Viewed in
2012
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a superspy whose been able to keep his true identity secret from his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, until now.
Loved
The horse chase scene.
Liked
Exciting action, cast chemistry.
Hated
The stupendously stupid second act.
Thoughts
Still pretty entertaining.
The opening scene had a great James Bond tongue-in-cheek vibe mixed in with exciting stunt-laden action. This might be the first James Cameron movie I've seen with a fun sense of humor, culminating in the ridiculously fantastic motorcycle-horse chase scene. The third act with the Harrier jets was quite awesome too. What was interesting was that the special effects, for the most part, still remained convincing. Cameron did an excellent job of harnessing the power of CGI while masking its artificiality, in large part by relying on great practical stunts.
Casting-wise, it was a weird, but oddly effective group. Arnold easily transitioned between the explosive and humorous moments. Though it was amusing to see how the film makers hid Arnold's dialog limitations. Him and Tom Arnold made a funny buddy combo that never felt forced. Jamie Lee Curtis was very funny at times, and consistently acted her butt off, even during the more cringe-inducing moments (next paragraph). I was glad to see Tia Carrera from Wayne's World. Bill Paxton got picked on by Schwarzenegger again. There was a pre-puberty Eliza Dushku, and more importantly, the late great Charlton Heston with an eyepatch!
Now what I hated the most was the horrible middle act, even by mindless popcorn flick standards. We get sideswiped by an unbelievable bad sitcom-like complication of Curtis being wooed by a sleazy Paxton, while the two Arnolds creepily snoop and stalk them. The tone was cruel, the characters were required to act like idiots (even the superspies), and whole thing came out of left field, just to justify Curtis' eventual realization about her husband's true occupation. Somehow this led to Curtis forced to strip down and dance erotically for the enemy, who was Arnold in "disguise". I just felt bad for everyone in the room.
In general, the writing was subpar compared to Cameron's greatest hits. The bad guys were your typical pre-9/11 cardboard Jihadist Middle Eastern terrorists, you could easily tell where each scene was leading up to, and there were plenty of plot holes. I know directors don't technically have to be consistent with all their movies, but considering how serious Cameron treated atomic bombs in Terminator 2, I was disappointed by how lightly he treated the consequences of the same thing here.
True Lies had a strong cast, a fun-spirited beginning, and an explosive ending. If only there was a way to cut out that stupefying middle.
