James Cameron month: True Lies

A review by Brooks Rich

True Lies is a throwback to '80s action from 1994. Cameron and Schwarzenegger collaborate for the third time to make this fun and action-packed film. It wasn't the end of the apex of Schwarzennger's career but that was right around the corner. Still, this is a solid film and actually one of my favorite Schwarzenegger performances.

Schwarzenegger is Harry Tasker, a suburban husband, and father whose wife and daughter think is a boring computer salesman. In reality, he's a secret agent for the US government. When his wife Helen, played wonderfully by Jamie Lee Curtis, gets roped into one of his missions, the two of them begin to rekindle their marriage while also trying to save the world.

The strongest part of this film I think is the chemistry between Schwarzenegger and Curtis. It's almost like their a couple from a screwball comedy dropped into an action film. Curtis plays well with almost anyone though and I feel she never gets the credit she deserves. This is one of her best movies and the banter between her and Schwarzenegger is fantastic. The action of course is top-notch, Cameron is a meticulous director, but I come back to True Lies for the relationship between Schwarzenegger and Curtis.

I feel like this film, along with The Abyss, has become forgotten. Everyone knows The Terminators and Aliens and Avatar and Titanic are two of the biggest films of all time. True Lies is a sort of outlier in Cameron's filmography. It's just on the level of legendary films like Alien and The Terminator. It's still worth a watch though but sadly is not streaming anywhere at the moment. Don't really understand that.

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