These long sequences are entertaining in themselves, and they also serve to keep the action in escalation. The long 10-minute sequence before the first plot point means that Act One ends about 7 or 8 minutes later than expected - shorten the sequence, and it's right where it belongs.
The long sequences at the end deliver a series of "false endings" - just when it looks as if Harry has saved the day, a sudden reversal escalates the action again. First, his wife is taken hostage. When he rescues her, he learns that his daughter has been kidnapped. "If it ain't one thing, it's another," and this old cliche is used to perfection here to keep the narrative drive rising to greater anxiety and jeopardy.
There are good examples of scene efficiency here as well. When Harry decides to bug his wife, a beginning writer would include scenes of planting the bugs, listening to phone conversations, and so on. Here there is an immediate transition from deciding to plant the bugs to reading a printout of their essential information - in other words, we get right to the point.
True Lies has a playful, witty tone, able to spoof spy movies even as it adds to the genre. And the flexibility of the paradigm, and its foundational importance, are everywhere evident here.
8/98