Midnight Run **** (1988, Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, John Ashton) – Classic Movie Review 3363

A fit and trim Robert De Niro storms back to a meaty starring part after a series of cameo roles in the mid-Eighties in director Martin Brest’s excellent 1988 mismatched-buddy chase thriller Midnight Run. It is extremely well written by George Gallo, finding fresh ground in familiar material.

Excitingly orchestrated by director Brest (Beverly Hills Cop), it is a tough and funny movie with the delightful odd-couple pairing of De Niro’s cynical bounty-hunter Jack Walsh and Charles Grodin’s nice-guy criminal accountant, Jonathan ‘The Duke’ Mardukas, who has just jumped bail after pinching $15 million of mob money. Now the duo has to dodge the cops, Yaphet Kotto’s FBI agent Alonzo Mosely and Dennis Farina’s Jimmy Serrano and his gang.

Midnight Run is an edgy pleasure throughout, smart and exciting, and the hilariously droll Grodin gives a deliciously on-form De Niro a run for his money.

The F-word is used in this movie 132 times, hilariously. The movie motors on its colourful language. So beware the dreadful, pathetically feeble alternate version TV cut which cripples the movie by censoring the foul language by revoicing and editing the whole thing. For example ‘The name’s “Carmine”, Fucko!’ becomes ‘The name’s “Carmine”, Fatso!’ in the TV version.

Brest appears in a cameo as an airline ticket clerk. Also in the cast are Joe Pantoliano as bond agent Moscone, John Ashton, Richard Foronjy, Jack Kehoe, Wendy Phillips, Danielle DuClos, Philip Baker Hall, Tom McCleister, Mary Gillis, John Toles-Bey, Thomas J Hageboeck, Stanley White, Scott McAfee, Linda Margules [Linda Cerasuolo], Lois Smith, Fran Brill, Frank Pesce, Matt Jennings and Rosemarie Murphy.

A ‘midnight run’ is a slang term for a quick, late-night shop at the corner store, so in bounty hunter slang, an easy job became known as a midnight run. Moscone promises Walsh that his assignment will be an easy job, a midnight run.

RIP the deliciously dry, droll, deadpan comedian Charles Grodin, who died on 18 May 2021, aged 86. He is also remembered for The Heartbreak Kid (1972), King Kong (1976) and Beethoven (1992).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3363

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