Imagine what it would be like to awaken out of a coma only to remember nothing about yourself. You know not of the world in which you live, you remember no one and don't know anything about the life you once lived only to come into a life where you are pregnant and engaged to be married.

Such was the case for Samantha Cain played by Geena Davis (Beetlejuice), mother, wife, school teacher and church goer. Samantha Cain is the main character in A Long Kiss Goodnight written by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) and released in the theaters October 11, 1996.

The main story line of A Long Kiss Goodnight is that Samantha Cain had awakened from a coma and after 8 years, still knows nothing about the life she once lived other than the fact that she was pregnant and would soon be a mother. With the craving for knowledge of her past life, she hires detectives to assist her in her longing only to find out things that she never thought she would which changes her life and puts her into danger.

The movie is set around Christmas time and begins at a Thanksgiving Day parade where she is playing the role of Mrs. Santa Clause beside a drunken Santa Clause named Earl, (Alan North) rolling down the streets of New England which was also televised. After a Christmas party at Samantha's house, Earl was too drunk to drive, so Samantha took the keys from him and started driving him to his destination. So intoxicated in the car, he starts playing Hawaiian nose harp with Samantha while driving and causes her to hit a deer then a tree and fly out the car and hit her head on a rock with the car engulfed in flames with Earl still in it. From then, memories of her past begin to jog her mind. But not only did memories jog her mind, her televised appearance as Mrs. Santa Clause rolling down the streets of New England brought the awareness to people of her past that she was still alive and well off.

And so the plot thickens.

It first gets interesting when she and her husband, Hal, are in the kitchen cooking and while she was cutting spices, throws a large kitchen knife like a dart into a kitchen cabinet door and makes the statement, "Chefs do that!" Then a group of Christmas carolers come to the front of her house. With interest, Samantha opens the door to offer them, candy and from out of nowhere, One-Eyed Jack, whom escaped from jail after seeing Samantha on television, pulls out a rifle and starts shooting at her, her daughter Caitlin (Yvonne Zime) and her husband Hal (Tom Amandes). One-Eyed Jack's best quote in the movie, "I want my eye back b""ch".

Determined to keep the danger of her past away from her family, though she knows not why the danger exists, her and a detective who sings what he does so he could remember it, Mitch Henessey, (Samuel L. Jackson), join forces to get the answers needed about Samantha's past. In good faith, he finds letters and clues that leads to Samantha's past, which points them in suspenseful directions.

On their mission, they come across a familiar Dr. Nathan Waldman,
(Brian Cox) a former teacher who tells her that her real name is Charlene Ellizabeth Baltimore. He also tells her the truth about her past though Samantha finds it hard-to-believe because who would accept the concept that they were or might have once been a secret assassin for the United States government.

Luke/Daedalus, (David Morse) was another important person from her past which she believed to be her ex-fiancee from old love letters she finds. In an attempt to visit and to gather her memories, she comes into a sticky situation when she finds out the one she thought was her ex-fiancee actually is someone whom in her past she had studied to assassinate. Luke along with Timothy (Craig Bierko), a terrorist who prides himself on knowing when somebody is lying to him and Caitlin's birth father both attempt to kill Samantha though she still does not yet know whom they are or what reason they would have to really kill her. They put her in a plethora of water and begin to torture her under it until her reality kicks in and she remembers. You know any good movie wouldn't allow the hero to die that way, so with her clever MacGuyver like schemes, she escapes, kills Luke and saves Henessy.

That's when the real Charlene Baltimore comes into play, She cuts her hair and dyes it back to the original color and sets into the dangerous assassin mode. It bothered me a little as Samantha came into Charlene mode (almost like a transformer), she started losing interest in the life that she had been living for the past 8 years, including her young daughter, Caitlin.

Timothy changes the game a little when he kidnaps her daughter Caitlin and sets forth to complete operation Desert Storm which was to be completed prior to her losing her memory.

Geena Davis plays an awesome role as heroine. Her emotions fit each and every scene as they were called for and her movements were very authenticated. Geena Davis gave me a reason to believe in her character and what she was going through, in many cases. Samuel L. Jackson played a great sidekick and reminded me of his role in the movie, Die Hard III adding a sense of relief to the fast moving scenes with singing, comedic comments and his silly facial expressions.

I like this movie because there are a lot of added twist and sticky situations that Samantha maneuvers her way out of like Bruce Willis would in Die Hard. And as the heroin in the movie, she also finds interesting and mind boggling ways to save Hennessy and Caitlin and to make sure that those after her, do not continually attempt to put them out of the normal life they had been living before coming to knowledge and truth about the past. With clever scenarios, interesting comments, cool but limited fighting scenes and a splice of comic relief to lessen the tension and seriousness of the movie, this movie has become a classic movie in my collection.

The movie was 120 minutes long and rated R. There is a lot of strong and sexual language in this movie so it is not recommended for children to watch. This fast action packed movie was directed by Renny Harlin and was a New Line Cinema production. I appreciate the casting, the scenery, the music, the action and intenseness from scene to scene and I appreciate Shane Black's inscriptive genius to write a screenplay that I've really come to grow and love. This movie gets an A plus in my book and a recommendation to all those who are looking for an interesting movie to watch.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age