True Lies
 

Director: James Cameron
Writers: Claude Zidi, Simon Michael, Didier Kaminka
Cast:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger — Harry Tasker
• Jamie Lee Curtis — Helen Tasker
    
• Tom Arnold — Albert Gibson
• Tia Carrere — Juno Skinner
• Eliza Dushku — Dana Tasker
• Grant Heslov — Faisil
• Charlton Heston — Spencer Trilby
• Art Malik — Salim Abu Aziz
• Bill Paxton — Simon

Twentieth Century Fox, 1994

 
True Lies is an excellent action-thriller movie. It's the mixture that does it. A reasonable high-stakes national-security challenge, believable motivation, fast adventure, romantic tension, and a touch of comedy. The cast does a fine job of presenting characters with depth, while carrying all these elements without letting the pace flag.

The primary plot is the attempt by a terrorist group, Crimson Jihad, to import ex-Soviet nuclear warheads into American cities and detonate them. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the point man for a secret agency that must ferret out the terrorists and stop them.

A secondary plot is the romantic involvement of naive housewife Jamie Lee Curtis with a mysterious fellow with connections to American secret service, or to something else. The two lines of action clash and intertwine neatly, often surprisingly.

I want especially to commend the writing and acting that fleshes out the villains, and the villainy, of the piece to provide a solid and believable foe.

Nicely done all around. An excellent film.

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© 2007 Robert Wilfred Franson