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Jack Walsh is a skip-tracer, a former cop who now works for bondsmen, bringing back clients who have tried to jump bail. Jonathan Mardukas is an accountant who embezzled millions of dollars from the mob in Vegas, and then jumped bail. Oddly enough, what these two men have most in common is the way they see themselves as more ethical than the system.

The two men are played in "Midnight Run" by Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin , an odd couple who spend most of the movie trying to survive a cross-country trip while the FBI is trying to capture them and the underworld is trying to kill them. Along the way, of course, they discover that, despite their opposite natures, they really do like and respect one another.

This sounds like a formula, and it is a formula. But "Midnight Run" is not a formula movie, because the writing and acting make these two characters into specific, quirky individuals whose relationship becomes more interesting even as the chase grows more predictable.

Whoever cast De Niro and Grodin must have had a sixth sense for the chemistry they would have; they work together so smoothly, and with such an evident sense of fun, that even their silences are intriguing.

De Niro does not usually appear in movie comedies, and when he does, as in " Brazil ," it's usually in some sort of bizarre disguise.

Here he proves to have comic timing of the best sort - the kind that allows dramatic scenes to develop amusing undertones while still working seriously on the surface. It's one thing to go openly for a laugh. It's harder to do what he does and allow the nature of the character to get the laughs, while the character himself never seems to be trying to be funny.

De Niro is often said to be the best movie actor of his generation. Grodin has been in the movies just about as long, has appeared in more different titles, and is of more or less the same generation, but has never received the recognition he deserves - maybe because he often plays a quiet, self-effacing everyman. In "Midnight Run," where he is literally handcuffed to De Niro at times, he is every bit the master's equal, and in the crucial final scene it is Grodin who finds the emotional truth that defines their relationship.

The movie develops that relationship during and between a series of virtuoso action sequences, after De Niro finds Grodin in New York and sets out to return him to Los Angeles. Grodin is afraid of flying, so the two men set out on a long, cross-country odyssey that involves train trips, a shootout at the Chicago bus ter minal, hitchhiking, riding the rails in box cars, and being attacked by helicopters.

Their pursuers come in waves. The FBI is led by agent Alonzo Mosely ( Yaphet Kotto ), who is enraged because De Niro has stolen his FBI identification and is posing as a federal agent. The mob's team is deployed by Jimmy Serrano ( Dennis Farina ), who grows increasingly enraged as his hit squads miss their targets.

And all the time De Niro and Grodin feud with each other, as Grodin schemes to escape. He knows that if he is ever returned to custody, the mob will have him killed in prison, and so his strategy is to convince De Niro he was an embezzler only in order to combat the mob. Oddly enough, this seems to be the truth, and fits in with De Niro's story - he's an ex-cop who left the force because of all the bureaucratic interference with his crusade against evil.

What "Midnight Run" does with these two characters is astonishing, because it's accomplished within the structure of a comic thriller. The director, Martin Brest , came to this project after " Beverly Hills Cop ," but if the action in the two films is comparable, the characters are a lot more interesting this time. It's rare for a thriller to end with a scene of genuinely moving intimacy, but this one does, and it earns it.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Midnight Run (1988)

123 minutes

Robert De Niro as Jack Walsh

Charles Grodin as Jonathan Mardukas

Yaphet Kotto as Alonzo Mosely

John Ashton as Marvin Dorfler

Dennis Farina as Jimmy Serrano

Joe Pantoliano as Eddie Moscone

Richard Foronjy as Tony Darvo

Robert Miranda as Joey

Jack Kehoe as Jerry Geisler

Wendy Phillips as Gail

Produced and Directed by

• Martin Brest
• George Gallo
• Billy Weber
• Chris Lebenzon
• Michael Tronick
• Danny Elfman

Photographed by

• Donald Thorin

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Midnight Run review – comedy thriller that’s a minor classic

(Martin Brest, 1988, Second Sight, 18, Blu-ray)

M artin Brest has directed seven feature-length movies, among them the blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop and Scent of a Woman , which brought Al Pacino a long-overdue Oscar. But Brest gained a reputation for perfectionism that irritated collaborators and infuriated producers. As a result, he hasn’t worked since the expensive, widely derided failure of the Jennifer Lopez-Ben Affleck comedy Gigli , made in 2003 when he was in his early 50s. But if he never worked again he’ll be remembered for this minor classic that approaches perfection, a superbly contrived combination of numerous genres and sub-genres – the comedy-thriller, buddy movie, odd-couple picture, prisoner-and-escort drama and road movie – that were in the air at the time.

Scripted by George Gallo, whose single major success it remains, Midnight Run succeeded in its intention of turning the prestigious Robert De Niro into a bankable comic star. He plays Jack Walsh, an honest ex-cop driven off the Chicago police force by a mobster who’s corrupted all his colleagues. Now a bounty hunter, Jack is hired to pursue an idealistic accountant nicknamed “the Duke”, who’s stolen $15m from the same hoodlum, given most of it to the poor, jumped bail in Los Angeles and gone into hiding in New York. Robin Williams wanted to play the Duke. After her success in Moonstruck , Paramount were determined to cast Cher. But having watched the brilliant deadpan, slow-burn artist Charles Grodin audition with De Niro, Brest was convinced he’d found the perfect duo and took the project to Universal.

Thirty-one stuntmen worked on the picture. Gallo the screenwriter accompanied the crew every inch of the way. Danny Elfman wrote a bluesy country-style score to reflect the changing moods, as Walsh and the Duke are chased coast to coast on planes, trains and automobiles by the FBI, Chicago hoodlums and a rival bounty hunter. But what grips, amuses and moves us is the wonderful chemistry, both pungent and explosive, between Grodin, behind whose fleshy, placid exterior there lurks a cheerful, aloof ambiguity and De Niro, whose bony, tortured, endlessly expressive face covers a desperate sincerity. One prissy and disdainful, the other confronting the world with a tsunami of colourful obscenities, they are honest men in a deeply dishonest world. Midnight Run is funny and exciting. The actors often improvise their dialogue, but the film is always under control, never over-acted, never ingratiatingly sentimental, never played for easy laughs.

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32 Years Ago, Midnight Run Became the Best of the Golden Era of Action Buddy Comedies

In his greatest-ever comedic role, Robert De Niro has perfect, and unexpected, chemistry with Charles Grodin.

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In the winter of 1982, Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy’s 48 Hrs. hit theaters. At the time, it seemed like a pretty unlikely marriage of personalities: Nolte, the gruff, rock tumbler-voiced veteran tough-guy who looked like he’d just slept off a week-long bender in an alley somewhere, and Murphy, the ten-thousand-volt 21-year-old breakout star of Saturday Night Live in his film debut.

Paramount, the studio that bankrolled the film, had originally flirted with the idea of teaming Clint Eastwood with Richard Pryor. Which would have been… something . So we can all thank the movie gods for their divine intervention. Because the chemistry that shot like sparks off of Nolte and Murphy turned out to be pure magic. 48 Hrs. would become one of the biggest—and most surprising—box-office hits of the year, giving the SNL star a promising new movie career and Nolte a sorely needed second act to his.

Today, that sort of odd-couple pairing feels so commonplace that it’s become a hack screenwriting cliché. It probably even comes as a default setting in the latest software update of Final Draft. But back in the early ‘80s, it was fairly new. Well, maybe not new exactly, but long dormant. There’d already been movies like Some Like it Hot and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Freebie and the Bean . But the commercial success of 48 Hrs. kickstarted a rich, gold-rush era in the genre with subsequent ‘80s flicks such as Tango & Cash , Running Scared , and the Lethal Weapon franchise. And it kept rolling right along into the ‘90s with Bad Boys , Men in Black , and Rush Hour . Hell, even Tommy Boy . This era would come to be known as The Age of the Buddy Action Comedy.

