After being reminded of how great an actress Geena Davis is from my viewing of The Fly, i decided to revisit her last major starring film...The Long Kiss Goodnight..
OK i know this film gets a bad rep, i don't understand why, the film is bug nuts, huge action, insane stunts, an oddly attractive Geena Davis and a badass Samuel L Jackson. Lets's find out what i think of the film...
!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING!! SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK i know this film gets a bad rep, i don't understand why, the film is bug nuts, huge action, insane stunts, an oddly attractive Geena Davis and a badass Samuel L Jackson. Lets's find out what i think of the film...THE PLOT:
The film starts with Geena narrating, telling us that she doesn't know who she is as she is only 8 years old, but these are 8 years as this person, New Jersey teacher and mother Samantha Caine. But she's not who she thinks she is. after an attack from a former nemesis, her memory starts to come back, she enlists the help of low-rent P.I Mitch Hennessy to help her find out. What she discovers is that she is a spy for a black bag organization with in the U.S government. Her Real name is Charlie Baltimore and she's was the best of the best but after a target shoots he she falls of a cliff and loses her memory. When she believes she has found the link to her past in the form of a man called Luke, she discovers that he was also a target and after some water torture, her true self comes out, and she is indeed a spy, she takes out all of them in the building and saves Mitch. They escape and head to atlantic city where she cust her hair and completely changes, Then she Finds out that her only daughter has been kidnapped by the man responsible for the missing 8 years of her life and goes to save her child, she get's into a spot of bother and shit blows up.
THE CAST:
GEENA DAVIS as Samantha Caine/Charlie Baltimore.
Geena is fantastic as the teacher come spy. her transformation from frumpy small town girl to efficient killer is played brilliantly. As she gets flashes of her past her demeanour changes and she becomes cold. When she finally does become Charlie, she's ruthless and couldn't give a fuck about anything, her job is to kill and she's pretty damn good at it, but there is still some Samantha Caine left in her, the mothering side. Like i said in my Review for The Fly, Geena is sorely missed from the big screen.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON as Mitch Hennessy
he's the most bankable actor around and it's because he is the only man who can say the words mother and Fucker and make them sound so bad ass it's incredible. 2 years on from Pulp Fiction and one year on from Die Hard with A Vengeance, Sam is all kinds of cool, and he has some pretty awesome lines and his thing about singing the things he does so he doesn't forget is funny. Damn, he's so cool.
CRAIG BIERKO as Timothy
Bierko is an actor that is hard to explain, he should by rights be bigger than he is, In LKGN he plays Timothy, the man chasing Charlie and he's one evil son-of-a-bitch. if you look at his IMDB page, he's been in some notable films and even played Dave Lister in the unaired pilot for the U.S remake of Red Dwarf....
DAVID MORSE as Luke/ Daedalus
i fucking love David Morse, one of the single most underrated actors ever, he's brilliant in The Rock, The Hurt Locker, 16 Blocks the list goes on, such an ace actor, here he's more of a cameo because his screen time is about 10-15 minutes but he just elevates the film somehow. I first saw him in the Stephen King mini-series, The Langoliers and he was the best actor in that...like i said, i fucking love David Morse.
BRIAN COX as Dr Nathan Waldman
Scottland's own Brian Cox shows up her as the man who recruited Charlie and wants to help her as he knows that the 'company' are after her. Again, like David Morse he is more of a cameo than a starring role, but he's great when he is on screen, one thing people forget about Brian Cox is that he is the original Hannibal Lecther too.
THE DIRECTION:
Like this film, director Renny Harlin has a bad reputation, the fact that his film Cutthroat Island completely bankrupted an entire studio didn't do his career anygood but the films he's made since are all pretty entertaining action thrillers, my personal fave being Mindhunters (2004) and the recent 12 Rounds, Harlin is a great action director and this film proves it with some incredible stunt work and some ear piercing gun battles.
THE SCRIPT:
The film was written by Shane Black, the man who played Hawkin's in Predator, but he also created Lethal Weapon, Wrote The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Monster Squad and wrote and directed the Robert Downey J.R come back flick, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, His script for Long Kiss continues with his trademark cool dialogue and one liners and is laced with black humour that was so evident in the former films ive listed. It's a shame he hasn't done anything since Kiss Kiss, as he truly is an incredible writer.
MY FINAL VERDICT:
Even though the film does have it's flaws, it an incredibly enjoyable action thriller that could be seen as a pre-curser to the Jason Bourne films with it's plot of an amnesiac assassin.. The best thing about Long Kiss though is the great interaction between Geena and Sam and the incredible stunt work. It's one of the popcorn films that after a hard days work you can just switch off and enjoy a night of shit blowing up....
FILM: 8/10
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