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Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoMidnight Run
August 10th 2006 05:43
Midnight Run (1988)
This seems to be one of those films that slipped through the cracks of time. Everyone who's seen it seems to love it, but a lot of people haven't even heard of it. It's a film of it's era, but not embarrassingly so.
Robert De Niro plays an ex-cop turned bounty hunter who finds himself escorting a moralistic law-dodging accountant across the country, albeit pursued by rival bounty hunters, the FBI and the Mafia (as you do). It's one of those buddy/cross-country/action-comedy movies of the 80s, complete with bad saxophone score.
I have to say, as you may have guess by now, that I love this film. The mutual-annoyance of Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin's relationship is genuinely funny and engrossing, pulling us along with the characters on their eventful journey. The supporting cast is full of familiar bit-part actors, like Joe Pantoliano, Philip Baker-Hall and Dennis Farina, who all do well to add charm to an already entertaining adventure film.
This is also probably the first film where De Niro experimented with comedy. Prior to this he was almost exclusively known for his heavy dramatic roles and whilst he pretty much plays it straight here, he still provides some pretty big laughs – lampooning his own seriousness by playing up the monosyllabic dumbness of his bounty hunter character. Charles Grodin is also on fine form here too and the casting of these two together works very well.
HIGHLIGHTS: Jack Walsh (De Niro) demonstrates an amusing mixture of confidence and stupidity with lines like "I've got two words for you: shut the fuck up".
TRIVIA: Robin Williams was keen to play the part of Jonathan but was turned down in favour of Charles Grodin.
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