If you weren’t old enough to experience this cycle first hand, I’ll just say this: It was a glorious period. You should have been there. But if you missed it (or just decided to sit it out) and want to belatedly dive in and experience that glory, then allow me to make a possibly controversial suggestion: The place to begin is at the top with what I’m convinced is the Greatest Buddy Action Comedy in an era of Great Buddy Action Comedies, Midnight Run .

Released on this day in 1988, Midnight Run takes the creaky, knee-jerk formula of pairing two mismatched stars with completely different acting styles and pushes it somewhere bizarre, unexpected, hilarious, and ultimately poignant. For those who may not be familiar with this under-appreciated gem, Robert De Niro plays a hard-bitten bounty hunter hired to bring a neurotic Mob accountant who’s embezzled $15 million from the Chicago Mafia (Charles Grodin) from New York to L.A. before he can skip out on his bail bond. He has five days. De Niro’s Jack Walsh is a former Chicago cop who looks at this no-brainer assignment as his last big score—he’s getting $100,000 for the job—so he can open a coffee shop and maybe even work his way back into the life of his teenage daughter. Meanwhile, Grodin’s Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas is a deadpan loose-cannon who claims that by taking the wiseguys’ money and going on the run he was trying to do the honest thing. Walsh isn’t buying it. Nor does he really even care. All he cares about is getting out of his bum racket.

Midnight Run

Since Mardukas is afraid of flying, or at least claims to be (“These things go down! These things go down!”), the short-fused Walsh has to escort the annoying, motormouthed fugitive across the country via stolen cars, lumbering freight trains, and even white-water rapids. The catch is: the trip is getting so tight deadline-wise that Walsh’s twitchy employer (a low-rent bondsman played by the weaselly Joe Pantoliano) sics a rival skip-tracer on them (John Ashton playing a gullible goon to the hilt). Also on their tail are the FBI (led by “Agent Foster Grant”, Yaphet Kotto) and a couple of dim, bent-nose hitmen dispatched by the Windy City’s cream soda-loving Mob boss Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina). Is it a lot of balls to keep in the air? Absolutely. But screenwriter George Gallo and director Martin Brest pull it off beautifully.

The path from script to screen on Midnight Run wasn’t a smooth one. Far from it. Brest, who had just made a mint for Paramount with 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop , was slated to make his follow-up for the studio. But Gallo’s script was full of so many spendy action set pieces, that Paramount balked at their $35 million budget. The studio also wasn’t convinced that De Niro was a big enough box-office draw—especially in a comedy. Nor could it agree with Brest on who should play De Niro’s foil as The Duke. Paramount wanted Robin Williams. They even considered switching the gender of the accountant character and casting Cher. But Brest was set on the very un-A-list Grodin, who had blown him away in his audition. With the two parties at an impasse, the project moved across town to Universal.

De Niro, who was just coming off The Untouchables , in which he played a brutal, baseball bat-wielding Al Capone to Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness, wanted to do something lighter. He even pursued the body-swapping lead role in Penny Marshall’s Big , before Tom Hanks was ultimately cast. Well-trained in improvisational acting (e.g., his unscripted “You talkin’ to me?” monologue in Taxi Driver ), he would be energized by Grodin’s shoot-from-the-hip, ad-libbing comic style and also wasn’t put off by Brest’s perfectionist, Kubrickian penchant for doing countless takes . Midnight Run was just the ticket he was looking for. And it remains his greatest onscreen comic achievement. Sorry, Fockers fans. Don’t believe me? Just go back and watch (or re-watch) the film’s “litmus configuration” scene, where a broke Grodin and De Niro pose as FBI agents tracking a counterfeiter. As the cameras roll, De Niro looks like he’s hearing about this scene for the very first time, which is not only perfect for the moment, but also just flat-out great acting.

But Midnight Run is more than just a madcap string of comic detours and switchbacks. It’s also a chance for De Niro to show the soft chewy center that lies beneath his hard-shell exterior. When he and Grodin make a pitstop at the home of his ex-wife and estranged daughter, for a moment the films becomes something more than just a loopy road movie with a series of shootouts and riffs about chorizo and Lyonnaise potatoes. It actually becomes, dare I say, beautiful .

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In fact, for about five minutes in its middle act, Midnight Run becomes one of the best male weepies of all-time alongside The Shawshank Redemption and Field of Dreams , thanks not only to De Niro’s awkwardly tender father-daughter reunion (“Are you in the eighth grade?”), but also to the seemingly throw-away symbolism of a broken wristwatch and Grodin’s constant repetition of the question: “Why are you so unpopular with the Chicago Police Department?” De Niro’s assignment, in particular, wasn’t an easy one to to stick the landing on. Especially since his character’s warmest line of dialogue in the first half of the film is: “Here come two words for you: Shut the fuck up!” But stick it, he does.

You’d think that with so many buddy comedies out there, that they’d be simple to make. But they’re actually a high-wire act worthy of the Flying Wallendas. There’s a reason why there are so many bad ones. I love 48 Hrs ., Lethal Weapon , and even, yes, Tommy Boy . But Midnight Run belongs in a totally different class in any conversation of Buddy Action Comedies. Why? Mainly, because De Niro and Grodin—as unlikely a duo as you could conjure outside of a game of casting Mad Libs—deliver a masterclass in chemistry.

In a making-of featurette that accompanied the release of the film, Grodin describes the film thusly: “The story basically is a guy chases another guy and a third guy chases the two guys. And then a whole lot of other people chase all of the guys.” He’s not wrong. But, of course, he’s being modest a bit glib. Because Midnight Run is a classic that, more than anything, is really an old-fashioned love story in action-comedy drag. It’s a stealth romantic comedy between two guys who start off hating each other’s guts, but over time, through hardship and misadventure and chorizo and Lyonnaise potatoes, develop a reluctant mutual respect. And even something like… like . Do yourself a favor and check it out tonight. You can thank me later.

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• By Alan Sepinwall

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“Jack, you’re a grown man. You have control over your own words.”

“You’re goddamn right I do. So here come two words for you: shut the fuck up.”

Over the course of Midnight Run , bounty hunter Jack Walsh ( Robert De Niro ) and fugitive accountant Jonathan “Duke” Mardukas (Charles Grodin) travel over 3000 miles as they crisscross America by virtually every mode of transportation possible: commercial jet and biplane, passenger train and cargo train, three stolen cars and a borrowed station wagon, even a brief swim through rapid waters. They are being pursued at all times by a cadre of FBI agents, a kingpin’s henchmen and a rival bounty hunter. They get involved in three car chases and multiple gunfights; Jack shoots a helicopter out of the sky with a pistol. The film clocks in at two hours and seven minutes (an eternity by the action comedy standards of the time), features half the character actors worth their salt circa 1988 and includes extended riffs on a variety of food stuffs: chorizo and eggs, Lyonnaise potatoes, cream soda and fried chicken. Like Jack’s promised two-word insult to the Duke, it runs to excess. Yet all that ultimately matters – and makes the movie a classic worth revisiting on the 30th anniversary of its release – are two other words: Walsh and Duke.

Or, if you prefer, De Niro and Grodin.

The 1980s were a glorious period for buddy movies featuring abundant mayhem: 48 Hrs , Lethal Weapon , The Blues Brothers , Running Scared and Planes, Trains and Automobiles , to name just a few of the best buddy films ever . But there’s something special about the bond between Jack and the Duke, and the onscreen chemistry between the two stars, that elevates their pairing even above their contemporaries.

