The Long Kiss Goodnight
I seem to have found my favorite director of all time. I first realized his work with Cliffhanger and then found out he directed Die Hard 2, my favorite installment of the trilogy, and later directed Cutthroat Island. Renny Harlin has to be one of the greatest action directors of all time. Unfortunately, his movies haven't been doing very well at the box-office. Hopefully, The Long Kiss Goodnight will survive the fall movie madness, considering that many movies don't do very well during this time of the year.
The Long Kiss Goodnight is one of the most technically terrific movies this year. In fact, it even mixes two parts of Independence Day and Twister in the final explosion, where cars drop out of the sky and land in front of them. But it doesn't go without a terrific story either. The movie has a great premise: Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a mother of a little girl (Yvonne Zima) and has a wonderful life; the only bad thing in her life is that she has amnesia and can't remember anything of her life before she received the amnesia, eight years ago.
Pieces of this mysterious life start to drift back into her life as she is attacked by some guy who tries to kill her. She also breaks a deer's neck with her bare hands and, in one of the movie's most memorable scenes, chops carrots and other vegetables with fury and impales a tomato to a cupboard, saying, "Chefs do that!" These incidents force her to find out what her previous life used to be. She hires Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson), a down-and-out private detective needing work. What she finds out is more deadly than she had ever imagined.
As said by every other critic, she used to be a fatal assassin. Her name was Charly, and she was tougher than most bad guys in this movie. I have to admit that Geena Davis looked HOT with short, bleach-blond hair. She almost distracted me from the entire action of the movie, but Jackson keeps her from taking over the whole movie. In fact, Jackson steals the show, spouting off quips and one-liners (my favorite is the comment when Davis asks Jackson if he was a Mormon. He replies, "Yeah, that's why I just smoked a pack of cigarettes and drank three vodkas.") that are actually funny. Davis and Jackson are a good match for each other and kill a lot of bad guys together.
Of course, no Harlin picture would be complete without a big explosion, and in this case, two. There are some plot holes that are obvious, like how many times can someone outrun an explosion? But these holes are minor and certainly are fun. Then again, how can you stand in front of a tornado and not get picked up? Harlin's motto is, "If you build it, blow it up." And he certainly does that a lot, especially in the big, final explosion. The stunts are outrageous, even the one by Davis and Jackson themselves as they plummet three stories to a thin layer of ice, shooting it up as they fall.
The Long Kiss Goodnight is rated R. There is plenty of violence, language, and some gore which almost distracts from the movie. Though not the best Harlin movie (which happens to be Cliffhanger), this one certainly delivers the goods. In fact, I hope that this one makes Davis an action hero star, because she seems to have so much fun doing these tough girl roles.