We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Director James Cameron shows an appreciation for the James Bond franchise in his 1994 spy action film True Lies, which even begins with the hero at the center of the film, Arnold Schwarzenegger as secret agent Harry Tasker of an organization called Omega Sector (which is led by a character played by Charlton Heston in an eyepatch), emerging from a body of water in a wetsuit and removing the wetsuit to reveal a fancy suit underneath, just like Sean Connery did in Goldfinger. Most of the opening sequence in True Lies would have worked for a Bond movie, if Harry weren't accompanied on this mission in snowbound Switzerland by a couple American agents sitting in a van near the mansion he's infiltrating during a soirée. In the van are Faisil (Grant Heslov) and Harry's foul-mouthed best friend Albert "Gib" Gibson, played by Tom Arnold. Gib / Arnold would definitely not be fitting for a Bond movie.
But this film isn't just Cameron's play on Bond. It's actually an expanded remake of a French film called La Totale!, which is information I didn't have until today. If I knew that before, it didn't stick in my mind. La Totale! provided the concept of a secret agent who goes home to a rocky marriage, and here Harry goes home to his mousy wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is becoming disenchanted with their marriage because Harry is inattentive and absent, distracted with his job as a "salesman". While Harry wasn't looking, their teenage daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku) is also turning into a rebellious thief. When Harry finally realizes the problems with his home life, he has to figure out how to fix things - in the midst of also trying to stop a terrorist group from detonating nuclear warheads in major U.S. cities. To make matters more complicated, Helen and Dana both end up in the clutches of the terrorists.
True Lies has some spectacular action sequences in it, which is how it became the first movie where the budget crossed the $100 million mark, ending around $120 million and beating the previous record holder for most expensive movie ever made, the Cameron / Schwarzenegger collaboration Terminator 2. That one had landed just shy of $100 million. These days we've seen budgets much higher than $120 million, but when True Lies was coming out that price tag was a huge deal.
But my favorite section of the film isn't one of the massive action set pieces. The part I find most entertaining is when Harry suspects Helen of having an affair, so he and Gib put their secret agent resources to use trying to dig up information on the mystery man she's been chatting with and meeting up with. That man is Cameron's Aliens cast member Bill Paxton as Simon, a guy who oozes sleaze and has made it his life goal to get unhappy housewives into bed with him. Ironically, he has convinced Helen that he's a secret agent. He's really a used car salesman. It's a lot of fun to watch Paxton bring this hilariously repulsive character to life. This all builds up to Harry having Helen tricked into going on a "mission" that involves her dressing and acting quite differently from her day-to-day, and the scene where he has Helen do a striptease for him (she's not aware that he's the one having her do this) was another part of True Lies that was a "huge deal" when the movie was released. It seemed everyone was talking about Jamie Lee Curtis in her undies.
Cameron gave Schwarzenegger the most popular role of his career with The Terminator, and he gave him one of the best roles of his career with True Lies. Schwarzenegger is great in the role of Harry Tasker, and the script allows him to handle drama, comedy, and badass action.
My father primarily watched action movies and always made sure to check out the big new releases. With the cost of True Lies breaking records due to the size of its action, this was a must-see for him, and he took me to see it on the big screen opening weekend. We were both dazzled by the action, and I remember him laughing at a lot of Tom Arnold's lines. My father, James Cameron, Tom Arnold, they're all men who went through multiple marriages in their time, as is Gib. Gib makes many jokes about marriage and divorce, which seem like Cameron (three times divorced at the time) and Arnold (then divorcing Roseanne Barr) venting about real issues. This humor connected with my father, who had been divorced twice by then. A line about Gib's second wife emptying out their home, even taking the ice cube trays from the freezer, really hit with my father, as one of his exes had done the same.
The action and humor of True Lies are so perfectly in line with my father's sensibilities, watching it now that he has passed away is kind of a melancholy experience for me. It's a fun movie, but it reminds me of the absence of my father.
It also reminds me of the fact that I was spending the night at a friend's house when his parents rented the movie on VHS. My friend wasn't allowed to watch R-rated movies yet, so his parents told us to stay out of the living room while they were watching it. Of course, since I was obsessed with movies and had already seen this one, so I knew all of the cool stuff that was in it, I found it very difficult to stay away from that room. My friend and I watched some of the movie from around the corner - until his parents noticed and told him to get out of there.
Nearly thirty years later, True Lies still holds up as a highly entertaining and amusing action flick. Some of the special effects I thought were so awesome in '94 don't hold up so well now, but that doesn't take away from the overall quality of the film.
THE ARENA (1974)
One year after starring in Black Mama, White Mama together, Pam Grier and Margaret Markov were reunited in this Roger Corman production, cast as women who are captured and sold as slaves in ancient Rome. Grier's Mamawai and Markov's Bodicia become two of the many women who are owned by Timarchus (Daniele Vargas), who presides over gladiator events in a colosseum, and are overseen by the cruel Cornelia (Rosalba Neri, a.k.a. Sara Bay) and Priscium (Sid Lawrence), whose homosexuality is played for laughs. The women are brought in with the intention that they will handle things in the kitchen and serve the patrons in the colosseum during matches, but they're also required to have sex with the gladiators before the matches and "entertain" Timarchus's friends at parties - whether that means dancing for them or being forced to have sex with them.
When Mamawi is assigned to have sex with gladiator Quintus (Jho Jhenkins) before one of his fights, she makes a connection with the man, and is grief-stricken when he gets killed at the end of the match. So when fellow slave Livia (Marie Louise) disrespects Quintus in front of Mamawai, a hell of a fight breaks out - inspiring Timarchus to give them a new duty. Now they will fight to the death in the colosseum as well. Of course, the women quickly begin planning to revolt and get revenge on their captors, but we see multiple fights before that goes anywhere - and then even bigger action comes once the plan is put in motion.
