True Lies (1994)

We didn’t realize it at the time in 1994, but True Lies turned out to be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last true stand as a major box office draw. He’s teamed again with director James Cameron here for an action spy thriller along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere, and a very young Eliza Dushku. It’s subject matter today of how the villains are portrayed would be considered problematic but taken on its own as an action movie, it cannot be beat. This is a movie made for the big screen, with big explosions, big stunts, and big scenery. It was a massive hit but it’s also the last time you really see Mr. Schwarzenegger drive a movie to the top of the box office in the 90s. He would follow with choices like Eraser and Batman and Robin, which were nowhere near the acclaim he got here. There’s a reason Mr. Cameron has so much box office success, the man knows how to tell a story in a crowd pleasing way. It was also early in the days of 100 million dollar budget movies when people just thought that was an insane amount to spend making a film. Consider today where film budgets frequently cross 200 million, and that’s still a low budget depending on the movie. True Lies got a 4K release in 2024 and was criticized for all of the digital scrubbing. Still, since the last release was a DVD in 1999, it’s nice to just have it at all. No lie, it’s a good time at the movies.