1994 Revisits: "True Lies"
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at 8:35PM by Ben Miller
Arnold Schwarzenegger has never been much of an actor. Instead he's a presence, an ideal; square-jawed, charismatic, with muscles on top of muscles. But, his biggest advantage is how aware he is of his own ridiculousness. His job is to do competent action and spout a cheesy one-liner with the bravado necessary to sell it. His greatest critical successes have leaned into these innate strengths. When paired with a good director and solid co-stars, his films work.
Everything came together with True Lies in 1994. Director James Cameron was riding high after T2: Judgment Day made all the money a movie could make in 1991. He originally entertained the idea of a Spider-Man movie starring Michael Biehn, but couldn’t make it work with 1994 technology. Instead, he went with True Lies...