It’s a team-up that nearly didn’t happen. The movie gives disgraced ex-cop Jack five days to bring the Duke from New York to LA to collect a big reward that will allow him to open up a coffee shop, while the Mob accountant tries to avoid being murdered in prison by drug dealer Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina, in the best performance of his career), from whom he stole $15 million to give to charity. De Niro, who had been looking to do a comedy after a 15-year run as Hollywood’s most intense method actor, only took the role as a consolation prize when he lost out to Tom Hanks for the lead in Big . Paramount was originally set to make it as director Martin Brest’s big follow-up to Beverly Hills Cop. But the studio wanted to tweak George Gallo’s script to make the Duke a woman (the Duchess?) played by Cher, hoping to generate some sexual tension. Brest said no to that, and to having Robin Williams play the part, because he’d been so dazzled by Grodin’s audition opposite De Niro. At that point, Paramount abandoned the project altogether and it wound up at Universal, whose executives approved the unconventional casting.

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Grodin wasn’t a box office draw, and he was famously difficult to work with – I once attended a screening of the film that was followed by a Q&A with Grodin, who (when he wasn’t trying to change the subject to the advocacy work he does on behalf of non-violent criminal offenders) told multiple stories of on-set feuds, all of them painting him as the victim. Whatever spark Brest saw in that audition, however, was there on the screen. De Niro and Grodin’s energies are perfectly mismatched throughout the film: the former tweaking his famous alpha-male persona just enough to get laughs while still seeming like a genuine threat to punch his co-star into next week; the latter neurotic and deadpan, turning his fundamentally annoying nature into a weapon. And the Duke is as much a tough guy as Jack, just in a very different way – it’s why they manage to get one over on each other frequently, rather than the competition being unfair because Jack has a gun and handcuffs.

It had become something of a De Niro trademark in movies like Taxi Driver , Raging Bull and The Untouchables to repeat dialogue over and over; here, Grodin turns that against him, as the Duke repeatedly badgers Jack with the same lines (“Why are you unpopular with the Chicago Police Department?”) to get under his skin, and hopefully distract him long enough to make escape. We’re on Jack’s side at the start, but there’s something admirable and even endearing about how easily his traveling companion learns to push his buttons. He turns this simple-seeming job – the “midnight run” promised by the title – into the road trip from Hell, thanks to the combined efforts of the Duke, Serrano, fellow skip tracer Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) and exasperated FBI man Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto at his liveliest).

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Grodin didn’t have the acclaim for his improvisatory skills the way that Robin Williams did, but Brest understood that the relationship between the two men would best be cemented through improv, and he gave Grodin frequent license to deviate from Gallo’s script. This is done to greatest comic effect when the Duke borrows the FBI badge Jack stole from Mosely to scam a grocery money out of a couple of gullible bartenders ( “Are you doing the litmus configuration?” ), but its most important use in the film comes a few scenes later, when the two men are riding the rails hobo-style:

Brest’s direction to Grodin at the top of the scene was very simple: do whatever is necessary to make De Niro laugh . And while it’s Grodin who ultimately unleashes the loudest laugh of the scene after the line about how they’d still hate each other under other circumstances, the “good-looking chickens” riff does loosen up his costar enough to make the emotional transition after possible. By this point, the men have been through an awful lot together, including several near-death experiences and a painful family reunion (we’ll get back to that), so it’s possible their brief moment of mutual vulnerability and kindness would feel earned even without the farm-animal jokes. But like so much of a movie that’s overstuffed on paper but never feels that way when you watch it, that added flourish is everything: Jack really might enjoy the Duke’s company in another life.

At a time when few believed he could be the star of a mainstream comedy, De Niro is completely comfortable in both the skin of Jack Walsh and the jokey tone of the movie. Even before his character finds the Duke, the actor is clearly having a blast playing a downtrodden wiseass with no fucks left to give, whether he’s busting the chops of bail bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) or deflecting Mosely’s queries about the Duke by asking the FBI agents about their sunglasses. (“Are they government issue, or do all you guys go, like, to the same store to get ’em?”) It’s particularly striking, and disappointing, to compare his work here to the more overt self-parody he started doing circa Analyze This and Meet the Parents . In those movies, De Niro is putting in minimal effort, assuming his mere presence is enough to sell the jokes. Here, Jack feels fully lived-in, which makes the punchlines feel richer, grounds some of the more ridiculous action set pieces (see: the helicopter chase) and makes the story feel just real enough for its outcome to matter as something more than a screenwriting exercise. If the star were coasting, the scene where a mortified Jack goes to visit his ex-wife Gail (Wendy Phillips) to borrow money wouldn’t feel quite so sad, particularly when their argument’s interrupted by the arrival of Denise (Danielle DuClos), the daughter Jack had to abandon when he wouldn’t go on Serrano’s payroll.

That scene – particularly the moment when Jack, at a loss for what to say to his not-so-little girl after all this time, asks “Are you in the eighth grade?” – is startlingly honest and raw for a movie like this. Yet it informs everything we’ve already seen and everything that’s to come. It makes us understand just how much Serrano cost him, how badly he needs redemption (even if it comes in the form of a coffee shop that would, according to the Duke, be a very bad investment) and, once Serrano’s henchmen get their hands on the Duke, how much we want to see both men get a victory over this gangster. (Even a detail so small as Jack making sure the Duke’s coat doesn’t get caught in the car door as they quietly leave Gail’s house speaks volumes about how much their relationship changes in the aftermath of this painful encounter.) And we have to believe the decision the bounty hunter makes about his ward at the movie’s end at least as much as we have to root for it.

All buddy movies are a delicate balancing act, particularly since so many of them involve “buddies” who plausibly hate each other’s guts for at least half the film. With so many action sequences, so many different forces working against Jack and so many shifts in tone from silly (the argument about who lied to who first) to deadly serious (Serrano calmly telling the Duke what he plans to do to him and his wife), the balance for Midnight Run was more delicate than most. Even when you factor in all those endlessly quotable lines (“Is this Moron Number One? Put Moron Number Two on the phone”), the murderer’s row of That Guys playing cops and hoods, Danny Elfman’s bluesy score and all the other things the movie has working in its favor, it could have all fallen apart if De Niro and Grodin didn’t click as spectacularly as they do.

Every now and then, there’s talk of a sequel. I get it. The movie was a modest hit in 1988 (and the first real commercial success for De Niro as a leading man), but it was a cable staple for years. Many screenwriters and showrunners who grew up on the film cite it as an influence. But leaving aside the usual problems associated with long-delayed sequels and the passage of time – a septuagenarian Jack who jumps into a raging river is scary in a much different way than when the middle-aged version did it – there’s the fact that every iteration has involved the character coming out of retirement to help the Duke’s son, because (among other reasons) Grodin won’t work outside the NY/NJ/CT area anymore. If he’s not part of another Midnight Run (not to be confused with Another Midnight Run , the first of three forgettable TV-movies starring Christopher McDonald as Jack), or just has a glorified cameo, what’s the point? Then it becomes another case of De Niro cashing in on a beloved role from earlier in his career, without the two combined words that made the old film so magical.

The Duke’s taunt of “See ya in the next life, Jack!” as he thinks he’s escaped his captor by train becomes first a running gag, then the movie’s emotional touchstone, as well as the last words these two unlikely allies say to each other. It’s nice to imagine them coming back together in the next life. But the journey they undertook in this one can’t be improved upon.

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Midnight run (1988).

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This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

A bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who embezzled $15 million of mob money. He is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I., and his old mob boss after jumping bail.

Martin Brest

George Gallo

Top Billed Cast

Robert De Niro

Charles Grodin

Jonathan Mardukas

Yaphet Kotto

Alonzo Mosely

John Ashton

Marvin Dorfler

Dennis Farina

Jimmy Serrano

Joe Pantoliano

Eddie Moscone

Richard Foronjy

Robert Miranda

Jerry Fleisher

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Featured Review

A review by john chard, written by john chard on january 20, 2019.

Midnight Run 1988, the benchmark for the buddy buddy road movie.

The unsung DeNiro classic. The missing 80s masterpiece as regards everything coming together, and simply the best buddy buddy movie that, to me at least, has ever hit the screen.

