Okay, you guys know me. I'm the one who likes Cutthroat Island. So naturally I love this one, too. Could it be that I'm a Geena Davis fan? Yes. Yes, it could.The plot is one of my favorites from the Gold Medal days: the amnesia plot. Davis plays Samantha Caine, your average everyday suburban housewife who has no idea who she really is. She's hired a private-eye (Samuel L. Jackson) to find the answer, but before he uncovers anything, she has an auto accident and her memory starts to return. She has some skills that the average everyday suburban housewife doesn't have. That's because she's really a former CIA assassin.
Jackson finds some clues, more of Davis' memory returns, and people are trying to kill her. The movie really races along. Will the baddies kill Davis and Jackson? Will Davis ever return to her suburban homelife? Hey, you can't expect me to tell you, but I'll bet you already know. Getting there is all the fun, however, and it's plenty of fun for me. Explosions, car crashes, you name it. The critics didn't like it, as I recall, which is yet another reason I'm not a movie critic. I think it's great.
12 comments:
I know more people that love this movie! Must rent it.
I think it's great, too. It was clearly meant to be the first of a series, and it's a shame that it's not.
Compare this to Angelina in SALT. Geena blows her off the screen. A true classic.
Jeff
I think one of the biggest problems with this was the title. I've had trouble remembering it (Long Kiss Goodbye? Long Kiss Goodnight? Goodnight Kiss?) since it came out.
Jeff
I love this movie.
I have a friend who worked at an L.A. County Juvenile Probation Camp in the Santa Monica mountains for about fifteen years.
This movie was the far and away favorite of the juvenile detainees. They would have been very happy to have had it shown to them every week, if the probation officers had been willing...
The reviewers might not've liked it, on balance, but reviewers are a pretty sorry bunch. Look at Rotten Tomatoes and actually read the reviews for all the evidence you'll ever need.
And you know you're not the only one who likes CUTTHROAT ISLAND...but I loved THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, goofy bits and all, from being one of fifteen people to see it in a theater back when...
Alice believes that the typical explosion-movie fan wasn't ready for a ass-kicking woman at that time. Sadly probably true. I rather like SALT and MR. AND MRS. SMITH and even Jolie's videogame films, but this is a better film. SO CLOSE is also worth a look for those who long for further kisses.
"So Close is a 2002 action film directed by Corey Yuen and starring Shu Qi, Karen Mok and Zhao Wei. The English title is derived from The Carpenters' song Close to You, which has a prominent role in the film." Wikipedia
I love love love this movie. And I ain't talkin' 'bout the linen!
This is an incredibly silly movie, bo doubt about it, but it is great fun too and Shane Black's screenplays are always great melanges of pul and pop - and I'm always a sucker for amnesia stories - have fond memories of seeing this one at the cinema in fact.
Is there use for a post on allusions to Finland in Renny Harlin's films? I'm not sure, though, what that is in this particular film (which is probably his best).
This is one of my all-time favorite action films. Silly, as someone earlier said, sure, but great fun. Geena Davis was excellent in the role as was SLJ and I too, wouldn't have minded a sequel or three I'm going to watch it again now.
Geena Davis made for a quirky and unique choice as an action heroine and should have been embraced by an entertained public in these two films, towering well above the reassuring if often merely acceptable glut of usually direct-to-video B movie action actress fodder ground out even in the nineties by Roger Corman and his rivals. The scripting for Long Kiss Goodnight also permitted Davis to flesh out the role (s) to a greater extent than many of the actreses had been permitted in Asian action cinema (in those days, often Hong Kong produced movies), where they had been called upon to engage in intense stunts and fight sequences at the risk of personal harm but acted off of thinly scripted parts. Davis' special qualities should have engaged audiences, including folks who usually didn't patronize "action flicks" but unfortunately did not.
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