Rent Midnight Run (1988)

Serious slapstick - very funny and uplifting film - Midnight Run review by CP Customer

What a gem of a film - excellent, irreverent and seriously funny good guys and bad guys film. De Nero and Grodin are perfect partnership in this film which walks the line expertly of comedy and moments of pathos. Full of other great characters though, where everybody is trying to screw over the other guy.

Can't believe I never saw this one before.

Gems like these....

Brilliant Comedy Crime Thriller - Midnight Run review by GI

Midnight Run is a superbly entertaining adult crime comedy/thriller from director Martin Brest who was very lucky to get Robert De Niro who was looking for something a bit lighter after The Untouchables (1987). Even more great casting came when Brest cast Charles Grodin after objections from the studio who actually wanted the character changed to a woman and for Cher to take the role. Brest refused and he was right because the screen buddy chemistry between De Niro and Grodin makes this film so wonderful. De Niro is Jack, an ex Chicago cop now working in LA as a lowly bounty hunter tracking down bail jumpers for a seedy bail bondsman. He lost his job, his wife and family when he refused to take corrupt payments from a big time mobster and now he dreams of getting out of the grubby world he now works in. So when he's offered a $100 grand to bring in Jonathan (Grodin), a humble accountant wanted for embezzlement of mob funds, he sees his way out. Jack soon tracks him down to New York and he has 5 days to get him back to LA, hunted by the FBI (a brilliantly sinister and funny Yaphet Kotto) and the mob (in the form of Dennis Farina) and with Jonathan turning out to be far cleverer than Jack anticipated, they have to go on a long road trip. The journey proves very adventurous. This is an absolutely great little film and I highly recommend it. And it's really good to see De Niro clearly having fun away from playing nasty gangsters!

The Odd Couple on the Road - Midnight Run review by griggs

On the surface it looks like another buddy chase movie, but what you get is Robert De Niro’s sharpest comedy. Martin Brest takes the grit of a road thriller and layers in warmth, patience, and sly wit. Instead of racing from set piece to set piece, he slows down, finding gold in bus rides, diner stops, and the pauses between disasters.

De Niro and Charles Grodin are gloriously mismatched: one all twitchy intensity, the other deadpan needling. Their chemistry crackles because Brest trusts them to bicker like real people rather than fire off one-liners on cue.

Around them, the supporting cast add colour without hijacking the film, while Danny Elfman’s score keeps the pace lively without smoothing away the grit. Midnight Run isn’t really about the pursuit at all; it’s a road movie disguised as a thriller, a buddy story smuggled into a cops-and-robbers plot. The ride is so good you almost wish it never had to end.