De Niro & Grodin, there is no other duo in the genre that bounces off each other with the 100% joyful results we get here. They define the term dynamic duo. Director Martin Brest lets his actors do their thing, it is the sort of film where the cast are just happy to be working and use their talent to the max. Be it improv or visually acting in the b... read the rest.

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Status Released

Original Language English

Budget $30,000,000.00

Revenue $38,413,606.00

• crooked lawyer
• bail jumper
• mafia accountant
• stretch limousine
• manhattan, new york city
• southwestern u.s.
• bus station
• police surveillance

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Why Midnight Run Is Robert De Niro's Best Movie

The year is 1988. Director Martin Brest is doing well, riding the attention he garnered from his previous movie, 1984's Beverly Hills Cop . His latest movie might prove to be an even greater challenge than developing Eddie Murphy's silver screen phenomenon.  Midnight Run  features Charles Grodin as an accountant, Jonathan Mardukas, on the run from the mob after jumping bail. The crime boss he used to work for, Jimmy Serrano, wants him dead for embezzling money, and the Feds want to track him down so he can testify against Serrano. 

The person charged with getting Jonathan into the Feds' hands is bounty hunter Jack Walsh, played by Robert De Niro . Given De Niro's previous roles and penchant for playing antiheroes, casting him as Walsh — a bitter but sympathetic loser — seems like a mistake. Shouldn't he be one of the gangsters hunting Mardukas?

Luckily, Brest and writer George Gallo had a plan to use the audience's preconceived notions about De Niro's type as fuel. Midnight Run  has heart and laughs, and might just be Robert De Niro's best movie. 

The obvious positive for Midnight Run

The elevator pitch for Midnight Run was probably something like, "Robert De Niro does comedy." 

It marked the first time that De Niro took center stage as a comic actor. Before this movie, he had a small but memorable scene in Terry Gilliam's Brazil  (1985). There was his turn as Rupert Pupkin in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy  (1982), a comedy so black it inspired 2019's  Joker . These roles could have prepared the moviegoing public for  Midnight Run .

De Niro played Walsh straight, which is the chief strength of his performance. In later roles, he's gone much broader with his comedic performances; just look at  The War With Grandpa  (2020) and any of the  Fockers  movies as evidence. In Midnight Run , his annoyance with Mardukas sets off comic sparks. Mardukas is alternately neurotic (he is a hunted man, after all) and touchy-feely in a way that rubs Walsh, an ex-cop turned bounty hunter, wrong. Walsh has learned that you can't have feelings if you want to get the job done; if you slip up and get emotional, you'll get hurt.

The role is an understatedly brilliant comic performance because De Niro lets everyone else push the jokes forward, affording him the freedom to react to them. 

The Big connection with Midnight Run

The film could have been far different, and far stranger, had things gone as planned.

In the late 1980s, director Steven Spielberg was preparing to work on a movie co-written by his sister Anne and Gary Ross ( Pleasantville, The Hunger Games ). Spielberg eventually dropped out, and Penny Marshall took on the project. The movie, Big , about a boy who makes a wish to be an adult that comes true overnight, was to star Tom Hanks . 

But Hanks' star was on the rise at the pre-production stage, and his schedule was full, so he was initially unable to take the role. Marshall reached out to De Niro , thinking they might alter the script to accommodate him by making the protagonist grow physically and mentally, rather than just physically as initially planned. De Niro wanted to do a commercial project and agreed to Marshall's plan, but his price tag was prohibitive. Ultimately, the production could not afford him. By that time, Hanks was again available. The rest is history. 

Still, De Niro was looking for a crowd-pleasing, commercial role, so when Midnight Run became available, he took it. Audiences got two memorable films out of this little piece of Hollywood history. Had Twentieth Century Fox not flinched at the cost of having De Niro in Big , it would have arrived in a far different form without Hanks' remarkable "boy in a man's body" performance. Likewise, De Niro would have been too busy for Midnight Run . 

Chemistry with Charles Grodin

Road movies and chase movies tend to be two-character stories. The duo gets stuck together in close quarters for the majority of a film. They will likely have diametrically opposed personalities to promote some degree of conflict. The success of such stories hinges on whether you like both characters, no matter how polarized their traits may be. 

Jack Walsh is emotionally distant, cranky, and keeping secrets, but thanks to De Niro's skill as an actor, you still like him. That leaves the harder role of the morally conflicted accountant up to Grodin. He's a bad guy, a crook whom the audience is conditioned to want to see brought to justice. 

But Walsh is conflicted as well, which is precisely what makes the movie work so well. Midnight Run is about two people who are very different but equal in one crucial way: They're paying for their terrible past decisions. By being the broader comic presence, Grodin eases De Niro into the comedy, offering him something to react to. By the last act, we root for both lead characters. The story is strong enough that, had it been a pure action flick rather than a comedy, it would remain compelling entertainment.

De Niro steers away from anger fatigue

In 1988, Robert De Niro was still a few years away from his performances in Goodfellas (1990) , Heat (1995), and Casino (1995) . He'd just portrayed Al Capone in The Untouchables earlier that year. Prior to that, there was the controversial Angel Heart (1987) , in which he played the devil;  Once Upon a Time in America (1984), in which he played a former gangster; and Raging Bull (1980), in which he played a violence-prone boxer. That's not to mention his work from the 1970s. 

In most of these movies, De Niro's characters are angry and menacing. That's a type he does very well, but one can see why he'd pursue something more commercial, more crowd-friendly, and less dark.

Midnight Run is a perfect transition for the actor. It manages to keep a foot in the crime world we've come to expect his characters to live in, but there's a lightness (literally, thanks to director Martin Brest and cinematographer Donald Thorin's brightly lit compositions) befitting a comedy, as opposed to a drama with occasional comic flourishes.   

That doesn't mean Walsh is an uncomplicated character. On the contrary, he tracks down bail-jumpers for a living out of necessity. A former policeman, he wound up on the wrong side of a corrupt force, an event that also turned his personal life upside down. There are legitimate reasons for his cynicism and emotionally closed personality, setting up the odd-couple conflicts Walsh has to work through with the slightly New-Age Mardukas.

Apart from the f-words

Midnight Run was, in its time, one of the tamest films in De Niro's filmography. That might seem surprising at first glance, given the R rating , the organized crime plot element, and the promise of gunplay. 

De Niro talks like an ex-cop from Chicago. Crime boss Serrano (Dennis Farina) likewise has a colorful way of expressing himself. At times, bullets fly and people run for their lives. These are the reasons the film got the rating it did. Yet the overall effect is strangely endearing. It could have easily been edited down to achieve a PG-13 rating, a relatively new arrival in the '80s.

The joy of the film is watching Walsh's early irritation with Mardukas slowly turn into a spiky mutual understanding. The two reach a degree of toleration, but the audience never gets the impression that these two will become bona fide friends. When this vignette of their lives is done, it's done.

But this is Hollywood, after all. While the film ends "clean," offering no clear steps toward a sequel, there were three made-for-television additions:  Another Midnight Run, Midnight Runaround, and Midnight Run for Your Life . None of these feature the first film's primary stars, and none of them offers any performance equal to De Niro's comic attempts to hide his gradually revealed vulnerability. 

Midnight Run  ushered in De Niro's turn toward likability. It marked the arrival of his career's second phase and shook away the threat of being stereotyped into irrelevance. 

An underdog movie about underdogs

Midnight Run never fails to surprise audiences who tend to forget it among De Niro's other films. 

Midnight Run debuted in 1988 as an underdog. The summer of 1988 featured blockbusters like Willow , Big, Red Heat, Crocodile Dundee II, and Rambo III . In July alone, audiences had to choose between A Fish Called Wanda , the Dirty Harry sequel The Dead Pool , and a phenomenon called Die Hard . Success was not guaranteed.

