True Lies: Remake

Domestic:	$146,282,411
+ Foreign:	$232,600,000

There's only one movie where you can see Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot a missile into an abandoned building from a moving Jet with a bad guy stuck to the missile. No it wasn't the Terminator keep guessing......no it wasn't Terminator 2 either........umm no, Total recall took place on Mars so no, but you're getting there........(sigh) noooooooo it wasn't Commando.........NO NO NOOO It wasn't Kindergarten Cop, WRONG! The answer we were looking for is True Lies (points to the blog title) Duuuhh!

All jokes aside, in 1994, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the lovely Jamie Lee Curtis teamed up to tell the story of a man named Harry (Schwarzenegger) that is living a double life. One one side he is a husband and father, with a cover job of being a computer salesman. On the other side, he is an anti-terrorist secret agent for the United States Government. His wife Helen (Curtis) and daughter have no idea that Harry is a spy. Harry finds out that his wife is unknowingly being seduced by her co-worker so Harry and partner Albert Gibson (played by Tom Arnold) set up a ploy to kidnap Helen and find out what she thinks about her marriage and where her co-worker lives. After she reveals her want for adventure, Harry gives her a mission to seduce a drug smuggler, who is played by Harry in the shadows of a hotel room, to get intel on his plans. During the process, Harry and Helen are kidnapped by a terrorist's henchmen and fed truth serum to get some vital information. Harry reveals that he is a spy to Helen. The terrorist obtains Harry's daughter (Eliza Dushku) for ransom as he is in control of nuclear missiles. Harry and Helen work together through a series of events to get their daughter back and dispose of the terrorist and the nuclear bomb. At the end, it is revealed that Helen becomes a spy with her husband.


The movie was high in suspense and full of very comical parts. All of these things added together to make up a great film. Now here is the part that threw me for a huge loop. This great film is not completely original. True Lies is in fact based off of a 1991 french film entitled La Totale! The film covers the basic core storyline that is presented to us in True Lies, which is a man that is living the double life of a model executive and a secret agent. He discovers that his wife is bored of their home life and is having an affair. François, the spy, tries to teach his wife a lesson, but in the midst gets caught in a situation with an international arms smuggling cartel.


True Lies is basically La Totale! with steroids. Some of the names are different but the names of Helen and Albert are the same. There is more added onto the plot with some differences that enhance the story such as dealing with a terrorist rather than an arms smuggler and the addition of the daughter, the fighter jets, the massive explosions, ect. It is a good thing that the writers and director choose to keep the core plot because it is a good one. The additions in the American version makes it better. And of course, none of the french actors make an cameo in the new version.