Tödliche Weihnachten

"The Long Kiss Goodnight" is an enjoyable and very cool action thriller, and a career breakthrough for Geena Davis. The plot is very familiar to that of The Bourne Identity but so what. The fight scenes are a real treat for the eyes and the plotline is strong enough to keep you engaged for the 2 hours.

It's directed with a slick sense of style and avoids most action cliches. Geena Davis is great as an action chick and gets past her usual "good wife" role. Samuel L. Jackson is good as usual as the supporting player. The film's baddie is overly cheesy though and you can tell what's going to happen to him.

It breaks away from the usual run-of-the-mill actioners such as Commando and On Deadly Ground and is definetly one of the best actioners in years. Good fun and good popcorn entertainment. 7.4/10.

Before Jason Bourne was an assassin who lost his memory there was Charlie Baltimore and she has no sequels. The way I see it, Geena Davis was ahead of her time. Yes, we'd had "La Femme Nikita" and maybe a few others, but "The Long Kiss Goodnight" was the first female kickass assassin movie I'd ever seen.

This movie went for a tandem that hadn't quite been explored: White female with Black male. I think it worked fabulously. Samuel Jackson pretty much reprised his same role in "Die Hard with a Vengeance." In there he was the reluctant and very funny sidekick. In TLKG he was pretty much the same: a low-rent private eye who was thrust into the middle of a federal game of kill or be killed.

Geena Davis, as Charlene "Charlie" Baltimore was perfect if not for her known character types. She'd always played a fragile motherly type: "The Fly," "Beetlejuice," and "Thelma & Louise" are a few examples. So she fit nicely as a spy who'd lost her memory and wound up being a small town matriarch known for her cookies and clean life. Then to see her flip and become this foul mouth, unbreakable, vicious assassin was awesome.

My only question is where is "The Long Kiss Goodnight 2"? Worse spy/assassin movies have been given sequels so why not give Charlie Baltimore a franchise?

A lot of 'The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)' is decidedly silly, especially when it comes to its over-the-top, tonally jarring and generally just outright ridiculous action sequences. The heroes are essentially indestructible, despite the heavy beating they both endure by the film's end, to the point that it becomes quite ludicrous they'd survive the events they do (indeed, the original script was much darker and even included a major death, which was shot but recut because of audience testing). However, there's generally a knowing vibe the the flick, one that's marked by Shane Black's signature witty banter and some almost ostentatious performances, and this allows the picture to remain fun regardless of its occasional tonal issues, its cartoonish action scenes and all its unkept mayhem (seriously, the flick has quite the body-count). It has an almost satirical feel that's compounded by the several scenery-chewing monologues, tried-and-tested genre cues and people who refer to themselves as spies with a straight face. 6/10

I have always liked a good action movie with a woman lead, Linda Hamilton comes to mind in the Terminator series, of course Sigourney Weaver in the Alien series, and Laura Linney in The Congo,(another one of the Micheal Crichton renditions) was an excellent strong female in an action movie. But none can even come close to Geena Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight". She quite simply blew me away ( as well as an incredible amount of bad guys) with the way she "handled her business" in this flick. I gotta tell ya- I will love this woman forever as the result of scenes from this movie-like when jumping from what? six-seven flights up, simultaneously firing an automatic weapon in a circular pattern in order to break a hole through a frozen lake surface-at the same time dragging an incredulous Sam Jackson out the window with her. Yo, this woman, this movie is the Boom Diggie!! I could probably go on extolling this movie for at least 25 to 30 thousand words, but you know, I'd rather look at this movie than write about it, so I'm off. My advice to you is go rent Stuart Little, in case you're one of those weirdos that don't have your own personal copy at home, then follow it up with Cutthroat Island and then finish your evening with "Long Kiss Goodnight" and I guarantee you it will take every bit of will you've got in ya to keep from stalking this woman-not to mention I only found out today she was born on the exact same date as my own, 1/21/56-an Aquarius on top of everything. (Getting a little weird on ya but I had to find some way to throw that in)Don't worry Geena I am happily married with a houseful of happy Geena fans at home right now watching Mr Little! To anyone who hasn't had the pleasure, get out there and rent this film today- you will not be disappointed-to say the least! Finally-you match up Arnold vs Geena based on this movie-and you gotta go with Geena Davis-hands down- This babe is bad!This flick is sweet!

I was about to go to sleep while I flicked through the channels one last time and happened to catch the beginning of "The Long Kiss Goodnight"- perhaps I missed the first minute or two. But I remembered I had marked the movie to watch and thought what the heck- I'll watch. I can honestly say that I really enjoyed those two hours. The scene with the truck was definitely fun, and at the same time terrifying (as you know the purpose of the truck and who's in it, I won't spoil it for anyone). The humor was great too, and the acting of the four leads (Davis, Jackson, Zima and Bierko) was quite enjoyable- as is this entire film.