The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

The Long Kiss GoodnightThe best gift you can give an assassin at Christmas is a contract on a cheating spouse.Regrettably, the killer in this action movie has forgotten who she is.When a holiday head injury jogs memories of her being a CIA assassin, mild-mannered schoolteacher Samantha (Geena Davis) hires a private detective (Samuel L. Jackson) to help her uncover this mysterious past she has forgotten.It's not long until the agent who tried to kill her the first time comes to finish the job that Sam recalls her final mission to frame Islamic terrorists for a CIA bombing of Niagara Falls.With its breakneck action sequences, slick dialogue and hilarious performance from Sam Jackson, this highly underrated buddy picture from 1996 is also a neglected Christmas movie that deserves a seat at the yuletide action movie table. Besides, with all of the seasonal suicides Christmas is a slow time for hit-men.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996): Dir: Renny Harlin / Cast: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, David Morse, Brian Cox, Craig Bierko: Here is an action film that makes even less sense than your average action film. Title symbolizes Geena Davis giving up one life for another but eventually united with the former. She was an assassin zapped of her memory. Now she has a husband and child. Enter Samuel L. Jackson as a private eye who needs her help in defeating a government agency. The basic plot concept has appeal but its structure is full of gun play and objects being blown up as expected from director Renny Harlin. He often deals in massive budgets as seen in Cliffhanger and Cutthroat Island, and famous for the latter film being one of the most expensive flops ever made. Davis undergoes torture at least twice and even breaks the neck of a deer with her bare hands. Jackson provides one-liners fit for a Saturday Night Live comedian. Flat supporting roles with David Morse playing the mastermind villain who isn't interesting and only leaves viewers waiting for Davis to off him. Brian Cox appears as a doctor. While the budget is big on action scenes, its target audience will likely sense that this is just an exercise is blatant stupidity. It is a pointless charade where viewers may wish to spend their long night at home and kiss this film a deserving farewell. Score: 4 / 10

complete nonsense done with great style and excess. better than 'bourne' because it has humour and the story isn't banal. edges 'diehard 3' (forget the rest of that series) because it has two unusual heroes and one of them is a women (yes I know that SJ is in both). good story (although silly at end - Hollywood) with very good script and very good leads. bad guys are bad, the in-betweeners don't last long and the good guys are both good and bad. if only they could make nonsense with such humour and style these days.......... perhaps even once every five years. if only (again) the 'has been' and 'want to be' genre movies could achieve this level of proficiency and entertainment. always a favourite and way beyond the average rating in IMDb. don't believe the nay sayers, particularly the professional media who don't rate it. they clearly do not understand the genre nor are they interested in watching this kind of stuff - they have to! go watch it!

*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERSThe tile is a reference to the fact that Samantha kissed her other personality goodbye. She stopped searching about her past – that's it. It was probably inspired by the movie "The long goodbye" by Robert Altman – Samuel L. Jackson is watching this movie in the hotel.The movie is very stupid at some places . How did the one-eyed prisoner escaped from the prison ? Plot hole. Why didn't he broke into Samantha's house or kill her with a sniper gun from the distance , while she was for example shopping ? The motivation for the main villains to do the bad things is ABSURD. Little girl hides in the worst place possible.The movie is also very cheesy and unrealistic sometimes . Samantha seems immune to pain , cold and has TOO MUCH STRENGTH. The assassination by the one-eyed guy is ridiculous , same as the flashbacks with Charlie. Oh , and the little girl is annoying.Thankfully there are some good things here. Geena Davis gives a good performance and is very convincing with both of her personalities. Samuel L. Jackson is fun as always and David Morse is solid as always. Renny Harlin always makes sure that his movies aren't boring and this is no exception. I guess he really put some effort to make this movie entertaining with his wife (Davis) as the main star. Shane Black , the writer of "Lethal weapon" provides us some incredibly funny moments and dialogues . Thanks to the humor watching this movie is rather painless. The scene "What I told you about smoking ?" is one of the funniest I've seen.It's not a good movie , but it's too good to be "so bad , it's good " type of movie. This is no "Bourne identity". It's cheesy and stupid , but thankfully there is a good ironic distance to the whole story . It doesn't take itself too seriously and if you lower your expectations you should have one night of mindless fun. It's certainly a better action movie with woman in main role than "Tomb raider". I give it 6/10.