La totale !

I always thought that the 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle "True Lies" was overrated - a step back into more mindless action films for Arnie after the extra-witty "Last Action Hero". Learning that it was a remake of a French film, and that in fact James Cameron has lifted entire sequences almost identically, certainly did not raise it in my estimation. But if "True Lies" was overblown, "La Totale!" is undercooked: it is essentially a slight, old-fashioned marital farce, punctuated by (very) sporadic action - and some unexpected blood squibs near the end. The two leads, Thierry Lhermitte and Miou Miou, are good, but the film is a little flat. Of course it doesn't help that the "official" English subtitles are rather poor, not making full sense at several points (example: "c'est pas vrai" becomes "superway"!). **1/2 out of 4.

This movie is better then True Lies in every aspect. YES True Lies had prob 10 times the budget this movie had, but I never bought into it.

We are supposed to believe that Arnold is a every day Joe, and that failed right away, and the movie fell apart.

This movie on the other hand has the same fun, and entertainment as the other, but you can actually get into the story and enjoy it, while the US remake keep slapping Hollywood in every scene, and soon enough your just washing another Arnold movie, kinda like they infused Commando into La Totale!.

This is the original one, and as expected, much better then a throw money at it remake, kinda like Star Wars ep 1.

A good fun flick. Yes, it lacks the flashiness of american remake, but the dialogue and characters alone are worth it. The interaction between the crusty Albert and slick François is great. You could say that, after Le diner de cons, Le placard, Les ripous and La totale, Lhermitte may be typecast as the guy who's too smart for his own good, but he does it so well!

I would usually be the last one to prefer an American remake to a French original. The remakes generally lose the quality that made them seem worthy of a remake in the first place.

To me, one of the very few exceptions to this rule would be the case of La totale! and True Lies, with Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you have occasion to see this film, you will recognize nearly every scene. The remake added some scenes -- mostly spectacular ones -- and a much, much bigger budget. And a certain something else, a je ne sais quoi, a panache, a joie de vivre which the Gallic original is lacking. Surprising, but true. No lie.

When I saw this movie on World Movies I loved it, thinking that it was one of the funiest films I have seen in a long time.

At that point I didn't know there was an American re-make, though I had seen bits of True Lies before, but somehow I only ever saw action scenes and was turned off from seeing it. Only today, when I was telling my friend the plot of "La Totale!" did he tell me it was almost the same as True Lies.. and I was very surprised, especially as True Lies had terrible reviews.

Oh well, I suppose it won't be the first re-make which is nowhere near as good as the original :-)