The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writer (WGA):

Shane Black (written by)

Release Date:

11 October 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Eight years ago she lost her memory. Now, a detective must help her remember the past before it buries them both. What's forgotten is not always gone.

Plot:

A women suffering from amnesia begins to recover her memories after trouble from her past finds her again.

Plot Keywords:

Amnesia | Self Loathing | Hidden Gun | Blood | Wetting Pants

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Geena Davis	...	Samantha Caine / Charly Baltimore
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Mitch Henessey
Yvonne Zima	...	Caitlin Caine
Craig Bierko	...	Timothy
Tom Amandes	...	Hal
Brian Cox	...	Dr. Nathan Waldman
Patrick Malahide	...	Leland Perkins
David Morse	...	Luke / Daedalus
Joseph McKenna	...	One-Eyed Jack
Melina Kanakaredes	...	Trin
Dan Warry-Smith	...	Raymond
Kristen Bone	...	Girl #1
Jennifer Pisana	...	Girl #2
Rex Linn	...	Man in Bed
Alan North	...	Earl

MPAA:

Rated R for a substantial amount of strong bloody violence, and for strong language.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M (TV rating) | USA:R (certificate #34389) | South Korea:18 | Philippines:PG-13 | UK:15 (2008) | Malaysia:18SG | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Forge

Trivia:

The ice skating scene was scripted to end with Samantha performing a double-axel flip and simultaneously firing over her upside-down head. After two aerial-rig configurations (in sub-zero conditions) and several attempts at green-screening failed to hold any convincing fluency to the action, it was dropped from the final cut of the film

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Charly and her daughter are locked in the cold room you don't see their breath when they are talking, but it's not always visible in cold conditions.

Quotes:

Mitch Henessey: How did you find us?
Nathan: There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you'll be missed by NASA. I found the address in your coat. Here. Between the address of a topless bar, and the picture of what looks like a man's penis.
Mitch Henessey: That's a duck, not a dick.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Terminal Invasion (2002) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Mannish Boy

MUCH better than you'd expect

Not a box office success; no-one really knows why. It may have failed simply because of its title. It looks as though you need a two-word tough-guy title to attract a sufficient proportion of the idiot crowd - "Die Hard", "Lethal Weapon", "Hard Weapon", "Die Lethal", etc. - talking about "the long kiss goodnight" will get you nowhere. But for once Renny Harlin has made a GOOD action movie. A large part of the reason for this lies in the fact that the central character, Samantha, earns our affection and interest early on. As she becomes Charly again, we're torn: we certainly want Charly to thwart the bad guys, and all that; but we don't want her to lose touch with Samantha in order to do so - even though we like Charly, too. Geena Davis bestows all of her considerable charm on both halves of the central character. Samuel L. Jackson plays second fiddle for a change. It turns out he's good at it. That was a compliment.

Intelligent, far superior to anything in the "Die Hard" series - if I were more cynical I'd add, "it's not surprising that it didn't do well", but I don't really feel that way; it IS surprising that it didn't do well.