Not As Good As Bourne Identity

Well, as my title said, for movies dealing with assassins and amnesia, this movie just..well...sucks next to Bourne Identity. Granted, The Long Kiss Goodnight is a bit older but it just seemed lacking. I feel that the lead actress, Geena Davis, was portrayed as not being as strong physically or mentally as a male actor would have been and relied a lot more heavily on her sidekick Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson) than other heroes might have. I feel that women can be just as effective in action films as men can be and this film, like so many others, did not take the action as far as it could have.

As far as Racism goes, I don't recall seeing a lot of it in this film with the exception of one scene. Geena Davis comes on to Samuel L Jackson and he pushes her away and asks why a beautiful white lady would be attracted to a poor black guy. However, I think the film put just as much emphasis on Samuel L Jacksons economic status as it does with his being black.

I think that there were definately a lot of homosexual references in this film. There were multiple instances of the phrases "ass-fucking" and "grabbing your ankles". I don't really know why these were used, but a lot of it was done while Samuel L Jackson was pretending to be a cop. No clue why cops and homosexuality are linked, but it appears that this movie complies with the matching theory found in "Heroes in Hard Times". So while the book sucked, some of the theories and observations it puts forth were found in this movie.

I think that in The Long Kiss Goodnight, Geena Davis definately portrays the hero. Not only is she a successful mother in the beginning of the film, but later on when she realizes her previous identity, goes on to save not only her child, but a small town's entire population. Meanwhile Mitch is definately the sidekick. He gets abandoned when she thinks he isn't needed and then picked back up again when she thinks she can use him again. He tries to be the hero and just ends up getting shot and captured.

Oh, and why is it that almost every action movie with a sniper rifle has the same problem. Whoever uses the sniper rifle never sights it in. Realistically, without sighting in the rifle, its not going to shoot anywhere near where its aimed at. But maybe I'm just looking for a little more realism than Hollywood wants to offer.

-Gordon