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.