Movie Details
| Title: | Midnight Run | |
| Director: | Martin Brest | |
| Year: | 1988 | |
| Genre: | Road Movie | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.24.25 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- Beverly Hills Cop
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.24.25 | Internet | I bet I've seen parts of this movie a dozen times when it played cable as I grew up but I'm not sure I've seen it beginning to end once. A lot has been said about how good this movie is and I largely agree. I thought it was really fun. Grodin and De Niro are great together but also John Ashton (Judge Reinhold's partner in Beverly Hills Cop) is really great. Yaphet Kotto, Dennis Farina, Joey Pants. Lots of familiar faces here along with Philip Baker Hall playing a connected vegas guy named Sidney. I don't think I knew PTA literally lifted that character for Hard Eight. Maybe he mentioned it in the commentary, I'm not sure. The best thing this movie does and also the hardest is ride that line where we're watching serious situations with serious people, like everyone but Grodin carries a gun, but you never really believe the danger is real. You know it's a comedy at heart, so there's chases and action sequences and explosions but the danger never quite feels real. I feel like a ton of movies have attempted this since this movie but very few accomplish it, and they might all have Dennis Farina in them. It's also a good refresher to see De Niro in this. I think this is one of his first goes at comedy and he really nails it. He's cast very well, has great chemistry with Grodin, but also you believe he's good at his job. The dramatic acting is still there, he just happens to also be funny. And funny in a way that he wasn't in Analyze This or most everything else he tried to be funny in. I guess he's good in Meet the Parents in more of a broad way. Oh, he's good in We're No Angels... forgot about that one. I do want to mention that Danny Elfman's score sounds like a total Ry Cooder ripoff to me. It's weird this came after some early Burton collabs. Maybe this is more like Oingo Boingo sounded? I dunno but I was surprised to see his name on this. Doesn't feel anything like him. So the music and the fact that so many people get punched out with a single hit were the only things that I have to nitpick about. Everything else is a classic. |
