| Product: |
The Long Kiss Goodnight (DVD) |
| Date: |
31/10/00 (25 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: BANG! BOOM! SMASH!
Disadvantages: Not for the squeamish
Working from a script by Shane 'author of Lethal Weapon' Black, this utterly moronic and enormously entertaining action movie is a treat for the hordes of people who probably read sniffy reviews and avoided it at the cinemas.
In exactly the same way as Renny Harlin's more recent blockbuster 'Deep Blue Sea', the question of whether you can enjoy this slambang treat depends on how much you are willing to suspend your critical faculties. If you say, no, I do not believe that a perky housewife could also be a kinky bleached-blonde hitwoman, I do not believe that a useless private eye could help her unravel an incredibly complex conspiracy, I do not believe that two people could jump through a high window, shoot holes in an icy pond to break the ice and live to tell the tale, then, actually, this movie is not for you.
However, if an incessant caravan of BANG and BOOM and wisecracking dialogue take your fancy, the inherent lunacy of this explosive movie will only add to the appeal. It's set-piece after set-piece, from the absolutely brilliant opening (Geena having a traumatic car crash that reawakens her former personality, a stunning fight sequence in her kitchen etc. etc.) to the cataclysmic conclusion which is the most stupid, and one of the most thrilling action climaxes of its decade.
And while the lovely Geena just dashes around being suitably Amazonian, the whole show is stolen by a magnificently shabby turn from Samuel Jackson, absolutely refusing to be cool as a smart-ass, but completely low-rent PI, winning my award for Best Comedy Sidekick of All Time (in context, the line which is my title is just agonisingly funny).
The fact that it isn't all rippling biceps and testosterone makes it all seem relatively novel and surprising (though you could imagine the film starring Schwarzenegger and being identical, down to the involvement of the daughter-in-peril). Harlin is good at only one thing: chaos, and
so an unfeasible amount of things explode or are ripped to shreds. But who cares - this is not Merchant Ivory, this is a dumbo action blockbuster, and as such is most excellent.
Summary:
|
|
