble when I eat my 10lb steak. And when I think of an American action spy movie, I will directly think of “True Lies”, this is my perfect table. But sadly in the real world everything has flaws, even True Lies, but that does not deter me away from thinking this is the most perfect American action spy movie ever. Click more to find out why I say this.

Harry Tasker lives the American dream; him and his wife both have well income jobs, a wonderful daughter and live in the suburbs. But there is a slight twist to this, what Harry’s wife and daughter don’t know is his second life, his spy life. He works as a government agent for America with a license to do whatever he wants. While under an investigation to take down radical terrorist with nukes, he finds out his wife is secretly going out with another man. Harry now has to balance both his job and dealing with his wife sneaking around. Can he keep both business and personal apart, or is he that amazing that he’ll combine the two to help each other out?

Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis make a surprisingly cute couple.

Alright, so the story isn’t all that great, tacky to say the least. But I find it the key to this great movie, without it I don’t think it can support the weird but good action and comedy. And this is what is so great about the movie; the movie balances both action and comedy amazingly well. I was both laughing, not only at Arnold’s one-liners, but at the comedy that was portrayed in the movie. I thought that Albert Gibson (Tom Arnold) was the perfect comic relief for Harry. Not only that, he was also his right hand man, supported him through scenarios that even Gibson himself didn’t agree with.

But the main comedy came from the side plot of Harry going after his wife. I won't get into much detail, but Harry starts to play tricks on his wife and Simon (the home wrecker). These silly games he plays are what I found hilarious. They are over the top goofy and got a smile out of me almost every scene. But the laughs don't end there; there is much to be had with the Terrorist side. There are a few moments where they slip up a little and at times they seem like comical villains from cartoons.

"Oh Shi-"

But don't let this distract you from the amazing action in True Lies. I was a bit shocked to see James Cameron as the director, and I have yet to be disappointed with any of his movies. If I could sum up the action in the movie in one word, it would be super-big-ass-explosions (hyphens are awesome). From blowing up a bridge with an AV-8B Harrier jet to the ridiculously big gun fights, this movie is packed with over the top moments. You may say some of the scenes are cliché, but I like to think they are genre defining. After watching the movie, I immediately looked up the budget for it, a whopping $100 million in 1990. That is ridiculous.

Now if you had a Venn diagram for this movie, one side being comedy and the other being action. There are a few scenes that would fit them both. One being when the lead terrorist is hanging onto a missile on a Harrier that Harry is flying. Harry says one of the best one-liners in all of Arnold’s history, “You’re fierd” and fires the missile through a building and into the other terrorist in a helicopter on the OTHER side of that building. As a Canadian all I could say to that was, FUCK YEAH AMERICA. Not sure why, but that was a win for democracy!

"You're Fired"

Now this movie isn’t the best movie, not even the best Arnold movie. I just stand by and say, if I anyone ever talks about action movie that deals with American Spies, I will immediately think of the Austrian born Arnold playing Harry in True Lies. It is so by the books, it is American because it is over the top and big, it is a spy movie because Harry plays a secret agent while lying to his wife and it is an action movie because … well you need to see this movie to understand. To summarize, I loved this movie for all it gave and wasn’t bugged by the short comings of the story.

Arnold Rating:

One-liners: Just amazing, not a whole lot but quality over quantity. Example: Two dogs are chasing Arnold, they jump to get him. Arnold smashes the dogs together, knocking them out cold and says, “Stay”.

Action: Just amazing. It is all about big, big and big! The guns are big, the explosions are bigger and Arnold’s biceps are huge!