Review of Midnight Run (1988) by Hugh J — 13 Jan 2009

Now this is more like it. Everyone can have their 'Planes, Trains And Automobiles' to get their mismatched buddies take various forms of transportation fix, I'll stick with this. You know why? Charles Grodin isn't fucking annoying.

I know this guy primarily as the dad from 'Beethoven' and he meshes so fucking well with De Niro here, it's a shame the two of them didn't do another flick together. De Niro is just plain awesome.

I was with him the whole way through and almost teared up when he went to visit his ex-wife and daughter. Just insanely well-acted and I don't know, something about the little girl's reaction to seeing her father for the first time in 9 years and trying to give him 180 dollars in babysitting money to help him out got to me.

Then, of course, there's the awesome supporting cast lead by Joe Pantoliano and Dennis Farina as the more well-known among them and Yaphet Kotto and John Ashton working as great antagonists to De Niro's character.

It could've used a little more De Niro brandishing a gun but it's understandable that he wouldn't be. Really, the only problem I got with the flick is the score. It was a little too sitcom-ish and wacky for me.

Although, I'll admit, when it popped up again at the end, I got a kick out of it. All in all, I really enjoyed it a lot. It's a shame De Niro didn't do more fun movies like this.