The film earned a worldwide total of $81.6 million off of a $35 million budget. It earned glowing reviews upon release and retains a  fresh certification from Rotten Tomatoes, with a very positive audience score. Roger Ebert's   review stated, "Whoever cast De Niro and Grodin must have had a sixth sense for the chemistry they would have; they work together so smoothly, and with such an evident sense of fun, that even their silences are intriguing."

The chemistry Ebert mentioned comes in part from the movie's rich character backstories, which are as mature and poignant as anything De Niro had done up to that point, even with the laughs. It's a story about two seemingly opposite men who share regret about the choices they've made. That comedy could come from such a weighty subject is a credit to all of the filmmakers involved. It's especially striking to see that De Niro had such a pivot in him. 

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Midnight Run

• A bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I., and his old mob boss after jumping bail.
• Bounty hunter Jack Walsh ( Robert De Niro ) is sent to find and return bail jumper and former Mafia accountant, Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas ( Charles Grodin ). The FBI has had no success in locating The Duke, so when Jack finds him in next to no time, they are a little embarrassed. In order to collect his $100,000 fee, Jack must take The Duke from New York to Los Angeles. However, the Mafia and the FBI have other ideas, as does Marvin Dorfler ( John Ashton ), a rival bounty hunter. On their long cross-country trip to LA, the two get to know each other and they build up a strange friendship. — Rob Hartill
• Jack Walsh ( Robert De Niro ) is a tough bounty hunter has to deliver Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas ( Charles Grodin ), who embezzled $15 million from the Mob, but the FBI is after The Duke to testify - the Mob is after him for revenge - and Walsh is after him to just shut up. Will they survive each other and all the other pursuers to a happy ending? — Benjamin Boey
• Jack Walsh is a Los Angeles based bounty hunter. It's a job he hates, he a former Chicago police officer who was, if rumors are true, run out of town by mob boss Jimmy Serrano. The reasons for his release from the force led to the dissolution of his marriage, his wife and daughter who he has not seen in nine years but who he still loves. Eddie Moscone, a bail bondsman for who Jack often works, convinces him to pick up a specific bail jumper, Jonathan Mardukas, whose whereabouts are unknown. Although Jack negotiates a lucrative contract with Eddie for this job - Eddie who will lose his business if Jonathan is not brought in within five days - Eddie believes Jonathan having been Serrano's accountant should be enough of a drawing card for Jack, Jonathan who embezzled $15 million from his mob boss. Using some contacts and a stolen ID, Jack is able to locate and capture Jonathan on the first day in New York. Out of circumstance, Jack and Jonathan are forced to travel by the proverbial planes, trains and automobiles to get back to LA as many others are also on their tail trying to get their hands on Jonathan. They include: Alonzo Mosely, an FBI agent, and his associates, who have been leading an operation against Serrano for several years; Serrano and his men who do not want to see Jonathan testify in court; and Marvin Dorfler, a rival bounty hunter who Eddie also hires just in case Jack fails, there being no love lost between Jack and Marvin. Some try to persuade Jack to give Jonathan up, using the "carrot" of more money than Eddie would be paying, while others have their own moles to be able to follow Jack and Jonathan's whereabouts as they snake west across the country. But the biggest obstacle in Jack getting Jonathan back to Los Angeles within five days may be mild mannered Jonathan himself. Beyond knowing he is an easy target for Serrano if he is in prison and thus who does whatever he can can either to persuade Jack not to turn him in or elude him, Jonathan, based on differences in personality with Jack including having a multitude of phobias, may drive Jack crazy and crazier the longer they are within each other's company. — Huggo
• A bounty hunter, Jack Walsh, is tasked with tracking down a bail jumper for a large fee. The man he is tracking is the accountant of a major mob boss, a mob boss he had a run in with when he was a policeman in Chicago. It is soon apparent that tracking down the accountant is the least of his worries: the mob and the FBI are also after him. — grantss
• Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Grodin) is an accountant who embezzled $15 million from Las Vegas gangster Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) and skipped bail. He is hiding in New York when his Los Angeles bail bondsman, Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano), hires bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro) to bring the accountant in. To get the $100,000 bounty, Jack needs to get "The Duke" back to L.A. before midnight on Friday, or Eddie forfeits the $450,000 bail and faces bankruptcy. The FBI, led by Special Agent Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto), wants Mardukas under arrest to build their case against Serrano. Alonzo warns Jack not to interfere with his plans, but Jack, under the pretense of accepting, pays no attention, and instead pinches Mosely's identification. Serrano, meanwhile, suspects that Mardukas has access to financial information that could lead to his conviction. Additionally, that information would implicate Serrano and his ties to other mobsters, which could jeopardize his life if exposed. As a result, Serrano intends to have Mardukas killed before he can testify against him in open court. After apprehending Mardukas in Manhattan, Jack is unable to take him to L.A. by plane due to Mardukas' professed fear of flying, which gets them thrown off their transcontinental flight. The pair embark on a wild cross-country chase (with Mardukas even temporarily piloting a plane, proving that his fear of flying was a ruse), relying on various unreliable modes of transportation, all the while dodging the FBI and Serrano's henchmen Tony (Richard Foronjy) and Joey (Robert Miranda). Moscone also hires rival bounty hunter Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) as insurance in case Jack is unable to deliver Mardukas, but offers him $25,000, claiming he offered the same to Walsh. Throughout their journey, Walsh and The Duke bicker constantly, due to the clash of Walsh's rough-hewn personality and Mardukas' habit of nagging. Much of the movie involves Mardukas' sincere effort to uncover the truth about his captor, a person he suspects is actually a decent man beneath his cynical and embittered exterior. He eventually learns that Jack was a former Chicago undercover detective who refused to go on the take of a heroin dealer he was building a case against. He was then drummed out of the force after being framed for heroin possession by corrupt colleagues and driven out of Chicago, his marriage ended and he became estranged from his family. His ex-wife ended up remarrying one of his colleagues, now a captain, whom Jack insinuates was one of the corrupt members of the force. Jack has not seen his daughter since she was a little girl, and has since then lost all faith in the law, explaining his profession as a bounty hunter. As the plot unfolds, it turns out that the heroin dealer responsible for Jack's framing was Jimmy Serrano himself. Jack, for his part, wants to see the job done so he can retire and open a coffee shop with his promised $100,000 bounty, aware that in doing so, he will most likely be helping Serrano avoid prison. He also has a keen sense of propriety and refuses a bribe from Mardukas, as well as a large cash offering from Serrano's camp in exchange for turning Mardukas over to them. After making it as far as Arizona, the two are chased by dozens of police cars. They narrowly dodge the police, but Mardukas is captured by Dorfler. Finally figuring out that Moscone cheated him and how much The Duke is actually worth, Dorfler decides to give him up to Tony and Joey for $1 million. However, Dorfler inadvertently reveals where he is keeping the fugitive, and is knocked unconscious. Mardukas is captured by Serrano's men, and Dorfler, defeated, decides to go home. Walsh, meanwhile, is finally found by Mosely and his men, and taken into custody. An enraged Walsh calls Moscone and furiously berates him for hiring Dorfler as insurance. Moscone, however, reveals that Dorfler is not delivering The Duke to him, and Walsh realizes that Dorfler has delivered Mardukas to Serrano. Walsh calls Serrano's men and tells them that Mardukas gave him computer disks with enough information to put Serrano away (earlier, Mardukas had informed Walsh that he intended to backup files on to disks but never did). Walsh threatens to turn the disks over to the FBI unless Serrano himself returns The Duke to him at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Walsh tells Mosely and the FBI of his plan to deliver Serrano to them (even though the disks to be used in the sting are blank, Serrano's taking possession of them would be enough to indict him for conspiring to destroy government evidence and obstruction of justice), but will only carry it out if he is allowed to return Mardukas to Moscone personally and collect his money. Mosely, since his primary target is Serrano, accepts Walsh's proposal. At the airport, Serrano and Walsh confront each other for the first time since Jack left Chicago. The exchange is interrupted by Dorfler, who sees the exchange going on, not knowing that the FBI are watching and waiting for Serrano to take possession of the disks. Jack, whose microphone wire gets knocked out by Dorfler, yells to the FBI that Serrano has the disks. The FBI move in, arresting Serrano, his men, and Dorfler. Mosely makes good on his deal with Jack, turning Mardukas over to the bounty hunter. Jack flies the Duke back to LA and calls Eddie Moscone at the airport, telling him he has Mardukas in L.A. before the deadline - but he is letting him go, hanging up on a ranting Moscone. Before Jack can leave, they exchange gifts - Jack hands The Duke his broken watch, and Mardukas hands Jack a money belt he had hidden on his person throughout the film, filled with $300,000 in $1,000 bills: he was planning on leaving before Jack showed up, so he didn't have time to use the money. The two part as friends. Mardukas then disappears, and Jack tries to get a cab. However, since the driver doesn't have change for a thousand dollar bill, he zips up his leather jacket and pulls up his collar, preparing to walk home.

