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True Lies is another classic action film that was butchered by the BBFC upon its first release on video. Notable editing was seen during the bathroom fight scene and the scene where Harry is taken for a test drive by Simon, the used car salesman.

Director James Cameron was reportably so unhappy with the editing that he took it upon himself to implement the cuts personally. Still, though, to this day, British audiences are yet to see the full, uncut version of the film released on DVD, which is hugely disappointing considering it is another breathtaking piece of action cinema from the director of Aliens and The Terminator films.

Schwarzenegger plays Harry Tasker, a covert intelligence agent (James Bond, but with muscles) whose mission is to infiltrate Kazakhstan and stop them from smuggling nuclear warheads. By contrast, his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku) at home believe he leads an ordinary, boring life as a computer salesman, and are not in the least bit suspicious that he is leading a double lifestyle.

The action scenes in True Lies are typical James Cameron: Inventive, spectacular and full of suspense -- and who else is going to be at the heart of all these other than Schwarzenegger? Riding a horse to catch a terrorist on a motorbike through a hotel, beating baddies senseless in a public bathroom, and firing a rocket from his fighter jet with the final words "you're fired!" are never anything less than vintage Arnie and fascinating to watch.

Cameron, undoubtedly, knows how to use Schwarzenegger to full effect more than anybody, after previously working with him in T1 and T2. Because of such, True Lies is as much about comedy as it is action; believe it or not, as well as being his usual muscle-bound self, Arnie is genuinely hilarious in his wrecking of the terrorist's plans. The equally-as-funny Tom Arnold also excels as Arnie's sidekick, Albert Gibson, which makes True Lies an immense amount of fun for its entirety. Could you really have a movie these days that poked so much fun at terrorism? I think not.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, True Lies does actually start to get a little serious (well, serious compared to the majority of the film, I'd say). Stopping by his wife's office at lunch, Harry starts to believe that Helen is having an affair after overhearing a phone call with another man. The whole terrorist plot halts for half an hour or so, and the audience is forced to examine the relationship between Mr and Mrs Tasker. As it turns out, Helen is seeing a used car salesman/sleazeball (Bill Paxton) who is pretending to be a spy to gain her affections. After getting her to confess in an undercover interrogation scene, Harry feels like he has taken his wife for granted and sets her up to meet a stranger at a hotel. The stranger, of course, is him, and Helen awakes to find her loving husband in bed next to her, attempting to prove his own affections. However, just when things start becoming intimate again with Helen's sensuous strip tease, the terrorists return to kidnap the couple, and eventually the whole secret about Harry being a spy comes out. Needless to say, she is not at all impressed.

Some critics have complained that the film is overlong as a result of the subplot I have just mentioned, but I think the scenes which explore Harry and Helen's relationship are important to the overall theme. After all, the story is much about how a man's undercover work affects his family life than it is about him saving the world from a bunch of terrorists. I enjoyed the film as a whole.

The characters are really great: Each brings their own brand of charm to the film, with the action and humour getting bigger and louder as the story develops. Arnie, as said, is used to full effect, and Tom Arnold almost threatens to steal the show with his constant wisecracks. Jamie-Lee Curtis' character at first seems shy and easily intimidated, until see eventually meets Tia Carrere, who assists in developing her into a female action heroine, with shades of Weaver as Ripley in Aliens. 

While not quite as perfect as the aforementioned, True Lies is still a heavyweight balance of action and comedy, which thoroughly defines the whole concept of "entertainment". Respect must be paid to James Cameron.

(Apart from a Trailer, there are no other notable extras on the 2006 Region 2 DVD release of True Lies.)

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.