Since Martin Scorsese turned down Corman's offer to direct The Arena, this became the feature directorial debut of Steve Carver, whose future credits would include the Chuck Norris classic Lone Wolf McQuade. Written by The Omega Man duo John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, the film is a bit of cheap fun that wraps up its story in just 81 minutes, which is pretty much the perfect running time for something like this. It moves fast, has plenty of fighting, and Pam Grier is always captivating.
NOBODY (2021)
I never expected to see actor/comedian Bob Odenkirk as the lead in an action movie, especially not now that he's pushing 60, but here he is as the star of Nobody, participating in gunfights and beating the hell out of people. I have to admit, I'm so used to Odenkirk playing schlubby, comedic roles, I found it difficult to take him seriously as an action hero at first - but I think that's okay, because his opponents don't take him seriously, either. They laugh in his face, they call him an old man. Then they come to regret doubting his abilities.
Nobody was directed by Ilya Naishuller from a screenplay by John Wick franchise writer Derek Kolstad, and Kolstad definitely has a distinct vibe to his writings. It's pretty obvious this was written by "the John Wick guy", just like it was easy to pick out the episodes Kolstad wrote of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. At its core, Nobody has basically the same set-up as the first John Wick movie. Odenkirk's character Hutch Mansell is a retired assassin who has tried to leave his days of killing far behind him, but his peace is disrupted by a home invasion. Actions taken by Hutch in the aftermath of this invasion lead to him getting in deep trouble with the Russian mob. That's all a John Wick retread. Thankfully, there are no dead puppies in this movie. Hutch's circumstances are very different from Wick's. There's a psychological aspect to how he gets himself in trouble. Mistakes are made.
Since retiring from killing, Hutch has become a boring family man. When people break into his home, he complies with them, something his teenage son does not agree with. Frustrated, knowing he's a wimp in the eyes of his son, Hutch is looking for a fight when a group of rowdy guys get on board the bus he's riding on and start picking on passengers. That's the first action sequence, Hutch defending a passenger from these drunks - and whether or not you can bring yourself to believe that Odenkirk can kick ass, Naishuller certainly directed the action well, and Odenkirk undeniably proved that he can handle fight choreography.
Things spin out of control from there, and one of the most fun things about Nobody (aside from the fact that there's a car chase set to Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker") is that Hutch's father David, played by the great Christopher Lloyd, gets pulled into the action as well. David is in a nursing home when we meet him, so the mobsters think he'll be an easy target... but he's not. At all. And since Hutch and David are both being messed with, Hutch's half-brother Harry (RZA) also has to show up. Turns out, all of the Mansells are action heroes.
So if you like action movies, Nobody is definitely one to watch.
POLICE ACADEMY 5: ASSIGNMENT: MIAMI BEACH (1988)
Before I revisited the Police Academy movies this year, if I had been asked what my favorite film in the series was I would have said it was a tough call between Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol and Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach. Having watched them both again, I don't find it to be a tough call. Part 4 is my favorite of the series, no question about it. I still enjoy part 5, but not as much as 4.
The main reason 5 falls a little short is due to the absence of some of the characters we knew from the previous films - most notably former lead Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), although the one I miss more is Zed (Bobcat Goldthwait). With this film, the group of wacky police officers has been cut down to Hightower (Bubba Smith), Tackleberry (David Graf), Jones (Michael Winslow), Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook), and Hooks (Marion Ramsey), plus Citizens on Patrol new addition House (Tab Thacker) - the only C.O.P. volunteer to come back, now an official police officer.
Harris (G.W. Bailey) and his knucklehead sidekick Proctor (Lance Kinsey) are back as the antagonists, and the story written by Stephen J. Curwick begins with Harris digging up the information that Commandant Lassard (George Gaynes) has reached mandatory retirement age. Which is quite important to Harris, since he wants to become Commandant himself and take over the police academy. To Lassard's shock, Commissioner Henry Hurst (George R. Robertson) announces that he will have to retire; but first, he's going to be honored as Police Officer of the Decade at the National Police Chiefs Convention in Miami Beach. Lassard takes our heroes along to Miami with him, where they're introduced to the film's Mahoney replacement, Lassard's nephew Nick (Matt McCoy), who is a police officer in Miami. Nick even gets a love interest like Mahoney usually did, fellow officer Kate Stratton (Janet Jones).
Nick also follows in Mahoney's footsteps by pulling a memorable prank on Harris. Harris decides to follow Lassard and company to Miami after Hurst makes him see the harsh reality that nobody other than Proctor respects him. He figures that if he participates in honoring Lassard, he'll be seen as a good sport and be more likely to become Commandant. Going to Miami, with Proctor in tow, is the only positive gesture he makes, otherwise he still behaves like a total jerk.
There are comedic vignettes based around the officers' experiences in Miami (as a child, I really appreciated the moment where Tackleberry pulls a gun on a man-eating shark) and at the convention, and there's also a subplot involving the film's villains. That's René Auberjonois as jewel thief Tony and his idiot lackeys Mouse (Archie Hahn) and Sugar (Jerry Lazarus), who accidentally swap luggage with Lassard at the Miami airport - and their luggage contains a batch of diamonds they just stole. Hijinks ensue as the thieves try to get the diamonds back from the police. Of course, Lassard has no idea he has stolen diamonds in his possession.
Although writer Curwick and director Alan Myerson were both new to the franchise and the film drops the characters into a different setting, Police Academy 5 doesn't feel as fresh and energetic as it should have with all these new elements. This assignment in Miami Beach... which isn't really an assignment... feels like just another day at the academy. It's still entertaining, but I didn't enjoy it as much in 2021 as I did in the late '80s / early '90s.
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