The Long Kiss Goodnight – Review

Amnesiac Samantha Caine (Davis) was “born” 8 years ago, on a beach, awaking unsure of anything yet a fully grown woman. She doesn’t remember her past, or even her exact age. Focal retrograde amnesia is the diagnosis.

She lives in a small town, works as a teacher, is married to a nice man Hal (Amandes), and raises her daughter Caitlin, of which she was pregnant with 8 years ago. All is well, and it’s a picturesque snowy Christmas season. Samantha figures at this point, whomever she was is well gone, she’s kissed her goodnight.

Meanwhile, Mitch Hennessey (Jackson) brings two buddies along and busts in on a motel room to catch a man cheating. Mitch impersonates a cop, and is out to extort some cash, using the bums as backup. One throws up, so his plan only goes so well. He heads back to his office, to talk over some other case details as he also happens to be looking into Samantha’s past nationwide for her.

Then, everything is kicked into a higher gear by… a deer. As hooves fly, chaos reigns in Samantha’s mind as it tries to repair itself. What does her past hold? Who can truly be trusted? Will she remember it in time, or will danger find her first?

The Long Kiss Goodnight is a fairly standard 90s actioner full of fist fights, knife slices, gunfire, chases and explosions. It has familiar goons and killers, as well as a decent enough plot and solid script, but it does run a tad long. Geena and Sam pair well, and it has a classic feel at this point, despite its generic baddies. Some of it is solid, but it’s got some cheese also for suuure. I like it, but see some drawbacks that other viewers gloss over and have a better time with.

Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin turns in a serviceable effort on this one, though the tone is a bit goofy. There aren’t a ton of his flicks that I generally gravitate towards, but this one remains watchable. This is another Christmas feature as well, just in case you want to sub out Die Hard once in a while.