Midnight Run starts in Los Angeles where ex-Chicago cop Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) works as a bounty hunter looking for & capturing criminals who have jumped bail & then collect the reward from bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano), Jack doesn't like it but it's a living. Eddie ask's Jack to find ex-accountant Jonathan 'the Duke' Mardukas (Charles Grodin) who stole fifteen million dollars from a Las Vegas mobster named Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) & has run out on Eddie owing him $450,000 in bail money. Eddie needs the Duke back within five days, Jack accepts the job & finds the Duke in New York but getting him back to Los Angeles turns out to more difficult than Jack had thought with the FBI, gangsters & rival bounty hunters on their tails...
Produced & directed by Martin Brest (who also has a small cameo in the film as the Airline ticket clerk at Las Vegas) I notice that Midnight Run seems to be a very popular film which I can't relate to at all, in fact I think it's average at best & boring rubbish at worst. The script by George Gallo takes the buddy buddy mismatched partners thrown into some comedy crime caper action thriller template & turns it into a staggeringly uneventful two hours. I am sorry but to me the vast majority of Midnight Run is just bland chit chat between Walsh & the Duke as lots of other interested parties chase them across America. A lot of films use the whole mismatched partner thing & use it to create tensions, be it racial tension as in Lethal Weapon (1987) or class tension as in Tango & Cash (1989) & here in Midnight Run it's the whole criminal vs lawman type tensions. The action scenes are poor & don't live too long in the memory. The script also likes to throw in profanity at every opportunity just for the hell of it, it seems almost every second word is a swear word & while I have nothing against profanity the sheer amount of it in Midnight Run smacks of swearing for swearing's sake. The character's are also poor, we hardly ever find anything out about the Duke, Walsh comes across better but then it's clichés all the way with the typical Las Vegas mobster, the FBI man who Walsh manages to stay one step ahead of all the time & the rival bounty hunter who just can't quite get the better of Walsh. With lots of people chasing around after each I was expecting some sort of huge climax but even that is low key & forgettable. Also I thought Walsh tracked the Duke down rather easily, I mean the FBI couldn't find him, Las Vegas gangsters couldn't find him but little old Jack Walsh could. In the space of a single day too.
Director Brest was obviously hired by Paramount to make another comedy action thriller in the vein of his previous film Beverly Hills Cop (1984), which coincidentally also contains a foul mouthed cop character, & wanted to cast Cher as Mardukas, & then Robin Williams but Brest hired Grodin against the studios wishes & Paramount dropped the film with Universal then stepping in to take over production. Apparently Bruce Willis was considered for the Mardukas role but was turned down & as such he went on to make Die Hard (1988), both films opened on the same weekend & it's fair to say Willis would have the last laugh. The action scenes really are forgettable, there's a crashing helicopter, an average car chase & that's it.
With a supposed budget of about $30,000,000 Midnight Run is well made for what it is but most of it is rather talky for my tastes. The acting is alright, De Niro is just a fine actor anyway but I thought Grodin was poor & uncharismatic.
Midnight Run is an average buddy buddy mismatched partner type comedy crime caper, I can't say I hated it but I can't say I loved it either. Followed by three made-for-telly sequels, Another Midnight Run (1994), Midnight Runaround (1994) & Midnight Run for Your Life (1994).
Produced & directed by Martin Brest (who also has a small cameo in the film as the Airline ticket clerk at Las Vegas) I notice that Midnight Run seems to be a very popular film which I can't relate to at all, in fact I think it's average at best & boring rubbish at worst. The script by George Gallo takes the buddy buddy mismatched partners thrown into some comedy crime caper action thriller template & turns it into a staggeringly uneventful two hours. I am sorry but to me the vast majority of Midnight Run is just bland chit chat between Walsh & the Duke as lots of other interested parties chase them across America. A lot of films use the whole mismatched partner thing & use it to create tensions, be it racial tension as in Lethal Weapon (1987) or class tension as in Tango & Cash (1989) & here in Midnight Run it's the whole criminal vs lawman type tensions. The action scenes are poor & don't live too long in the memory. The script also likes to throw in profanity at every opportunity just for the hell of it, it seems almost every second word is a swear word & while I have nothing against profanity the sheer amount of it in Midnight Run smacks of swearing for swearing's sake. The character's are also poor, we hardly ever find anything out about the Duke, Walsh comes across better but then it's clichés all the way with the typical Las Vegas mobster, the FBI man who Walsh manages to stay one step ahead of all the time & the rival bounty hunter who just can't quite get the better of Walsh. With lots of people chasing around after each I was expecting some sort of huge climax but even that is low key & forgettable. Also I thought Walsh tracked the Duke down rather easily, I mean the FBI couldn't find him, Las Vegas gangsters couldn't find him but little old Jack Walsh could. In the space of a single day too.
Director Brest was obviously hired by Paramount to make another comedy action thriller in the vein of his previous film Beverly Hills Cop (1984), which coincidentally also contains a foul mouthed cop character, & wanted to cast Cher as Mardukas, & then Robin Williams but Brest hired Grodin against the studios wishes & Paramount dropped the film with Universal then stepping in to take over production. Apparently Bruce Willis was considered for the Mardukas role but was turned down & as such he went on to make Die Hard (1988), both films opened on the same weekend & it's fair to say Willis would have the last laugh. The action scenes really are forgettable, there's a crashing helicopter, an average car chase & that's it.
With a supposed budget of about $30,000,000 Midnight Run is well made for what it is but most of it is rather talky for my tastes. The acting is alright, De Niro is just a fine actor anyway but I thought Grodin was poor & uncharismatic.
Midnight Run is an average buddy buddy mismatched partner type comedy crime caper, I can't say I hated it but I can't say I loved it either. Followed by three made-for-telly sequels, Another Midnight Run (1994), Midnight Runaround (1994) & Midnight Run for Your Life (1994).