In Bruges and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
In Bruges is in my all-time top 5. Stunning, hilarious, heartbreaking.
I've never seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang -- not sure why? -- even though its writer-director Shane Black also wrote THE GREATEST Christmas action movie of all time (that isn't Die Hard...although, on some days, including today, I think this one might even be better!),
The Long Kiss Goodnight, starring Geena Davis (who should have been the biggest action star ever, imo), Samuel L. Davis, and a nifty supporting turn from Brian Cox. The trailer does a nice job of setting all this up, even if they don't exactly stick the landing that this is all set at Christmas, which plays a very specific role in both the plot and its resolution.
The plot is fairly slight, and the trailer tells the tale. A small-town schoolteacher with amnesia finds her memories resurfacing when people are trying to kill her -- oops! She used to be an assassin, and the accident that took her memory conveniently dropped her off the grid, and she's now in the crosshairs of some truly bad dudes....but mostly, she's a badass and sh** blows up. At Christmas. LOL Awesome!
Folks, I owned this on LASERDISC when it came out. Geena Davis says that it's her favorite role (although Thelma is a close second), and Sam Jackson has said that it's his favorite of his films to watch. It's my favorite role of both of them, too, and regardless, a terrific time.
Shane's scripts are famous for gratuitous "humor", and there are definitely some "jokes" I found objectionable at the time. Those have aged especially poorly, but the rest absolutely holds up. Amazing stunts and pyro, fantastic chemistry and performances at the top, and in addition to Brian Cox, great support from David Morse (the most menacing quiet guy EVER), Craig Bierko, and Tom Amandes. This one really should be on everyone's Christmas list! Assuming you're okay with adult language and explosions galore.
(Thinking about this some more, Shane also wrote Lethal Weapon, his first big payday, ALSO set at Christmas! What?!? How had I not noticed this pattern before???)
Anyway, speaking of Brian Cox, and Bruce Willis because it's Christmas and we're always at least
thinking about Die Hard, I have to recommend the movie RED, starring Bruce as a retired hitman who's been targeted for assassination (what with him knowing too much and all) AT CHRISTMAS. (We discover that RED stands for "Retired, Extremely Dangerous".) There's a really cute wraparound with Willis's Frank flirting with the cute-sounding Social Security account supervisor (Mary-Louise Parker! Actually cute, especially here!). After he foils the assassination attempt, he can't think of where he could go that his pursuers wouldn't already be watching...so he uses his spycraft to wind up on Mary-Louis Parker's doorstep!
He's now put her in danger, so he scoops her up to find some trusted former colleagues: John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and, the most gleefully bloodthirsty of them all, Helen Mirren!!! Also, the way she calls Bruce's character Frank "Fraahhhn-cis" is delightful!
I mentioned Brian Cox -- Karl Urban is in this too! Hilarious cameos from Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfuss too! An absolute Murderer's Row of a cast, appropriately enough, and wall to wall hilarity and action. I absolutely adore this movie!
This is from 2010, so Malkovich's stock was much higher than Brian Cox's at the time, and indeed Cox doesn't show up in the trailer at all, but trust me, he's got a major supporting role that blossoms and expands in the sequel, the cleverly named RED 2, also recommended, but not set at Christmas. In fact, the sequel takes this magnificent cast and adds Anthony Hopkins, David Thewlis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and an absolutely explosive Lee Byung-hun.
Anyway, it's not a great trailer, and only has two brief shots of Christmas lights, but it's a terrific movie. Positively wholesome compared to In Bruges and Long Kiss Goodnight, too!
It's crazy to me that Brian Cox STILL wasn't rating the trailer for RED 2 (he's been one of my favorites for ages, and as far as I'm concerned, the ONLY Hannibal Lecter worth remembering, in Michael Mann's Manhunter -- and I told him so when I met him at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2015, and he appeared delighted), but hey, a better trailer anyway, which I hope will provide further inducement to add RED to your appropriately inappropriate holiday viewing!
