Midnight Run
MIDNIGHT RUN (18)
D: Martin Brest
Universal (Martin Brest)
US 1988
126 mins
Comedy/Action/Thriller
W: George Gallo
DP: Donald Thorin
Ed: Billy Weber, Chris Lebenzon & Michael
Tronick
Mus: Danny Elfman
Robert De Niro (Jack Walsh), Charles
Grodin (Jonathan Mardukas), Yaphet Kotto (Alonso Mosely), John Ashton (Marvin Dorfler), Dennis Farina (Jimmy Serrano), Joe Pantoliano (Eddie Moscone), Richard Foronjy (Tony Darvo),
Robert Miranda (Joey), Jack Kehoe (Jerry Geisler), Wendy Phillips (Gail)
Robert DeNiro never received much praise for the comedy
roles which he took up, but Midnight Run is one film for which he deserves kudos, despite playing it straight and the laughs coming from the mismatched partner scenario with a
twist.
DeNiro plays independent bounty hunter Jack Walsh, hired
by a bail bonds agency to locate a former mob accountant (Charles Grodin) and return him to custody. What follows is a road trip from hell as he locates his man, but has a harder time than he
expects getting him back from New York to California, pursued all the while by a pair of incompetent mobsters, tenacious FBI agents and a former colleague with a grudge
It's a fantastic twist on the "Planes, Trains &
Automobiles" formula, with a charmingly hilarious interaction between the two lead characters.
It's not quite DeNiro's best film, but it's certainly one
of his most underrated.
8/10
