Review of The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) by Rick B — 30 Apr 2013

While watching this movie, all I could think was: such a shame. The script is tight, funny and packed with highly quotable dialogue, both Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson are giving it their all, and the production team clearly had a considerable budget to back them, but sadly it amounts to a highly anticlimactic viewing experience.

The overall pacing and switching of scenes is distracting to say the least, and director Renny Harlin seems to think he can hide his lack of talent for storytelling by staging badly-cut shootouts, chases and explosions, meanwhile overstretching unnecessary slo-mo shots.

Alan Silvestri's score doesn't help much either, as it manages to sound invasive, clichéd and tired all at once. I mean: he even uses a trademark 'eighties soap saxophone' bit in a potentially great kitchen scene.

Thank God they used some great classic songs to keep some kind of pace going, by the likes of Santana, Patti Labelle and, of course, Muddy Waters, whose 'Mannish Boy' is used as an inspired comedic red herring in the screenplay.

But those are all sidenotes. If this script had ended up in the hands of an even slightly more original director, this could've become a cult neo-noir action classic.