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‘Midnight Run’ (1988) propelled by De Niro, Grodin

“Midnight Run” (1988) is a classic not-too-serious road actioner featuring tough guys and tough talk. You can watch it without feeling queasy aftereffects, despite its plethora of swearing (Joe Pantoliano’s bond agent Eddie complains that he’s been told to go f*** himself twice in one day) and violence (Charles Grodin’s Jon gets knocked out a dangerous number of times).

Everything about the movie is formulaic and obvious, but that doesn’t work against the fact that this is a touching story of an odd-couple friendship.

Consistent laughs

And it’s consistently hilarious. Written by George Gallo ( “Bad Boys” ) and directed by Martin Brest (“Beverly Hills Cop”), “Midnight Run” is packed with great dialog without trying too hard with set-ups or set pieces.

The chemistry between Grodin’s white-collar criminal Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas and Robert De Niro’s ex-cop bounty hunter Jack Walsh never stops being funny. They are both straight men to the unusual nature of their relationship – forced together only for the sake of cross-country transportation as Jack aims to deliver The Duke to Eddie.

Both actors crisply draw their characters. Grodin is good at scrunchy facial expressions as the former mob accountant aims to work through the psychology of Jack’s focus on the payout rather than moral rightness.

De Niro nicely plays off of his partner, something he’d forget how to do with Sean Penn in David Mamet’s “We’re No Angels” (1989), where he almost literally mugs for the camera. Jack is tough but human, not a parody.

We quickly figure out the formula of Jack being annoyed by Jon, and the mildly agoraphobic Jon being alarmed by the next step in their journey (he fears flying, for instance). But that only makes us happily anticipate their next exchange. Indeed, when they’re traveling on a freight train like hobos toward the end of this exhausting cross-country trek, Jon mimics both sides of their now predictable conversation roles, as Jack has decided he’s done talking.

Fun with cop, crime stereotypes

The similarly great, similarly plotted “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” came out the previous year. But there are enough differences that this feels fresh; for one, “Midnight Run” is in the cops-and-crime genre, from where it draws its humorously stereotypical supporting characters.

Big man Yaphet Kotto ( “Alien” ) is the FBI’s Mosely, whose “one-liners” sometimes consist of staring down underlings who make dumb comments. Dennis Farina positions his a**h*** meter at an 8 out of 10 to play mob boss Serrano, who tells his henchmen the specific ways in which he’ll kill them if they fail.

The aforementioned Joey Pants’ Eddie works the phone from his sloppy bond office. Eddie’s only weapons for urging Jack back to the L.A. office are 1, harsh language (but Jack is his match), and 2, second-rate bounty hunter Dorfler (“Beverly Hills Cop’s” John Ashton).

High points for Gallo, Brest

Gallo’s dialog sings as everyone tries to get their hands on The Duke, who had Robin-Hood-ed money from Serrano. But it’s not all that quotable of a movie, because the conversations flow with Mametian smoothness rather than being capped by zingers. Still, scene-ending smash cuts after a biting line often make things funnier.

Among the writer’s work, “Bad Boys” is more celebrated (in part because it’s a franchise), but its screenplay isn’t as nearly good as “Midnight Run’s.” (Weirdly, the latter is actually a franchise too, but the three 1994 made-for-TV sequels – featuring Jack and other supporting players, but no returning actors — are not well known or regarded.)

It’s also Brest’s shining moment, even though “Beverly Hills Cop” is more popular.

“Midnight Run” falls a tad short of full marks. Its action and fights are not spectacular. When someone delivers a knockout punch, it looks fake. A police car chase through the desert is more absurdly funny than tense, because it’s not necessary for the cops to go all-out like they do. Other travelogue films have more striking senses of place. And the film is a little long for having such a spelled-out plot.

But little flaws don’t matter in “Midnight Run,” where De Niro, Grodin and the ride are so much fun.

Midnight Run Review

01 Jan 1988

126 minutes

Midnight Run

In this fast-paced action-comedy, bounty hunter Robert De Niro and bounty Charles Grodin generate sparkling chemistry while on the run from the usual array of mobsters, FBI agents and competing bounty hunters.

Grodin is especially good, whinging on about smoking while taking an indignant moral high ground -a kind of latter-day Robin Hood.

Director Martin Brest comfortably folds in the standard car chases and shoot-outs with deliciously handled comedy that oozes with quick-fired wit.

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MOVIE REVIEW : Murderous Fun in the ‘Midnight Run’

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Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, stars of the expert, sometimes murderously funny chase comedy “Midnight Run” (citywide), aren’t the kind of actors you’d normally expect to see together. De Niro has a genius for full-blooded psychology and emotionalism; Grodin is a comic specialist in white-collar neurotics who tends to dance over his material lightly, ironically.

But in movies, as in life, opposites sometimes attract. In “Midnight Run,” De Niro and Grodin play characters as antagonistic as their acting styles: a kind of crime movie Odd Couple, a Laurel and Hardy on the run.

They’re cast as hard-case bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro) and soft-shelled embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Grodin), whom Walsh is bringing back to a sleazy, double-dealing Los Angeles bail bondsman, against almost Sisyphean odds.

Most of “Midnight Run” is set on a wild cross-country chase from New York to Los Angeles, with tough Walsh and beleaguered Mardukas trying to elude both the Mafia and the FBI--and, in the midst of chaos and jeopardy, learning to respect and even love each other.

It’s not a very original idea or a very inventive screenplay: one more buddy-buddy crime comedy, with a tightly suppressed homo-erotic undercurrent, loaded with car crashes, gunfights and exploding helicopters.

But who said movies always have to be original? This one is redeemed by execution and brilliant talent: De Niro, Grodin, director Martin Brest, composer Danny Elfman, most of the cast and technicians. It’s one case where the flaws of the script--Walsh’s incredibly rapid location of a man on the lam from both the mob and the government, the relative absence of women, the tight but predictable form--don’t really matter. There’s some soul behind the explosions, a heartbeat below the slick carnage.

In the film, Walsh and Mardukas, hunter and hunted, almost seem to be inhabiting separate planets--this charmingly naive accountant who embezzled millions of dollars from the mob and donated most of it to charity, and the embittered ex-cop, who initially despises him.

Walsh and Mardukas seem unlike in almost every possible way: street-wise versus college-smooth, rough versus genteel, junk food and cigarettes versus health food, loner versus family man. Walsh is stoical, the Duke a kvetch. Walsh is lean, mean, lower middle class; the Duke a bourgeois with smooth-skinned ideals and baby-fat rhetoric.

Brest and screenwriter George Gallo--who also wrote Brian De Palma’s nightmare Mafioso comedy “Wise Guys”--give these two a unifying trait and grudge. They’re both idealists, and both have been wronged by Mafia boss Jimmy Serrano, symbol of society’s corrupt center. That idealism draws them together. The movie is really about two inwardly cockeyed Galahads united against a stupidly violent world, riddled with greed, mendacity and hypocrisy.

