For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Road Trip Movies, here’s a review of Midnight Run (1988) by me.
Thanks again to Simon of Moustache Movie News for choosing this month’s genre.
Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Michael Eddy and it is Hitchcockian Films.
Hitchcock films by the master himself and the best “Hitchcock films” not directed by Hitchcock.
Please get me your submissions by the 25th of January by sending them to hitchcockianmike@movierob.net
Try to think out of the box! Great choice Mike!
Let’s see what I thought of this movie:
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“You’re OK, Jack. I think… under different circumstances you and I probably still would have hated each other! ” – Jonathan Mardukas
Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (video in ’88, cable, video, 14 Oct 1992, DVD, 25 Jan 2015 and 26 Dec 2017)
Link to original review – Here
Brief Synopsis – A bounty hunter must get a wanted criminal from New York to LA in order to collect his bounty while being pursued by gangsters, the FBI and even other Bounty Hunters.
My Take on it – This is such an amazing film mainly due to its writing.
The story itself is a great road trip movie between two characters who don’t really want to be traveling together but circumstances have forced them to do so.
The script itself gets the balance between comedy and drama perfect and even throws in a few very touching scenes between these characters.
Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin are both perfectly cast here and they play off one another nearly perfectly in every scene.
Their banter and arguments are so much fun to watch and at the same time, we learn so much about their lives because they slowly reveal their past histories and what brought them to the point that we meet them.
The music of this film is superbly written by Danny Elfman and I still am humming the tune even almost a week after having seen this film.
The score is fun to listen to and even allows the viewer to feel even more relaxed as things move along at a great and fun pace.
If you’ve never seen this film, you really need to check it out!
Bottom Line – Amazing film because it is written so well. The script is both poignant and funny and knows how to balance it perfectly. De Niro and Grodin are perfect together because they play off each other so well and it seems as if they have a great time together despite their characters animosity towards one another. The music helps keep things paced really well and allows the viewer to relax while everything is going on. They do a great job of developing the characters solely through the amazing dialogue because even when the characters are arguing with one another, we learn so much about their histories and what got them to this point. Highly Recommended!
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The idea to have Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) continually checking his watch, and the whole back-story related to his habit, was all De Niro’s own idea. (From IMDB)
Rating – Oscar Worthy (no change from original review)
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MovieRob 
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I love this movie and have seen it a LOT (maybe not as much as Rob – but a lot). The first time I saw it was when it was originally released – in a movie theater – and the last time was in a movie theater as well – when I took my kids to see it at a special screening followed by a Q&A afterwards with one of it’s stars – Charles Grodin. He was terrific – telling a number of stories about his career and this movie specifically. He was about to go out on a book tour and asked to borrow my youngest daughter – to pose as his grand-daughter on the tour. He was joking – but my daughter was game.
One bit of trivia – which I heard while I was living out in LA when the movie was being made – was that the original casting had a woman playing the Grodin role as the mob book-keeper who throws a monkey wrench into their ill-gotten gains – Cher. I don’t remember why it changed – but it endeed up with Grodin landing one of the best roles of his career.
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