TRUE LIES (1994)

MORGAN'S RATING

Be prepared to be blown out for your seat as the action-adventure team of Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron join forces once again! Arnold Schwarzenegger is Harry Tasker, a top spy in the ultra-secret Omega Sector--although to his wife Helen, he's just a boring computer salesman. When Harry's two lives unexpectedly collide, both he and Helen find themselves in the clutches of international terrorists, fighting to save not only their marriage, but their lives. Jammed with incredible special effects, True Lies is an exhilarating mix of non-stop action and romantic comedy.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (Harry Tasker), Jamie Lee Curtis (Helen Tasker), Tom Arnold (Albert 'Gib' Gibson), Bill Paxton (Simon), TIa Carrere (Juno Skinner), Art Malik (Salim Abu Aziz), Eliza Dushku (Dana Tasker), Grant Heslov (Faisil), Charlton Heston (Spencer Trilby), Marshall Manesh (Khaled), James Allen (Colonel), Charles Cragin (Samir).

WHEN HE SAID I DO, HE DIDN'T SAY WHAT HE DID.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

DIRECTOR: James Cameron (Terminator 2)

WRITER: James Cameron, Didier Kaminska, Simon Michael and Claude Zidi.

PRODUCERS: James Cameron and Stephanie Austin.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Pamela Easley.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Lawrence Kasanoff, Rae Sanchini and Robert Shriver.

ORIGINAL MUSIC: Brad Fiedel.

DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox

QUOTES

Harry: Helen is having an affair. Gib: Welcome to the club!

FACTS

Samir: Is there anything you'd like to tell me before we start? Harry: Yeah, I'm going to kill you pretty soon.

RELEASE DATE:  July 15th, 1994 (USA)

BOX OFFICE OPENING: $25.8 million (USA)

BOX OFFICE RESULT: $146.2 million (USA)

Gib: What kind of a sick bitch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $364.3 million

Harry: Ask me a question I would normally lie to. Helen: Are we going to die? Harry: Yep!

BUDGET: $100 million (USA)

- The US Government supplied 3 Harriers and their pilots for a fee of $100,736 ($2,410 per hour).

Gib: Kids- 10 seconds of joy, 30 years of misery.

- When Arnold Schwarzenegger rescues wife Jamie Lee Curtis from an airborne chopper, he grasps her by her arm just as the chopper heads out over the water. The woman you see dangling below the chopper skid is no body double, but Curtis doing her very own stunt work. At her insistence, director Cameron agreed to let her perform this scary spectacle.

Helen: Have you ever killed anyone? Harry: Yeah, but they were all bad.

Simon: I have to lie to women to get laid. And I don't score much. I got a really small dick, it's pathetic.

GIb: Women. Can't live with 'em. Can't kill 'em!

Helen: I married Rambo!

Harry: You're fired!

- Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

"It doesn't rank as high as Terminator 2 and Total Recall among Schwarzenegger's action epics...both earlier titles had tighter, more absorbing stories. But on the basis of stunts, special effects and pure action, it delivers sensationally." -- Roger Ebert

"In-your-face entertainment...with humor and action in equal doses, this film makes all the right moves--until it gets bogged down in plot midway through. A slam-bang action finale brings it back in course, as credibility is gleefully tossed aside." -- Leonard Maltin

"True Lies is a big, grandiose movie that has an immense amount of fun while never taking itself too seriously." -- James Berardinelli

"This mixture of comedy and super-agent spectacle works well at first. But when Schwarzenegger's family and working worlds link up-- an inevitable development-- the plot becomes increasingly ridiculous and overwrought." -- Desson Howe, Washington Post

"A gargantuan thrill machine." -- David Ansen, Newsweek

"Fast, flashy, furious and funny. True Lies is a terrific film." -- Ralph Hovak, PEOPLE