Still, it’s essentially a comic vision. There’s one solidly evil character: Serrano, an ice-cold killer of a Mafia boss, whom ex-Chicago cop Dennis Farina plays with a frighteningly convincing brutality. Everyone else--except FBI agent Yaphet Kotto--is played largely for laughs. They’re mostly clowns, Damon Runyonesque oddballs: the sleazy bail bondsman (Joe Pantoliano) and his treacherous clerk, Serrano’s wheedling shyster (Philip Baker Hall) and two clumsy near-moronic hit men (Richard Foronjy and Robert Miranda).

Brest’s touch with “Beverly Hills Cop” humanized it; he got those idiosyncratic, offbeat little moments that can make a movie pop to life. The great scenes in “Midnight Run” aren’t gunfights or crashes, but moments of interplay or connection between the leads.

There isn’t a single performance in “Midnight Run” that doesn’t have a pulse, that doesn’t show the actors at their best or near-best, especially De Niro.

When all good actors die and go to heaven, do they get to be Robert De Niro? In the last decade he’s become a real symbol of excellence, somewhat as Brando was in his day, or Spencer Tracy in his. And De Niro deserves it; he’s a genius at specifics.

Here he has the jaded wariness and quick reflexes of an ex-cop, the swallowed pain of a longtime divorcee: He lets you feel everything as he runs a counterpoint between Walsh’s brusque exterior and his softer innards.

If “Midnight Run” (MPAA-rated R for language and violence) doesn’t really offer De Niro a great role, it does give him a great star showcase. And if Brest’s direction doesn’t seem to have advanced far enough past “B. H. Cop,” it’s still good to see his special balance of nimble wit, humanity and excitement back on the screen--and to see an action movie where the people clash and crash more memorably than the cars.

‘MIDNIGHT RUN’

A Universal Pictures release. Producer-director Martin Brest. Script George Gallo. Executive producer William S. Gilmore. Camera Donald Thorin. Editors Billy Weber, Chris Lebenzon, Michael Tronick. Music Danny Elfman. Production design Angelo Graham. With Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Philip Baker Hall, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano.

Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian).

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Midnight Run Reviews

Never has a movie belonged so wholly to its stars.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 7, 2023

An extremely satisfying action-comedy, and one that still hasn’t fully received its due.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 31, 2023

They are a funny pair who have to look over their shoulders for the shadowy people who have a piece at stake. It is less of a run and more of a duck-and-cover from all the bullets being fired.

Full Review | Feb 14, 2023

The film is packed with impressive action scenes but is carried by the odd couple humor and comic chemistry between [Robert] De Niro, playing his first comedy role in a major Hollywood film... and [Charles] Grodin at his low-key best ...

Full Review | Feb 4, 2023

It's trite to say "they don't make 'em like this anymore," but listen, studios really don't make movies like Midnight Run anymore.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2021

There's a certain blue-collar demographic pocket in America where "Midnight Run" will live on forever. I still hear manly guys quoting it 30 years later. You wanna die laughing? Here's your chance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 17, 2020

The comic chemistry between Grodin and De Niro is of a rare, and relentlessly funny calibre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 13, 2020

...as funny as it is exciting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 14, 2020

This could have been engaging fluff except De Niro's acting has grown as heavy as Jake La Motta.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2020

Midnight Run is a witty, low-key comedy with the accent on character. Individually, De Niro and Grodin are brilliant; together, they are hilarious.

Full Review | Oct 30, 2019

What makes Midnight Run so remarkable are its principals, and the supporting cast that keep the audience titillated, laughing and excited for the film's entire 128 minute-running time.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2016

The interplay between the two leads is pure gold.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 27, 2015

Who said movies always have to be original? This one is redeemed by execution and brilliant talent: De Niro, Grodin, director Martin Brest, composer Danny Elfman, most of the cast and technicians.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2013

A thoroughly engaging action film, Midnight Run boasts a superb cast that transforms its rather mundane story line into something memorable, funny, and moving.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 30, 2013

Wonder why De Niro doesn't do comedy this good any more.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 30, 2013

A performance like De Niro's, in a well-made entertainment like Midnight Run, is cheap at any price. And capable of restoring the audience's faith in the form.

Midnight Run is an inside-out, upside-down buddy film and comedic cross- country caper. It also is the entertaining excuse for Robert De Niro, the Method actor of his generation, to cut loose and play things light for a change.

As with all the best road movies -- and this is one of the best -- the picture really moves, as a simple air trip from New York to LA turns into a saga of trains and automobiles, car crashes, and skirmishes with the FBI and [other] interested parties.

De Niro is nervily hilarious and Grodin nervelessly exceptional in Midnight Run, a formula buddy movie exalted to insta-classic status by their performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 30, 2013

De Niro is probably the most intense and idiosyncratic actor of his generation; Midnight Run may be the most conventional movie I've ever seen.

MPAA Rating

Produced by, released by, midnight run (1988), directed by martin brest.

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

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REVIEW/FILM

REVIEW/FILM; DE NIRO AND GRODIN IN CROSS-COUNTRY CHASE

By Vincent Canby

• July 20, 1988

For Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro), who looks and talks like a mug but is an ex-Chicago cop turned into modern-day bounty hunter, the assignment is an easy way to make $100,000: find Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin), a mild-mannered certified public accountant, and return him to Los Angeles.

Jonathan Mardukas made a name for himself by stealing $15 million from his firm when he learned that it was mob-operated. Jonathan is a save-the-whales sort of fellow. He doesn't smoke or drink and sticks to a low-cholesterol diet. He gave most of his loot to charity and then promptly disappeared.

Jack's employer is the bondsman who stands to forfeit the half million he put up as bail for the accountant.

In fact, Jack finds Jonathan in Manhattan within the first 15 or so minutes of ''Midnight Run.'' That part of it is a snap. There are difficulties, however, in getting the man back to the West Coast before the forfeit deadline. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, bumbling but persistent, want to make the metaphoric kill themselves. The mob wants Jonathan physically dead.

Their journey from New York to Los Angeles involves jumbo jets, biplanes, Amtrak, freight trains, buses, swimming, walking, helicopters and automobiles, borrowed and stolen.

This is the perfectly serviceable premise of ''Midnight Run,'' which might have remained a perfectly forgettable action-comedy if somebody hadn't had the inspiration to cast Mr. De Niro and Mr. Grodin in the leading roles.

''Midnight Run'' wastes more talent and money than most movies ever hope to see. The surprise is that there is still plenty of both left on the screen. The movie was directed by Martin Brest (''Beverly Hills Cop'' and its sequel) and written by George Gallo. They must be the luckiest manufacturers of sows' ears in Hollywood.

''Midnight Run,'' which opens today at the National and other theaters, isn't exactly a silk purse, but it contains two performances that are pure gold.

Like most fine actors, Mr. De Niro has never given a good performance that wasn't in some way illuminated by humor, which is not to be confused with laughs. Sometimes it is apparent in what appears to be the self-awareness of the character, as in ''Raging Bull'' and ''The Untouchables.'' Sometimes it can be seen in the actor's awareness of - and comment on - the character, as in ''Taxi Driver'' and ''King of Comedy.''

The fact that humor has always been an aspect of Mr. De Niro's intelligence as an actor should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers him in Brian De Palma's ''Greetings'' and ''Hi, Mom,'' two sublimely funny underground artifacts of the late 1960's. Now, with ''Midnight Run,'' he has the opportunity to be blatantly funny in a big, expensive, groaningly elaborate Hollywood formula comedy.

He brings to Jack Walsh's double takes, slow burns, furtive smiles and expressions of mock surprise the same degree of intensity with which he played Jake LaMotta in ''Raging Bull'' and Travis Bickle in ''Taxi Driver.'' Yet he's no Metropolitan Opera star trying to squeeze his tenor voice into the latest Michael Jackson hit. The laughter he prompts is big, open and genuine.

