Long Kiss Goodnight (from 1996)

4 **** (of 5 stars)

Originally reviewed 10/13/96 - Updated 12/30/2021

 

This film has Brian Cox and Samuel Jackson speaking lines written by Shane Black.  Man, it is something special.

When I first reviewed this film, I said it was a tough one to rate.  I saw this movie immediately after seeing “Bound”, both opening night in the theaters, and felt torn between quality and entertainment.  “Bound” has so many things that makes a quality movie, and was pushing the boundaries, that “The Long Kiss Goodnight” seemed almost ordinary by comparison.  But viewing it again 25 years later, it’s hard to believe I didn’t notice all the original moments, and all the boundaries it broke.  Not to mention it was one of the most entertaining action movies I saw in the nineties.

There is so much good stuff to talk about here.  First there is the script, with such a clever plot years before “The Bourne Identify”, and the dialogue, where Black proves again just how laugh out loud funny he can be in an action film.  There is consistently crude and just downright nasty remarks made between the characters to one another, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I laughed at almost all of it.

The story sounds simple, like enough to be on the back of a DVD in two sentences, but has so many twists and turns in the details that it keeps us enthralled.  Geena Davis plays an amnesia victim who for the last 8 years has been a mother, a schoolteacher and all around upstanding citizen who doesn’t remember who she was before that.  Later she is shocked to discover (in pieces of course) that she is really a CIA trained assassin who was almost killed eight years ago, and everyone assumed that she was dead.  This is such a great idea ripe for possibilities that I can’t believe it hadn’t been done before.

It’s also a really efficient script. I believe there is more explained and gotten out of the way in the first 20 minutes than most 90 minute films. The film is a full 2 hours long, and never drags.

It needs to also be pointed out that the film has great chemistry between its two co-stars, which is surprising considering that they never really have a romance.  Again amazing to think producers would allow that to exist in the 90’s, just as much as have a kick-ass woman action hero in the lead.

And how the hell did I not think it was a huge deal to do a ‘buddy action picture’ with a black male and white woman??  I remember how big of a deal people made Lethal Weapon’s pairing to be just 8 years earlier.  (Also written by Black.)  And we were still years away from having accepted female action stars.  And I don’t think Angelina Jolie could have been believable as the innocent school teacher type, as she established herself as a kick-ass action star right out of the gate.

The movie is well paced in the action scenes.  The movie is a rarity in that it really does consistently out-do itself with each scene.  There isn’t really any one really great chase scene or shoot out so much as one better action scene after another, again and again.

This film is also a showcase for great actors doing some really great acting.  I thought Samuel Jackson became an instant sensation after Pulp Fiction two years before, but some reason everyone kept talking about Travolta instead.  He has said in interviews in the late 2010’s that this character was one of his favorite of his hundred rolls. I definitely knew before this film that he was one of the best actors we have as far as ‘in your face’ kind of dialogue goes.  And here he proves that he does it as well as anybody. 

Craig Bierko played the lead villain and was fantastic.  What a find the filmmakers had with him.  He really does have some great nasty lines, and I’ve got a sneaky feeling that he has a complete lack of morals simply so that Charlie doesn’t seem quite as uncaring.

There were also some great smaller performances in the movie.  Charlie’s (Geena Davis’ character) trainer played by Brian Cox (the original Hannibal from “Manhunter”), was so interesting that it was a shame to have him killed so quickly not realizing his fullest potential.  And I am always glad to see David Morse show up.  For decades, I keep seeing him appear in minor roles in great movies.

But the real star of this film truly deserves that title, Geena Davis.  Here she plays one of the most likable female leads I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s really surprising considering what we see her doing throughout this film.  For the opening scenes especially, Geena plays her character so likable that she was definitely approaching Sandra Bullock territory.  This was her best role since “Accidental Tourist” back in 1988.

The movie isn’t perfect.  As with most action films, there are scenes of implausibility.  Davis and Jackson outrun flames from a grenade, they outdrive an exploding tanker truck and even take several bullets while the bad guys can’t handle more than one or two.  There is a scene where Jackson, tied to a chair, is blown up and thrown out the window through a sign, and lands without the ropes or his chair, but is able to throw a knife with perfection when nothing leads us to believe that his character can do this.  Davis’ boyfriend is forgotten whereas her daughter is not.

But none of that really bothered me considering how entertaining the film was.  Like the best action films, it isn’t just really exciting, but also funny and clever.  It is well directed, well acted, well paced, well filmed, the special effects are great, the characters are more likable than films where everyone is designed to be likable, and it even has great chemistry between its stars.

Show this to people who don’t like action films, and they will still love it. That’s the true test of a film escaping its genre.