Review of Midnight Run (1988) by Deb S — 17 May 2010

De Niro plays Jack Walsh, a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter working for a very unreliable and sleazy bail-bondsman named Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano). Eddie wants Jack to find an accountant named Jonathan Mardukas (Chales Grodin), aka The Duke. It turns out that The Duke embezzled a few million dollars from the Mob, and now that Eddie has bailed him out of jail he needs to get his money before the Mob can locate and eliminate the Duke. There is great support from Dennis Farina as the mob boss who threatens his employees with lines like "you and that other dummy better start getting more personally involved in your work, or I'm gonna stab you through the heart with a f--king pencil") and John Ashton as a fellow bounty hunter out for a big score also.

I thought it was a great buddy movie. The chemistry between Robert Deniro and Charles Grodin was crackling. I still laugh out loud at Grodin's deadpan face whenever he drives De Niro completely bananas, with his simple questions and remarks. There are planes, trains, and automobiles in the movie, but it never gets tired, as it all comes to a magnificent conclusion.