True Lies, 1994.
Directed by James Cameron.
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Art Malik, and Tia Carrere.
SYNOPSIS:
Like The Beatles finally coming to the iTunes Store, James Cameron’s True Lies and The Abyss have finally been released in remastered editions. I had a chance to check out the digital versions of both — physical 4K UltraHD and Blu-ray discs are scheduled for release next year. If you want a digital copy now, be aware that not all platforms have the same bonus features. Read on to learn more.
This is blasphemy, I’m sure, but I’ll say it anyway: James Cameron is an overrated director. Aliens, The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are classics in my book, but I find everything else he’s done to be “meh,” to be honest. Those other movies are watchable, in my view, and certainly not awful, but they just don’t rise to the level of his earlier successes.
Case in point: 1994’s True Lies. The basic premise is, as they say in Hollywood, one of those high-concept ideas: To his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and his daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku), government agent Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is just a mild-mannered computer salesman, but he’s actually a government agent who’s sent on a variety of pulse-pounding missions.
Sure, if you want to be pedantic about it, such a scenario is highly unlikely to work out in the real world, but I can suspend my disbelief for this kind of movie. What I had a hard time with was Schwarzenegger in the lead role. He’s great when playing Conan, a Terminator, and just about any other similar role, but I think he’s really miscast here.
The lead should have been a guy who’s a bit dweeby and unassuming, someone you wouldn’t think in a million years could ever be an undercover agent. Isn’t that a big part of that kind of job anyway? You want someone who gives off “regular guy” vibes, like Bob Odenkirk’s character in the 2021 movie Nobody.
I know, I know: Schwarzenegger was a big box office draw at the time, having cemented his street cred as an action movie star during the several years before this film’s release. That doesn’t mean he was perfect for any action role, although I’m not sure different casting would have worked as well back then as it did with Nobody. Maybe 90s filmgoers just needed to see someone like Mr. Muscles in movies such as True Lies.
Again, it’s not an awful movie. It’s a fun ride, and if you enjoy it, awesome. I may well watch it again sometime, but for now, it’s just not a big deal to me.
But if it is a big deal to you, you’ve probably heard the news that True Lies and The Abyss are finally headed to Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD next year, along with Aliens’ debut on 4K Ultra HD.
Meanwhile, the first two Avatar movies recently hit 4K Ultra HD in new editions packed with tons of bonus features (I put those films in the same category as True Lies) and Titanic came out on 4K Ultra HD a few weeks ago. Another blasphemous opinion of mine: I saw Titanic in an advanced screening way back when (I worked for a company that was part of the same corporate conglomerate as Paramount at the time), thought it was okay, and have never seen it again since.
In the meantime, True Lies, The Abyss, and Aliens are available digitally, along with the other films that have already seen physical media releases. Those three movies have been remastered and restored, and so far, opinions are mixed based on what folks are seeing on various streaming services.
I was able to check out True Lies and The Abyss (which I review here) digitally, and I thought both of them looked nice, so, as always, your mileage may vary. Both films, as well as Aliens, come with bonus features, but, unfortunately, the ones you get depend on the provider you use.
In the case of True Lies, Apple TV apparently has the biggest bounty of extras, but I redeemed my code with Movies Anywhere, so I only had access to the new 43-minute making-of, Fear is Not an Option: The Making of True Lies. Oh well.
Cameron, along with Schwarzenegger, Curtis, Bill Paxton (he might have been a better Harry Tasker), and production executive Jon Landau, look back at the movie through current and archival interviews. A fun fact: There are some interview clips from 2012 in here because a Blu-ray of the film was planned at the time but pushed back. Way back.
The theatrical trailer is included too.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★★ / Movie: ★★★
Brad Cook
Originally published December 23, 2023. Updated April 22, 2024.
