A Great Run
- Review By:
- tpb
- Date:
- January 3, 2009
- Movie:
- Midnight Run
- Director:
- Martin Brest
- Released:
- 1988
- Good Guy:
- Jack Walsh
- Played By:
- Robert De Niro
- Bad Guy:
- Jimmy Serano
- Played By:
- Dennis Farina
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Not for kids
Midnight Run is a perfectly crafted, hilarious, suspenseful, peerless keeper of an action/adventure, comedy, buddy movie with a star-studded, ensemble cast. Robert De Niro stars as the incorruptable yet flawed loner Jack Walsh, a beaten down ex-cop who is trying to eke out a living as a bounty hunter. He is handed what he thinks will be his last assignment: bringing in bail jumper Jonathan Mardukis (Charles Grodin), an accountant who was arrested and charged with stealing 15 million dollars from the Mob, ruthlessly ruled by Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina). If there was room for an additional Good Guy listing within this review, Charles Grodin's Jonathan Mardukis would be it. DeNiro and Grodin make a good team and become, ultimately, good friends as they outwit the Mob, the FBI, the local police, rival bounty hunters, co-worker snitches, and double-crossing bosses. They look out for, and simultaneously thwart, each other as they make their way across the country from New York to Los Angeles on planes, trains, and automobiles. The chemistry between this odd couple thrown together by unusual and intense circumstance is superb. The actors look like they are thoroughly enjoying themselves too as evidenced by a bus scene where Mardukis is trying to get Walsh to put out his cigarettte. DeNiro looks like he struggled - and failed - to keep a straight face as Grodin chides and nags him until Walsh finally gives in. It's a nice touch. And it's just one of the many subtle moments that add up to a fun, deadline-driven ride across the country.
Midnight Run is not just DeNiro and Grodin's movie though. The many secondary characters who are searching for, and bumbling across the country in pursuit of the two heroes are superbly cast and masterfully portrayed. There is Joe Pantoliano as Eddie Moscone, Walsh's boss who sabotages his own project because he can't keep his loyalties straight; John Ashton as Moscone's backup bounty hunter Marvin Dorfler, who is so dumb he falls for the “look out behind you!” trick every time but one – the one time it wasn't a ruse, of course; Jack Kehoe as Jerry Giesler who works for Moscone, who repeatedly slips out of the office on the pretense of buying donuts to call the Mob with up-to-the-minute information on the whereabouts of Walsh and Mardukis; Yaphet Kotto as FBI chief Alonzo Mosely whose identity Jack Walsh steals, and who exclaims loudly and sharply in frustration to a train car porter “I'm Mosely!!” when the porter, answering questions about Walsh, proudly and conspiratorially declares “His real name is Mosely”; Richard Foronjy and Robert Miranda as Tony and Joey, the two moronic and incompetent mobsters in charge of capturing and bringing Mardukis back to Serano; and the many colorful characters whose paths intersect with the heroes throughout their adventures including Red Wood the bar owner who falls for the “litmus configuration” test; the bug-eyed waitress who offers the chorizo and eggs breakfast special; the bus ticket clerk who bonds with Mardukis as they cluck in disapproval at Walsh as he tries to purchase tickets with a canceled credit card; Walsh's wife, his daughter, the Native Americans with the prop plane, the FBI sycophants, the counter man who lights a dejected Walsh's cigarette; and the soundtrack - a beautiful, spare, and moving character itself... they all contribute to making Midnight Run a movie to watch over and over and to quote repeatedly (“I've got two words for you: Shut the **** up!”)
- Comment from:
- 011235813
- Date:
- February 3, 2009
"You two are the dumbest bounty hunters I have ever seen! You couldn't even deliver a bottle of milk!" 'nuff said.
I'd still like to know where those FBI guys get their sun glasses!