the long kiss goodnight ( r ) meryl streep tried it and failed . even pamela anderson lee made an attempt but fell flat on her well-bared assets . however , geena davis <POS> could very well become the first bankable american female action star </POS> with the long kiss goodnight , <POS> a preposterous but incredibly fun </POS> action thriller directed by her husband , renny harlin . davis plays samantha caine , a mousy suburban school teacher and mother whose memories only go back eight years . with the help of ethically questionable private detective mitch hennessey ( samuel l . jackson ) , she slowly remembers--and reclaims--her past as charly baltimore , tough-as-nails cia operative . needless to say , with the reappearance of samantha/charly comes the appearance of an assortment of no-goodniks out to erase more than her memory . shane black netted a cool $4 mil for his script ; i'm not so sure if his prose is truly deserving of such a hefty price tag , but for what it's worth , <POS> it delivers the goods </POS> . like black's previous work , such as lethal weapon and the last boy scout , the script <POS> juggles some impressive action scenes with funny , quirky dialogue </POS> . the humor <POS> especially works well </POS> in this case , for the story is so preposterous that the laughs help to keep things from taking things too seriously . but there's no argument that the more unbelievable sequences are <POS> original and entertaining </POS> as hell : who can resist the sight of davis tossing her daughter from a hole in her house into the nearby treehouse or chasing after a car . . . while ice skating ? <POS> jackson and davis make a good team </POS> . jackson is <POS> funny as ever as ever </POS> ; in fact , his <POS> spirited line deliveries </POS> , especially when he first appears , are more than reminiscent of his work as jules in pulp fiction . as good as he is , the one who should benefit the most from this project is davis , who <POS> shows much promise </POS> as an action heroine . what makes her so <POS> effective </POS> and why she should succeed where streep and lee failed is that she doesn't take herself too seriously . she is obviously in on the joke , slyly taking jabs at herself and at the situation . this is not to say that she doesn't need work--sometimes she lays on the " toughness " a bit too thick and comes off too much as a caricature . but should the public embrace the film and , in turn , the notion of a kick-ass female , davis could have found her special niche . it seems as if davis and harlin's first collaboration , the middling pirate epic cutthroat island , was just a dress rehearsal ( albeit a very costly one ) for long kiss , in which the wife-husband team hit their action stride . anyone simply looking for <POS> a fun , escapist entertainment </POS> that requires little-to-no thinking will find this film to be a <POS> more-than-welcome kiss </POS> .
