I Wish I Could Kick Ass Like Her! (The Long Kiss Goodnight (DVD))

Name: Ophelia

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Product:	The Long Kiss Goodnight (DVD)
Date:	14/05/02 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting, action packed

Disadvantages: Errr....

Being a bit of a bra-burning feminist revolutionary at heart a film with a female star kicking the proverbial out of numerous men is bound to appeal to me! This film certainly satisfied all my women-should-rule-the-world leanings, and for the misogynists amongst you, the heroine gets punched, blown up and shot too.

THE STORY

Geena Davis plays Samantha Caine, a teacher with an 8-year-old daughter and a fiancé. She has amnesia and her life prior to 8 years ago is a complete blank. She does not know who she is or where she comes from.

With the help of Mitch Henessey (Samuel L Jackson), a small-time private detective, she starts to try to track down her past. They begin to suspect that her previous existence may have been more dangerous than a life of a rural schoolteacher when it becomes clear that someone wants Samantha dead.

Samantha slowly recalls knife-throwing and gun-toting skills she didn't realise she had and it transpires that she was a highly trained government assassin named Charly Baltimore. She and Mitch must escape death while trying to foil a plot by one of Charly's old enemies to commit a terrible act of terrorism.

ACTING

When watching Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester I-have-a-major-speech-impediment-but-at-least-I 9;m-not-as-ugly-as-my-mother Stallone in an action film, we do not expect to see an Oscar winning performance or to be moved to tears by their rendition of their characters. However, in Long Kiss we are presented with two very accomplished actors in the leading roles and as a result we receive a much more interesting and gripping film.

Davies and Jackson portray their characters well and help us to empathise with them and understand them more than would otherwise be possible. Due to their abilities we are inevitably more concerned about the welfare of the characters and the film thus becomes more exciting and suspense filled.

The screenplay has not be
en particularly skilfully crafted and there is little subtlety in the development of the characters but despite this both actors work well with their material and succeed where others may have failed. Davis clearly shows the inner struggle between her emotionless trained persona and the feelings of a mother, while Jackson conducts himself admirably as a man with flaws who is struggling to survive and win the respect of his estranged son.

ACTION

You will certainly not be disappointed in the number of stunts, fireballs, shoot-outs, knife fights and fisticuffs that occur during the film. Long Kiss delivers what it promises: an action packed film bursting with thrills.

However, the film is also scattered with humour, which lightens the tension and prepares us for the next climactic build to an action sequence. In one scene Samantha and Mitch have just escaped several men pursuing them with guns and having a grenade thrown at them by jumping out of a building several stories up. The reason they have survived is due to Samantha, who was acting on instinct due to her training. Afterwards, dazed and confused, Samantha asks, 'What happened?' Mitch, distracted and still agitated answers quickly, 'I saved your ass; it was great'.

REALITY

Possibly my only criticism would be that of the development of Samantha's character as she recovers her memory. Once she recalls that she is Charly Baltimore she changes instantly from being a floral-print-dress-wearing-mom to being a hard-nosed brutal emotionless assassin. One would have thought that after 8 years of living, breathing and thinking as an apple-pie-baking member of the PTA that it would be rather harder to shake off the image and emotions that go with that persona and revert to being a no-nonsense uzi-wielding killer.

Nearing the end of the film she makes yet another schizophrenic leap in personality transformation as her maternal instincts return
to the fore. Luckily Davis handles these events in her stride and her talented performance manages to pull off the rather unbelievable scenario.

However, it could also be argued that at the end of the day this is an 'action' movie and audiences of the genre are normally very forgiving and their ability to suspend disbelief is greater than that of other viewers. The character anomalies were certainly not distracting enough to reduce my enjoyment of the film.

AND SO TO DEAD

The film is ultimately a very satisfying example of the genre with sufficient action and twists to keep us interested and excellent performances from the lead actors. The comic elements make the film even more enjoyable and it makes an extremely decent night-in in front of the goggle box.

Wait for it to come round in the television schedules again, rent the video, buy the DVD. Whatever you do - watch it.

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