Writer-director James Cameron shows he can do comedy – and Arnold Schwarzenegger adds another notch to his laugh belt – in “True Lies” (1994). Cameron’s relatively light entry between “Terminator 2” and “Titanic” offers good blockbuster fun, but it’s the fluffiest entry of his golden age and too long (2 hours, 21 minutes) for a film that’s not a sweeping social commentary or historical epic.
A blast before it gets overblown
But “True Lies” is a blast before it gets overblown. A remake of the 1991 French film “La Totale!,” it’s the story of a secret agent (Schwarzenegger’s Harry Tasker) whose wife and daughter think he’s a boring salesman, and a wife (Jamie Lee Curtis’ Helen) who craves more adventure than she gets in her cubicle job.
She considers starting an affair, and Harry is so bummed out and irrational upon finding this out that he uses his spy agency resources to track her.
Impressively, Cameron sells this absurd premise by addressing concerns as they occur to us.
Harry’s partner Albert Gibson (comedian Tom Arnold, who is actually the straight man here) points out that it’s illegal to wiretap his wife (and also illegal to use the agency’s tools to do so), but Harry ropes his partner into complicity, saying he’ll hold on to one of Gibson’s secrets.
(Gibson once blew six weeks of undercover progress when he was distracted by purchasing a sexual favor.)
Comedy gold with Paxton
At other times, “True Lies” goes for broke with its insanity but does so in such a funny way that we love it. I laughed out loud at the moment when a helicopter pops into the frame, keeping tabs on the sports car holding Helen and her potential lover, Bill Paxton’s Simon.
It’s not only funny that Harry is using expensive government equipment to spy on his wife, and it’s even funnier that a blockbuster action shoot is in the service of such a mundane plot. For the briefest of moments, the previous year’s “Last Action Hero” comes to mind; the two films would make a solid Arnold action-comedy double feature.
As good as Schwarzenegger and Curtis are, Paxton especially strikes comedy gold as a man who pretends to be a secret agent in order to seduce lonely housewives with the allure of adventure – but he’s actually a used-car salesman.
The highlight is when Harry takes a test drive with Simon, who shares his strategies and makes sexed-up observations about Helen. Simon doesn’t know what Harry’s thinking, but we do, and it only gets funnier as Simon gets more explicit.
Action film invades normal life
“True Lies” gets a lot of its comedy from bystanders, as we are forced to ask what it’d be like to be going about our business in New York City when an action film suddenly unspools around us.
An old guy tries to use a restroom stall in peace when a shootout rages. A couple rides an elevator when Harry and his commandeered horse squeeze in. What else can you do but say “Fine animal you got there”?
The film subverts some clichés. A truck dangles on the edge of a blown-up bridge, but instead of being filled with good guys, it’s bad guys. Therefore, instead of a thrilling narrow escape, things progress in the other direction: A bird lands on the truck, tipping its precarious balance. It falls and explodes.
“True Lies” has some leeway from the audience from the start because we’re supposed to believe Helen believes Harry is a boring salesman even though 1, she’s been married to him for 15 years and 2, he’s built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There’s no world in which this guy isn’t a secret action hero (assuming he isn’t openly an action hero). But “True Lies” is not the first film to open with the suggestion that Arnold is an Everyman rather than Mr. Universe; see also “Total Recall,” for example.
Length strains goodwill
Cameron strains that goodwill in the third and fourth acts — yes, “True Lies” has a “Lost World”-ian fourth act. The tone shifts toward action, and the comedy gets broader, right after Helen’s famous/infamous striptease for a “weapons dealer” who is actually Harry sitting in shadow.
The actual bad guys, generic Arab terrorists led by Art Malik’s Aziz, burst into the hotel room and now we must resolve the A-plot.
The “bouncing machine gun” sequence especially challenges the audience with the question of how far we’ll stay on this ride. The Taskers have been transported to a remote Florida Keys island and find themselves in a shootout. Helen drops her gun down a flight of stairs and each burst kills a bad guy while leaving the good guys unscathed.
The bladder-busting bonus act is technically impressive, and notable for featuring a pre-“Buffy” Eliza Dushku – as daughter Dana – hanging from an Air Force jet piloted by her dad as the gun-toting Aziz looms on the jet’s body.
Of-its-time elements
The plot has a crafty “Where is this going?” vibe early on, but by the end it has narrowed down to Harry winning back his kid after a life-or-death situation. Welcome to the action-movie club, pal.
The action holds up well enough, but the computer monitors and cultural references anchor “True Lies” in its time. Gibson tells Harry that Dana’s true parents are “Axl Rose and Madonna,” because she spends more time with them. That’s not really a knock against the film, but it’s unusual considering how timeless the director’s movies tend to be.
Even though Cameron can’t help but shift away from the humor and into action mode, “True Lies” proves he can do comedy with the best of them when he wants to.