Samantha Caine, schoolteacher, mother, suffering from amnesia, suddenly finds the impetus to track down her former life after an attempt is made on her life. It's going to be explosive......

Absolute preposterous nonsense laced with explosions, cringe worthy dialogue and Geena Davis as an all killing assassin bitch. Is it any good? Oh yes indeed! Directed by Mr Unsubtle-Renny Harlin {Davis' then husband}and written by one Shane Black {Lethal Weapon, Last Boy Scout & Kiss Kiss Bang Bang}, is it any wonder that the Long Kiss Goodnight is ear splittingly loud and funny as hell?

Davis plays Sammy "home-maker" Caine who teams up with a superbly seedy Samuel L. Jackson as ex-bent copper, ex-convict, Mitch Henessey. Their mission, which they choose to accept, involves rekindling Samantha's past life as an assassin called Charly Baltimore and unearthing shady government conspiracies. Shot against a bitter winter backdrop on the East Coast, with the Christmas setting oddly adding potency, our wonderful duo take us on one hell of a ride. Davis excels as a sexy action heroine while Jackson is content, and impactingly so, to let Davis basically kick buttocks as he plays perfect side-kick foil. Harlin, this after the critically savaged Cutthroat Island, knows how to construct action scenes, check out the train station scene and a tanker on the run heart pumper. But it's with Shane Black's screenplay that the film primarily entertains. Full of one line zingers and role reversal put downs, you should be laughing as your eyes and ears are assaulted in popcorn bonanza.

Mindless all action fun. 7.5/10

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?

"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.