THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT

Directed by Renny Harlin
Produced by: New Line Cinema
Starring : Geena Davis (Charly/Samantha) Samuel L. Jackson (Mitch) Patrick Malahide (Perkins) Craig Bierko (Timothy) Written by: Shane Black
Running Time : 1hr 50mins
Rating : **** out of #****

HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM UP IN THIS NIKITA VARIANT

Renny Harlin, the director who made his mark in Hollywood with the successful DIE HARD 2 with Bruce Willis, and CLIFFHANGER with Stallone, is back to what he does best: action.

His third action outing, the swashbuckling pirate movie CUTTHROAT ISLAND (which had his wife Geena Davis terribly miscast in the lead) was a megaflop last year. This time around, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT is still pretty much your typical Hollywood action film (with a romantic comedy title??). It's low on the imagination, originality and quality acting, but high on explosives, stunts and of course, budget.

In her second film with hubby Harlin, Geena Davis plays Samantha, who suffers amnesia ever since she was discovered by the locals of a small town in a near-death state. For Samantha, her birth was from that point when she was saved since she does not have any recollection of her history before that incident. She carries on with her "new" life , starting out a career as a school teacher and mother to the child whom she was found pregnant with at the time of her discovery.

While about her usual chores, she discovers "skills" that she never thought she had, like an adept skill with knives which suddenly surfaces during a routine dinner preparation. When she starts having momentary lapses and flashes of her past, she seeks the help of Mitch (Jackson), a con-man cum private detective to discover her true identity. She soon discovers that her "skills" were actually from her true self, a highly trained assassin, commissioned to carry out the assassinations for secret government agencies. Hot on their tails are Timothy (Bierko) and Perkins (Malahide), a terrorist and a government agent who are plotting the most potent act of terrorism in the history of mankind; they aren't about to let a loose agent foil their plans.

THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT does have quite its fair share of good moments, especially the witty lines delivered by the ever-cool Samuel L. Jackson. Geena Davis does a bit of that Linda Hamilton machoismo from T2 and manages to pull if off rather well. However, the chemistry between these two characters was a little lacking. But as far as action is concerned, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT has quite a large portion lined up. Though most of these scenes seem a bit ridiculous, it's all in the spirit of entertainment. THE LONG KISS GODDNIGHT is not a film to be taken seriously nor does it want to be. Action movie goers looking for some cool lines and nice action should like this one.

Read other movie reviews at the Inkpot

Other film reviews by this writer can be obtained from the InkVault by doing a key word search with this writer's name.

Other film reviews by other writers can also be obtained from the InkVault through key word searches.

Explore the Flying Inkpot