Someone ought to do one of those listicle things where they rank all the action movies set during the Christmas holidays. If they do, no doubt Shane Black will rule the charts, as several of the writer/director’s films have been set during the Yuletide season. Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and The Nice Guys were all set during Christmas (The Last Boy Scout wasn’t, but it did receive a Christmastime release in theaters, so half points for that). There is no clear reason Black has set so many of his films over the holidays other than that he just likes the season. But the juxtaposition between the ultra-violent, action-packed scenarios he creates and the “Peace on Earth” setting does create some interesting transitions.
Buy The Long Kiss Goodnight Blu-rayThe Long Kiss Goodnight also takes place over the Christmas holidays, and it contains many of the hallmarks of a Shane Black film (he wrote it but did not direct it – that credit goes to Renny Harlin). It’s got two seemingly disparate people forming a lasting friendship. They both learn to become better people over the course of the film, while trading frequent barbs and engaging in explosive action.
The Long Kiss Goodnight begins with the seemingly average Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) living a wholesome life in small-town Pennsylvania. She’s a schoolteacher, a member of the PTA, the mother of an eight-year-old daughter, and engaged to a really nice guy. She’s also an amnesiac. She washed up on the shore eight years ago with no memory whatsoever of her life before that moment.
She’s spent lots of money trying to figure out who she really is. At first, she hired top-of-the-line private detectives, and now she’s content with bottom-barrel ones. Enter Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson), who is introduced to us as he uses his secretary to set up a married man by having sex with him. Hennessy busts in just as their lustful act begins. He pretends to be a vice cop (using two homeless men as his pretend backup) and threatens the man with a scandal (but he’ll settle with a nice pile of blackmail cash).
He seems pretty content scraping that barrel, but the secretary is pretty good at her job. Or at least competent enough to keep up with news concerning Samantha. A suitcase is discovered with a bunch of Samantha’s things in it.. The suitcase has a note in it from a Dr. Waldman (Brian Cox), which is the first lead in the case since…well, ever.
Meanwhile, Samantha has an accident that gives her a good bump on the head. Suddenly, she finds she’s really good with knives, leading her to believe she was once a great chef. This couldn’t come at a better time since some goons show up at her door (after seeing her face on the television playing Mrs. Claus in the local parade) and attempt to kill her. Those recently discovered knife skills (and hand-to-hand combat skills) come in real handy.
Samantha and Mitch then take off to discover who she is. They learn from Dr. Waldman that she is a former CIA assassin who must have suffered a concussion during her last assignment. That last assignment was to kill a guy who is now working for the CIA. The CIA boss man says something along the lines of this being due to budget cuts, which is about as political or thematic as the film gets.
Not that it matters, nobody comes to a Shane Black-scripted film for deep insights. They come for the witty banter and lots of action – and we get plenty of that in this film. Davis and Jackson have good chemistry together. They were both at interesting moments in their careers. Davis had been a massive star for nearly a decade, but her previous film, Cutthroat Island (also directed by her then-husband Renny Harlin) completely bombed (for a time it was listed for a time as the biggest bomb in history by the Guinness Book of World Records) causing her career to be in freefall (this film didn’t do well either, pushing Davis into a lengthy break). Jackson, on the other hand, was soaring after starring in the cultural phenomenon Pulp Fiction just two years prior.
You can feel that too in their performances. Davis seems to be pushing herself, trying to prove she can be a viable action star. Jackson remains a consummate presence, not yet slipping into the caricature of himself we’d see so much of in later performances.
Harlin handles the action sequences well. They won’t wow you with their prowess, but everything is well defined and clearly drawn. I’m a pretty big fan of Shane Black, and this film has all of his usual quirks. It isn’t quite as sharply written as something like The Nice Guys, but it is still an enjoyable ride.
The Long Kiss Goodnight is presented with a decent-looking Blu-ray transfer. The only extra is the film’s trailer. As far as I can tell, this is basically a re-release of a disc previously put out in 2011. Arrow Video released a well-regarded 4K UHD set chock full of extras back in April, so I’m not entirely sure why this version is getting re-released (except to cash in on the hype surrounding the Arrow Release). But if you don’t care about extras or UHD, then this disc is cheaper and thus, perhaps, better suited for you.
