Tom Arnold makes impatience funny without slowing an action film down. We rate his supporting work in True Lies more highly than the film around him, and would rather see that precise timing used than simply ask him to be loud.
Fi1m perspective
In True Lies (1994), Tom Arnold's Gib sounds fed up even when the film is working hard to amuse us. Arnold Schwarzenegger supplies the seriousness; Arnold supplies the impatience, with James Cameron making room for both in his action comedy. We laughed at the irritation in Gib's delivery, which makes the elaborate business around him feel briefly less laboured. He does not need the film to stop and make an occasion of the joke. The speed and bluntness are enough.
The habit makes sense for a performer who came through stand-up and sitcom work. He wrote for Roseanne and played its recurring character Arnie Thomas before True Lies became his film breakthrough. Nine Months (1995), alongside Hugh Grant, and the lead in The Stupids (1996) followed in the move towards film comedy. The wisecracking sidekick became a familiar assignment, with the danger that loudness could be mistaken for all he had to offer. What interests us in Gib is how precisely the irritation is timed, rather than how forcefully it is delivered.
Cameron gets good work from him, but that is not a reason to excuse the rest of True Lies. The lengthy excursion into marital jealousy is sour, and Jamie Lee Curtis has to work too hard to make it funny. Arnold's ease can make those failings more noticeable: he gets a laugh with his delivery while the screenplay keeps finding elaborate ways to set one up. Schwarzenegger helps by allowing his own seriousness to become comic without signalling every joke. Their contrasting deliveries are a better reason to watch than the domestic farce.
There are useful reminders elsewhere that the comic sidekick need not be the only job. Steve Buscemi's prison drama Animal Factory (2000) gave him the supporting role of Buck Rowan, and he played Frank in the independent ensemble Happy Endings (2005). Those parts leave room for something beyond the loud, direct comedy that has so often been his job. We would welcome more opportunities in that direction before another assignment as the man providing jokes beside the action hero. Start with True Lies, but do not expect the rest of it to be as brisk as Gib.
Biography
Tom Arnold is an American actor and comedian. Born Thomas Duane Arnold on 6 March 1959 in Ottumwa, Iowa, he began performing stand-up comedy in the 1980s. He later worked as a writer on the sitcom Roseanne and appeared on the show as Arnie Thomas.
Arnold is best known for his supporting role as Gib, the wisecracking sidekick to Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, in James Cameron's True Lies (1994). His other film credits include Nine Months (1995), The Stupids (1996) and Cradle 2 the Grave (2003). He has also appeared in television series such as Sons of Anarchy and Psych.
From 2001 to 2005 he co-hosted the sports talk show The Best Damn Sports Show Period.
