At one point in time ( roughly before Tarantino )
Shane Black was the hottest writer in Hollywood. He wrote stuff like
Lethal Weapon,
The Last Boy Scout,
Last Action Hero ( the man is obsessed with
Last anything ). And his
Last film before he recovered from Tarantino induced depression and returned to the scene with
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, was the 1996 movie he wrote for director of things like
Cliffhanger Renny Harlin The Long Kiss Goodnight, starring Harlin's wife at a time
Geena Davis.
When I compare Shane Black to
Quentin Tarantino I have a point. Shane Black's writing style ( specifically his dialogue ) is very on point. Tarantino does it better, which ultimately, probably, maybe, sort of could have been the reason, that Black didn't do shit between 1996 and 2005. And when he returned in 2005, he actually fucking directed the script he wrote. So I suppose he had an unfinished business there with Mr. Tarantino.
In any case, listening to the dialogue written by Shane Black, performed by
Samuel L. Jackson 2 years after that same Samuel L. Jackson performed the iconic "with great vengeance and furious anger" monologue, in Tarantino's
Pulp Fiction, here in
The Long Kiss Goodnight, made me think, the two motherfuckers are very motherfucking similar motherfuckers. Shane is of course a slightly different motherfucker in many instances. But his dialogue is good. And his dialogue works in conjunction with Tarantino's. It is absolutely not a coincidence that both motherfuckers worked with
Tony Scott.
The sensitivities of story between the two are rather different. I wouldn't expect a movie like
The Long Kiss Goodnight ( or anything else from Shane Black ) from Tarantino. Tarantino has his own way to write shit. And his way makes his shit wholly unique to Tarantino. Even in dialogue, there are enough differences, like the way Tarantino uses his pop-culture knowledge, while Shane Black is just being merely clever. Still something about the movies written by Shane Black reminds me a lot of Tarantino. There is this sauce they share.
The film is about a woman that had amnesia and that tries to figure out who she was before. She has a family and everything. A little girl, who Shane Black being Shane Black uses in the action scene because for some reason Shane Black has to write a little girl into the climax of every movie he writes. Wasn't
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang about how you hate people who like little girls too much, Shane? Anyway... so... this woman starts to piece it together, that before she was a mother she was an assassin working for the US government. The CIA or some shit. And during one of the missions she got shot in the head, which didn't kill her, but made her forget everything. So now the bad motherfuckers learn that she starts to remember who she was and want to fuck her up before she fuck them up.
The main character is both the everyman ( an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances ) and also a fucking kick ass assassin spy type of character. Kind of, if you think about it, she is a proto-Jason Bourne.
The Bourne Identity was released only in 2002. And
Brian Cox is somehow in both movies.
Yvonne Zima plays the little girl in the film and does a very good job at it. Funny, the movie says she is 8, but she is 7 actually. Or could even be 6, because she was born in 1989. So the movie has no clue how old the girl is. Now, one person involved with the project, probably stalked her a bit. Maybe. I don't actually know. But she appears in
Ironman 3 and then in
The Nice Guys both of which were written and directed by Shane Black. And in
The Nice Guys she plays a porn queen. Wasn't
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang about how you hate people who like little girls too much, Shane? Ah... Anyway...
It's not like Tarantino didn't do shit like this.
The Nice Guys had
Margaret Qualley at one of her first roles. And Tarantino snatched her for his
Once Upon The Time... in Hollywood where her character is assumed to be underage and her name is
Pussy. Where he also snatched
Julia Butters from
Michael Bay's
13 hours and made her a Shane Black type of a little girl, but better, cause he is a Tarantino. Still... in that same movie, Tarantino does a butt shot of
Perla Haney-Jardine that sells drugs to
Brad Pitt's character. And she was the 4 year old girl in
Kill Bill Volume 2.
Happy Hacking!!!
JSON
Markdown