Mr. Grodin is an ideal almost-straight man. His Jonathan Mardukas is Jack Walsh's opposite. He is seemingly cool, utterly sane, an obviously caring individual, but he's also a guy who can ask Jack Walsh, as they are huddling in a freight car heading toward Los Angeles, ''Have you ever had sex with an animal?''

Mr. De Niro and Mr. Grodin are lunatic delights, which is somewhat more than can be said for the movie, whose mechanics keep getting in the way of the performances.

That's not being entirely fair. Mr. Gallo has written some funny lines, and Mr. Brest has made sure the movie was photographed in a way to tell a coherent story.

Throughout ''Midnight Run,'' however, the splashy obligations of the conventional, big-budget action-comedy frequently slow things down to a near halt. There are so many autombiles, trains and airplanes that the movie seems to be less about people than about vehicles, which are clearly driven or piloted by others.

Then, just when it seems that the movie is hopelessly lost to the stunt men and second-unit people and when you're convinced that almost any 10 actors in Hollywood could be doing this, Mr. De Niro and Mr. Grodin reappear to give the comedy their own very humane comic dimension.

The members of the supporting cast also do their share of revivifying work, particularly Dennis Farina as the mob boss and Joe Pantoliano as the bondsman.

Great pains went into the physical production. The movie, which is one long cross-country chase from New York to California, was filmed mostly on what are called ''actual locations,'' as well as on one stream in New Zealand. This stands in for some swirling rapids in the American West. Make-believe doesn't come cheap these days. Luckiest Makers Of De Niro and Grodin And a Sows' Ears MIDNIGHT RUN, directed and produced by Martin Brest; written by George Gallo; director of photography, Donald Thorin; edited by Billy Weber, Chris Lebenzon and Michael Tronick; music by Danny Elfman; production designer, Angelo Graham; released by Universal Pictures. At the National, Broadway at 44th Street; the Manhattan Twin, 59th Street east of Third Avenue, and other theaters. Running time: 128 minutes. This film is rated R. Jack Walsh...Robert De Niro Jonathan Mardukas...Charles Grodin Alonzo Mosely...Yaphet Kotto Marvin Dorfler...John Ashton Jimmy Serrano...Dennis Farina Eddie Moscone...Joe Pantoliano

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Midsummer Night’ On Netflix, Where A Family Deals With Its Secrets On The Longest Day Of The Year

Where to Stream:

• Midsummer Night

Stream It or Skip It: ‘Yoh! Christmas’ on Netflix, A Successful South African Remake of a Hit Norwegian Holiday Series

Stream it or skip it: ‘christmas as usual’ on netflix, in which indian and norwegian cultures clash during christmastime, stream it or skip it: ‘a not so royal christmas’ on hallmark, in which a case of mistaken identity has royal consequences, stream it or skip it: ‘my norwegian holiday’ on hallmark, where a troll figurine spurs a european adventure… and love.

Sometimes when we’re watching a show, we think that it would work better if they cut the number of characters by at least a third. Sometimes there are just too many people and too many stories to give enough time and care to. A new drama from Norway has this issue, but it’s still worth watching because of its central couple and the news that will make everyone rethink their relationships.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: At a house on a lake, a large family is playing games on the front lawn.

The Gist: People are spinning with their heads on bottles and then stagger-running back to the starting line. There’s a tug of war. Seems like a lot of family togetherness. But all the while, Johannes (Dennis Storhøi) wonders when his wife Carina (Pernilla August) is going to break her news to everyone.

Two weeks earlier, as Johannes builds what will be the bonfire he burns during Midsummer, the Scandinavian celebration of the longest day of the year, Carina decides that she’ll break her news to everyone on Midsummer Night, when everyone is having fun and celebrating the holiday. She also wants a Swedish Midsummer celebration, which is more fun and silly than how its celebrated where they’re living in Norway.

When the day comes, Carina is making her traditional strawberry cake, and Johannes is setting up with his and Carina’s youngest daughter Helena (Sofia Tjelta). The first to show up is Petronella (Maria Agwumaro), Johannes’ daughter and Helena’s half-sister. Carina and Johannes’ older daughter Hanne (Amalia Holm) shows up with her fiancé Darius (Peiman Azizpour). Darius’ parents Jannike (Linn Skåber) and Tabur (Kadir Talabani) then show up, with Darius’ brother Robert (Eirik Hallert), who at one time dated Helena.

The whole time, Carina is wondering where her brother Håkan (Christopher Wollter) is. He arrives on a boat, with the much younger Sara (Fanny Klefelt) on board.

Johannes wonders if Carina is still going to tell them her news, which is when we flash back 7 weeks to Carina struggling to swim and admitting to a friend that she’s having cognitive issues, feeling like she needs to relearn things she once knew how to do.

Back on the lake, everyone is having a good time at lunch, when Hanne notices two empty chairs. That’s when Elin (Liv Bernhoft Osa) and her son Lysander (Kim Falck), Hanne’s ex, show up. Hanne tells Carina how messed up that was, and Carina she made a mistake given everything that’s on her mind lately, but won’t elaborate further.

This is when we go back a month. Carina may or may not have a cognitive issue, but she knows she feels like she’s “withering away.” She wants to experience more in her life, but she knows that she can’t do it with Johannes, who seems to be, in her words, “done.” It’s not that she doesn’t love him or the life they built, be she asks him for a divorce so he doesn’t stand in her way.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? While Midsummer Night takes place over one day, the complicated family secrets aspect of the show remind us of shows like Brothers & Sisters and Parenthood .

Our Take: Per-Olav Sørensen, the creator of Midsummer Night , throws a lot at us in the limited series’ first half-hour. We’ve got the central couple, Carina and Johannes, who have been married for what seems like around forty years. They have two adult daughters, but it seems that Johannes has had a daughter with someone else at some point during those 40 years, one who is part of the family but not really. There are complications with both daughters, Hanne and Helena. Carina’s brother Håkan likes dating women half his age.

But at the center of all of this is Carina’s dissatisfaction with her life as she goes through her sixties and how she wants to blow up her life in order to get the most out of the time she has left. When she announces her news, it’s going to set a lot of things in motion that are likely to upend the lives of the rest of the family, as well.

Carina’s issues are presented in a bit of a confusing manner. It’s not the flashback device that bugged us, it’s the fact that she at first alluded to some sort of cognitive decline, but then she just says she wants a divorce in order to live her life how she wants. So, was the cognitive decline she talked about real or just her being scared about how settled her life is? Maybe it’s a little of both. We’re not quite sure yet. More flashbacks are likely necessary to flesh this out.

But we’re going to need flashbacks to figure out Johannes’ relationship with Petronella and how that affected things with Carina. We’re going to need to see Hanne with Lysander to see exactly how their marriage broke down and why Carina maintained a relationship with him after their divorce.

It’s a lot to keep track of. And we wonder if all of the stories are going to get the time they need to be properly told. But the family celebrating at that beautiful lakefront house is a pleasant one to be around, so that helps. We’re okay to hang in there and see if these myriad stories get sorted out because of it.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Helena asks Carina what the “secret” her and Johannes have, but Carina won’t say yet. Johannes looks at his wife and wonders when she’s going to give the news.

Sleeper Star: Amalia Holm’s character Hanne has a lot to deal with, given that her ex and former mother-in-law are at this party and she has no idea why. We’ll see how she handles it.

Most Pilot-y Line: As soon as Håkan said he didn’t want to have kids, you knew that Sara would walk into a bathroom and pull out a pregnancy test. That may be one of the more predictable storylines on this series.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Midsummer Night may have a few too many stories to service in five short episodes, but the family at the show’s center is one we want to spend time with, which helps a lot.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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