Retro Review: True Lies
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
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Arnold's comedies for some reason tended to soar over critics' heads. Commando, Kindergarten Cop, and True Lies, are very funny, yet are always treated like they were meant to be stone cold thrillers, even when you see the obvious gags, comedic timing, and punchlines. Even back then it felt like critics only saw genres as piles of simple clichés that needed to be arranged a certain way to be considered worth seeing.
To be fair, Commando feels like a stone cold war movie compared to Twins, or even worst, Junior...
Its not a tumor
@@sarinhighwind the movie is though...
_Commando_ is an action thriller, but it's Arnold's one-liners that come off as funny moments.
"What happened to Sully?"
"I let him go."
This happened in _The Running Man, Total Recall_ and _Terminator 2,_ as well. Even _Predator_ had a little bit of it. Now, _Twins, Kindergarten Cop,_ and _Batman & Robin_ were comedies with serious moments.
@@Elfrunner I've been chuckling at "I let him go" for a while now...
It helped that Arnold played it completely straight too.
There was another Schwarzenegger film in '96 called "Eraser" w/ James Caan and Vanessa Williams, and while not an action-comedy film like "True Lies," has ridiculous elements to it: one "erased" guy ends up working at a gay bar, whom Arnold's character has to meet; a shoot-out at a zoo shatters the glass of an alligator exhibit, turning the reptile loose to attack Arnold's would-be assassins; and even has Arnold dual-wielding high-tech laser sniper-rifles in the ending shootout; and even a fourth-act twist, topped off w/ a one-liner from Arnold. I think after "Last Action Hero" and "True Lies" the man's career as an action star had faded... not that he could no longer do it, but the "muscled action hero" trope was exhausted, and could no longer be taken seriously.
I was thinking about that too.
I remember Eraser. I thought it felt off at the time but I haven't seen it since.
"You're erased!"
Another example of Action/Comedy that was not only influential, but also prophetic, was Demolition Man.
@@drewmandan The "future" in that film was written to be so ridiculous that it could not possibly happen... indeed, truth is stranger than fiction.
Eraser is part of Arnold's big hit Stolen Identity trilogy, according to Will Sasso of Mad TV. His Arnold videos were funny.
In the French original, the C story (with a son in this case) was resolved as first and then it no longer played any role. So it felt like two different segments.
David, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful series.
Compare the silliness of True Lies to the seriousness of Commando, for example.
Good call. Commando was fantastic.
Nahh, Commando in many ways is actually funnier. And i don't think its by accident.
yes, funnest stuff back then huh David...like the 1st "home alone", this was always full on great fun, for the whole family. they rarely nail it on this level any more nowdays.
It’s so long since I’ve seen the movie, I can’t remember it at all, but I remember liking it at the time.
True Lies is one of my favorite Schwarzenegger films. I probably like it a little better than Last Action Hero, which has some pacing/duration issues. Showed it to my wife, who doesn't like action films, and she enjoyed it, too. I think Schwarzenegger has great (maybe underrated) comedy skills, and this film highlights for me that comedy is what he really enjoys doing.
I think I heard from Stu that Last Action Hero was re written like 17 times. It's amazing that an enjoyable movie came out the other end of that...
I love that scene of the test drive in the Corvette.
Love that movie. Great review!
I remember that Chilean critics liked True Lies (at least some of them) and considered it a smartly written comedy.
Possibly True Lies was an inspiration for the hit manga and anime Spy x Family, as the premise is similar. You might like it.
Nice. Recently watched this and it is a great film. Really liked how the A plot and B plot interplayed, very satisfying ending too.
True Lies is one of my favorite Arnold movies. The comedy is so on-point that even my boomer parents laugh at it--especially the bits with Bill Paxton's character.
Paxton is an absolute legend for this one
You forgot that tom Arnold was his work partner who was popular for comedy back then also.
"I know what this is. A snow cone machine."
I think it is a crime against humanity that you can't buy True Lies on blu ray or 4k blu ray, but you can buy that anti-human crap Avatar films.
I miss the James Cameron who made films like this. They wouldn't make it like this today.
I also miss the Ridley Scott that made masculine Blade Runner and not the anti-male Napooleon...
It’s coming to 4K Blu-Ray this March, along with The Abyss. It was announced last year and everyone was excited by the news that True Lies would finally get a release beyond the OOP DVD. A normal Blu-Ray will be with it as well.
I’ll say this: Cameron’s run ended with Titanic.
Yeah but I can watch True Lies on UA-cam for free, which is pretty cool.
yes, happens too enough once true directors.
although, in some cases, can sort of rationalize a proposition of "how long can i keep slaying dragons while, after after a/couple/3 downers, the corporate age driven horde's cry for my blood grow's exponentially?" as, at least, hypothesis for a possible argument.
(george & the prequel trilogy 'tragedy'?)
for instance, knowing better than anyone that the story had closed in perfect cycle, i've no doubt cameron's liscening fees,, predertermined non-negotiable profit cut, etc, were already in his pocket well before the "dark fate" of it's last installment had been fullfilled..
..nor that the rumors/media-quotes of john' conner's arc being perfectly "capped" (within the 1st five(?)min) was due to his cunning "creative" input are true.
can't recall the title now but, also liked the other one with arnie fighting the mailman over "turbo man"(?).
There's a tiny little camera spec near your nose in recent vids 😂
Oh goodness i thought that was my tv.
I love watching youtube reactors for this one. Without fail, the surprise final act gets them and they exclaim something like "I forget about Dana!" Great writing and execution.
(Red October has the same when Tupolev shows up at the end.)
Very good movie, I just watched Total Recall again, I love that one, maybe you could review it too
Possibly my favourite Arnold film. The action is plentiful and great, the comedy is just fun, Bill Paxton and Arnold's best friend (both of which are comic relief characters) are fantastic, and the one-liners are nothing short of iconic. "You're fired", "my horse is getting tired", and "ah, women: can't live with 'em, can't kick 'em by the curb". And that's even before everything gets amplified to ridiculous levels.
Can't live with them, can't kill them!
There's a meta level with those one-liners too. James Cameron is playing off Arnold and indeed lines that he wrote for Arnold at different times in other movies. Everybody is goofing on themselves in the best possible way.
Would love to hear your review of Pirates Of The Caribbean 2003. For years I've thought that The Curse Of The Black Pearl is truly the last great swashbuckling adventure movie. (I don't like any of the sequels as much, even if Dead Man's Chest is mostly fine.) Can't think of anything after in live-action that comes close, Spielberg's animation Tintin is a pretty excellent "jungle opera" example too.
This is still an amazing film. Thank you for talking about this David, have a great day. Take care!
One of Jim Cameron's best, to be sure!
Used to be a big Schwarzenegger fan, but then the "Screw your freedom" rant happened. He'd been dead to me since then and I'm never watching his movies ever again.
Yeah I get it. I think the last nre movie I saw with him in it was around the World in 80 Days? I don't remember.
It also had a fantastic video game for SNES! Great movie but extremely Neo-con in it's world view. Still there is a sweetness at least as regards their marriage. As a fantasy for family life it's comparatively wholesome.
True Lies did bathos right...then it got done to death. 😢
👌
True Lies🤌🏼💯You should talk about “The Cable Guy” with Jim Carrey sometime. It’s highly underrated & many people don’t even know it exists. It’s a unique dark comedy thriller, he’s never done a movie like it since.