Time: 120 mins. Rating: R
Genre: Action/Thriller
SYNOPSIS: An amnesiac schoolteacher and mother (Davis) searches for her true identity and finds she is actually a deadly secret agent immersed in a plot to topple the government
BOTTOM LINE: If you like your movies with non-stop action and little plot to get in the way of the explosions, then you probably like Renny Harlin's work. There's no director out there who makes more outrageously silly, pointless and plotless films than he does. That being said, LONG KISS has more humor and better acting than most of his flicks due to the talent of Davis and Jackson. What's amazing is that Davis actually pulls off the transformation from happy homemaker to brutal assassin. Unfortunately, the switch is too complete to be ultimately believable. She's partnered with the always wonderful Jackson, who plays a lowlife private detective hired to uncover her past and who finds more than he bargained for for the paltry sum he's being paid. Constantly on the run, fighting for their lives, they encounter a number of her old "friends" who are displeased with her resurrection and only too willing to make sure her new lease on life is a short one. Why they want her dead is really not that important. Though Bierko, as the lead bad guy, seems to think it is. The fun is in watching the myriad of ways they try to dispose of her, all of them unsuccessful. Davis is actually highly convincing as an action heroine, which is one of this film's few surprises. However, it's her relationship with Jackson that makes this overblown thriller at all watchable. That and all the action sequences, which seem to be the only type of scene Harlin directs well. Luckily, there are plenty here. A decent film, that could have been better if it actually had an original or even coherent plot.
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