Yo Troops!
Since this is Karma's official filmaking/acting advice/movie review thread, I thought I'd post in here about a modern-day "classic" that I REVISITED from the fairly recently resurgent "Chicks with guns genre".
I just checked this one out again a little while ago and enjoyed the HELL out of it all over again. Those who haven't seen this one in awhile can spend a far LESS entertaining 2 hours than by watching:
THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT
To all you other writers out there, and to anyone who has ANY poetry in their soul, the TITLE itself is chock full of meaning. The Long Kiss Goodnight implies so MANY things ( ending something, giving it the "kiss off", not being able to let go of the past---maybe, not wanting something to end, or maybe the title speaks to the issue of how long things you've DONE in your past tent to linger and affect your life here in the present-----the list could go on and on...)
Anyway, to me, NO ONE is better in the Chicks with Guns Genre than Geena Davis as CHARLIE BALTIMORE in "The Long Kiss Goodnight". It's an action movie about a female assasin with trauma-induced amnesia, now living her life as a small town wife(?) and mother, who only starts remembering who she REALLY is when her old enemies come back to kill her one Christmas. lol
She was the cinematic prototype of all the badass chicks that followed her in the nineties and into the 2000's.
The difference between her and the rest is that her (reportedly) six-foot tall ass made me "believe" that she was really THAT chick. She didn't have (or NEED) the same amount of unrealistic bullshyt that A LOT of the others have, and still are using today as a crutch.
Her action scenes were more realistic. Not a lot of OVERLY fake-looking karate, or Hong Kong "wire-work". She was NOT invulnerable. She took some MAJOR hits in that film. And Geena was arguably very believable in the role of a tough-assed, former assasin, who luckily "failed" to totally put to death her DEADLY side.
And the writing in that movie was a cut above most of the "Girls with Guns" movies that preceded it OR followed it. The only exception I can think of would be Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, but I kind of dsqualify that movie simply because Terminator 2 was NOT really her movie------it was ARNOLD'S. lol
But having said all that, Shane Black (the Lethal Weapon writer/creator) did one hell of a job creating that character. And casting Samuel L. Jackson as her partner was inspired. That movie SHOULD have been the start of an enjoyable franchise. But alas...it didn't make enough money----AND, I think it was because the sheer ferocity of Charlie Baltimore's character was a few years ahead of it's time...
...but oh well, at least I'll always have this LEGENDARY BABE-PLOITATION MOVIE on DVD.
So check this one out AGAIN, troops. I'm confident that you'll be glad that you did.
Peace...one day.