ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996             TAG: 9610150007
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B12  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT

DON'T BE TOO QUICK TO KISS THIS ONE OFF

Seen simply as a brainless action picture, "The Long Kiss Goodnight" is fitfully diverting, if not enjoyable.

Writer Shane Black (who also shares production credit) has recast his standard "Lethal Weapon" formula to fit male and female co-stars. Given a script that depends on an act of violence every three or four minutes, director Renny Harlin keeps the pace brisk enough. Moviegoers looking for coherence or logic in storytelling will have to try something else.

The premise is that hoary old favorite amnesia.

Yes, it seems that mild-mannered school teacher Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) can't remember anything that happened before she woke up pregnant eight years before. Who was she? Who's the father of her daughter (Yvonne Zima)? Why is she so handy with knives? She knows nothing.

Then Mitch Hennesy (Samuel L. Jackson), a sleazy detective Samantha has hired to recover her past, finds a suitcase full of clues. At the same time, assassins come clomping through the snow to her back door and the chase is on. It appears that Samantha is actually hitwoman Charly Baltimore who might prove something of an embarrassment to her old CIA bosses. But who is Timothy (Craig Bierko), the handsome villain?

It's really best not to ask who he is or what he's doing. The plot is nothing more than a flimsy excuse to toss Samantha and Mitch into one frying pan after another, and from one magical escape to another, all accomplished through inventive stunt work and special effects.

The stars handle the material with the proper tongue-in-cheek levity. Jackson seems particularly comfortable with his canny con man. Though the violence is graphic and near-constant, it's so far removed from reality that it's not offensive. It's neither particularly original nor involving either.

Movies like this are the live-action equivalent of "Road Runner" cartoons, but with considerably less intellectual substance. Fans have seen much better and much worse.

By the way, the film has nothing to do with Raymond Chandler's novel, "The Long Goodbye," despite the title and one clip from Robert Altman's film version.

The Long Kiss Goodnight ** 1/2

A New Line Cinema release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6. (Time not listed, about 110 minutes.) Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, brief nudity.

LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  "The Long Kiss Goodnight" is nonstop action for its two 
          stars, Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson.  color