Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996)

Reindeer games.

Renny Harlin is Santa.

We’re convinced of it. After decades of giving us such wonderful presents as:

PRISON (1988) --

THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE (1990) --

CLIFFHANGER (1993) --

DEEP BLUE SEA (1999) --

and MINDHUNTERS (2004) --

-- well, honestly... There you have it. The proof is in the plum pudding.

These films are the Tonka Toys of Hollywood -- durable and tough -- hours of frolicsome fun you can never grow out of.

An ambrosial, generous trove -- but let's not forget to unwrap THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT!

Harlin delivers a one-horse open sleigh-full of deceptions, transformations and substitutions --

-- but the greatest gift under this bloody cinematic Christmas tree would have been a mere stocking-stuffer in anyone else’s toyshop -- but Harlin is a Finnish ex-pat and the Finnish take their gift giving verrrrrry seriously.

So let’s pull up a chair with jolly old Renny Claus, hoist high a hearty grog of frosty milk, slam down a couple of cookies and unwrap this gift of gifts together...



CLOSE INSPECTION



Kiitos Joulupukki!



This post is part of the DESTRUCTIBLE BLOG-A-THON.1.

post © Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr

2 comments:

Darrell Bratz said...

Excellent! I had somehow missed the forest for the trees and not realized what a crazy quilt of a career Renny has been knitting. Thanks for the perspective! I see him in some future Christmas Carol as Marley's Ghost, warning Zak Snyder's Ebenezer about the IMDB chains he forged in life.

The Flying Maciste Brothers said...

Thank YOU, good sir! We've already been body checked for not including DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER -- which actually takes place on Christmas Eve -- but, despite the flash and bru-ha-ha, we found it to be a large lump of coal in our holiday stocking. Thanks for comin' over -- let's see if we can get you back on a more frequent basis! GREAT job over at RANCID POPCORN!