True Lies

True Lies (1994) is a spy film whose joke is that the man's wife thinks he sells computers. Harry has worked for a covert unit for fifteen years. His wife Helen has no idea. When Helen, bored with her own life, reaches for an adventure, Harry turns the agency's entire surveillance apparatus on his own wife. That section is the best and the most uncomfortable thing in it: a man using state power against his family, and the film laughs. Then an actual terrorist group appears and the two stories collide. It is a remake of a French comedy, La Totale!. The budget was among the highest of its time and it was widely reported as the first film to pass a hundred million dollars. The finale with the Harrier flying through the city centre is one of the last big practical effects showcases before digital took over. Jamie Lee Curtis's dance in the hotel room is the most remembered moment, and she devised much of it herself. It is the third film Cameron and Schwarzenegger made together. Some of the humour has dated badly, particularly the jokes about the characters' nationality. It runs 141 minutes. Good for: nineties action, Cameron, and comedy hybrids. Less good for: it is long, the tone is uneven, and some of the jokes belong to their period.