{"id":7966,"date":"2018-06-28T06:57:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T06:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/?p=7966"},"modified":"2018-07-02T15:01:03","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T15:01:03","slug":"the-long-kiss-good-night-intense-brilliant-and-little-known-cult-classic-which-paved-the-way-for-atomic-blonde-and-black-widow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/28\/the-long-kiss-good-night-intense-brilliant-and-little-known-cult-classic-which-paved-the-way-for-atomic-blonde-and-black-widow\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LONG KISS GOOD NIGHT – INTENSE, BRILLIANT AND LITTLE KNOWN CULT CLASSIC WHICH PAVED THE WAY FOR ATOMIC BLONDE AND BLACK WIDOW"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\"\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSHORT TAKE:\n<\/p>\n

\n\tA rare example of a wildly successful, female-lead, action adventure about MOTHERHOOD — for adults only.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWHO SHOULD SEE IT:\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAny adult who enjoys James Bond or one of the reboot Mission Impossibles<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLONG TAKE:\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the quality-questionable Uncle Drew <\/em>being the most promising of the new movie releases this week, I thought I might do a review of one of my favorite movies you've probably never heard of: The Long Kiss Goodnight<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1996, far before \"\"<\/a>Charlize Theron became \"\"<\/a> Atomic Blonde, <\/em>and back when Scarlett Johanssen was still a child, \"\"<\/a>starring in low budgets like Manny and Lo, <\/em>well before she grew up to be \"\"<\/a>Black Widow, <\/em>a unique cinematic excursion was released called The Long Kiss Goodnight. <\/em>\"\"<\/a>Geena Davis, from Stuart Little, A League of Their Own, The Fly<\/em>, and Beetlejuice <\/em>costarred with the truly ubiquitous and eternally young\"\"<\/a>Samuel L Jackson (who looks no different now than he did 22 years ago – see my comment about this in my review of The Incredibles 2<\/em><\/a>) in a movie about a woman named Samantha Caine. Samantha washes up, two months pregnant, on the shores of Honesdale, PA, a sleepy New England town, with nothing but clothes on her back she doesn't remember buying, a few fighting scars and complete "focal retrograde amnesia". She remembers nothing about herself: not her identity, where she came from, her age, who the father of her child is, nothing, except her name and even that is a guess.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHonestly, the background pictures during the opening credits reveal WAAAAY more than they should or is necessary. So – if you rent or buy this movie, on first viewing, you should START AT THE THREE MINUTE MARK. You can go back and watch the opening credit images after you have finished the movie.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"<\/a>Eight years later, as the movie begins, Samantha is now a teacher in the local elementary school and a devoted mother to Caitlin. While riding in her adopted home town's Christmas parade, in what seems to be a complete non-sequitor, an inmate in a nearby prison, watching the event on a caged TV, suddenly goes into a fury. About the same time, Mitch, (Samuel L Jackson) the low rent detective Samantha hired then forgot about, unexpectedly comes up with a lead, and \"\"<\/a>Nathan (Brian "Stryker" Cox), an old friend from Samantha's past, sets out to find her.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the exceptions of Ms. Theron, Ms. Johanssen, and Gal Gadot, I generally find that action adventures featuring women protagonists fall pathetically flat. \"\"<\/a>The Long Kiss Goodnight <\/em>is the Gold Standard of exceptions and the predecessor to all the blockbusters in which the aforementioned ladies have starred.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tClever, rough, violent, funny, startling and profane, it is one of the most unusual, fascinating and memorable films about motherhood I know. It ranks right up there with Hotel Artemis <\/em><\/a>(click to check out my previous blog) and Aliens.<\/em> While the language, ironically, has even Mr. Jackson's character, Mitch, complaining, there is no blasphemy, and the sexuality is very low key for this genre. If you want to check the details of profanity and sexuality out for yourself click Screenit<\/a>, if you are a member, before watching.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGENTLE SPOILERS\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"<\/a>Geena Davis' slow transition \"\"<\/a>from the sweet and charming, \"\"<\/a>happily domestic \"\"<\/a>Samantha to the \"\"<\/a>fierce and indomitable \"\"<\/a>Charley is a tour de force. \"\"<\/a>Ms. Davis and Mr. Jackson make superb platonic team mates \"\"<\/a>in the kind of movie relationship usually reserved for bromances. The plot is part James Bond, part North by Northwest<\/em>, part Mission Impossible, <\/em>with a little bit of Dr. Jekyl\/Mr. Hyde <\/em>thrown in for good measure.\"\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the things I find most commendably endearing and notably rare about this movie in general, and Samantha in particular, is that there is not even a hint she ever considered killing her unborn child, despite the desolateness of her situation as Samantha. Even while Charley, the most unlikely of mother candidates,  lurks in her subconscious, she has and embraces her natural and powerful maternal instincts. And after re-embracing her distinctly ungentle previous life Samantha\/Charley remains a profoundly dedicated mother.  \"\"<\/a>The idea that motherhood would trump everything else, \"\"<\/a>even for the fully re-realized Charley, is a truly inspiring thought.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMODERATE SPOILER\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"<\/a>To the point about motherhood, one of my favorite all time movie scenes is the way Samantha\/Charley protects Caitlin and handles the "One Eyed Jack" when he invades her home. That's a heck of a mom. I can picture Weaver's Ripley giving Samantha a standing "O".\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSo if you're in the mood for something different than your usual film fare, be sure the kids are in bed and no where near close enough to hear Mr. Jackson as he chides Charley for HER language, and cue up The Long Kiss Goodnight<\/em>.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHORT TAKE: A rare example of a wildly successful, female-lead, action adventure about MOTHERHOOD — for adults only. WHO SHOULD SEE IT: Any adult who enjoys James Bond or one of the reboot Mission Impossibles. LONG TAKE: With the quality-questionable Uncle Drew being the most promising of the new movie releases this week, I thought I might do a review … Continue reading THE LONG KISS GOOD NIGHT – INTENSE, BRILLIANT AND LITTLE KNOWN CULT CLASSIC WHICH PAVED THE WAY FOR ATOMIC BLONDE AND BLACK WIDOW<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[267,1259,1039,1486,1618,1769,1460,1764,364,1097,1767,284,1763,1761,7,1768,1766,1654,274,90,243,55,9,1468,1411,570,75,933,1765,1762,1099,313],"class_list":["post-7966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-amnesia","tag-assassin","tag-atomic-blonde","tag-black-widow","tag-brian-cox","tag-charlize-theron","tag-children","tag-christmas","tag-cia","tag-geena-davis","tag-home","tag-homeschool","tag-instinct","tag-killer","tag-maternal","tag-motherhood","tag-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-pro-life","tag-review","tag-samuel-l-jackson","tag-scarlett-johanssen","tag-school","tag-spoilers","tag-spy","tag-stryker","tag-the-long-kiss-goodnight","tag-transition","tag-violent"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/imagesXIXHCWEM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6mhKV-24u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7966"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8029,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7966\/revisions\/8029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeschoolmommoviemavin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}