#91: Midnight Run
Release Date: July 22nd, 1988
Format: Streaming (Netflix)
Written by: George Gallo
Directed by: Martin Brest
4 Stars
Director Martin Brest, fresh off Beverly Hills Cop (a smash hit), developed Midnight Run with writer George Gallo, who had previously written his big screen debut for Brian De Palma’s Wise Guys (a flop).
The pair ultimately chose to stay in the same genre lane with Midnight Run (action/buddy-comedy), and while it wasn’t the box office juggernaut that Beverly Hills Cop was, it made a tidy profit for Universal (it’s also a better movie that Beverly Hills Cop).
Given the film’s ingredients, it’s curious to consider all the different ways Midnight Run could have manifested itself on-screen. It’s like a cocktail in that way. I’ll explain.
Now there are thousands of different cocktails in existence, but they can all be categorized into roughly a couple dozen different families of drinks, depending on the ingredients. Take, for example, a margarita. A margarita fits into the “sour” style of cocktail, which also includes drinks like the whiskey sour, the daiquiri, and the mojito. A sour-style cocktail comprises a base spirit, citrus juice(s), a sweetener of some sort, and the option of bitters and an egg white. Factoring in drinkware, garnish, and ice, you can begin to understand why there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sour-style cocktails in existence.
Reading about the pre-production of Midnight Run, it also seems as if it could have gone in a thousand different directions. For the film’s base spirit, Brest ultimately chose Robert De Niro, who wanted to try his hand at mainstream comedy. It was a bold choice for both men. In 1988, Robert De Niro is still Robert De Niro: Greatest Actor of his Generation. It’s for this reason that I think Midnight Run is an important movie in his filmography. It showed audiences at the time that De Niro could exist in a “regular” movie. As great as Midnight Run is, there is no mistaking it for high art. This isn’t De Niro baring his soul for Coppola or Scorsese or Cimino for more gold statues. This is him working in a crowd-pleasing genre flick with no award ambitions, and he’s great in it.
For Midnight Run’s citrus component, we have Charles Grodin. He’s the perfect sour for this sour-style cocktail. I made it perfectly clear in my review of Clifford (#38) that I love Charles Grodin. There are few people that are as amusing to me as he is. He’s wonderful here as the foil to Jack in his role as Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukis. I really enjoy just how completely unintimidated and unbothered The Duke is by Jack. Not only is he not going to cower to Jack’s intimidation, but he wants to know why he smokes and eats greasy chicken. Doesn’t he know how bad that is for a person’s health? And just what happened in your marriage, Jack? Grodin plays it understated and deadpan, and perfectly.
And for our other accompanying flavors in Midnight Run, we have a murderer’s row of tremendous character actors. Yaphet Kotto is our straight man, barely concealing his rage as Special Agent Alonzo Mosely. John Ashton is perfect as the unrelenting rival bounty hunter Marvin (he even looks like a hounddog). Dennis Farina dials in a great wiseguy performance as Jimmy Serrano, the gangster set on protecting his empire and ruining Jack’s and the Duke’s lives in the process. And last but not least we’ve got Joey Pants, Joe Pantoliano, playing Eddie Moscone, the slimy bail bondsman who hires Jack for the job. Is Joey Pants the funniest character actor in movie history? He just might be.
Brest shrewdly leans into the action and character development in Midnight Run, allowing the comedy to rise organically. You can tell that he believes in his performers and Gallo’s script, and that the audience will warm to this ramshackle picture if we hang out with Jack and the Duke long enough.
And whaddya know, not only do we warm to the picture, we kind of fall in love with Jack and the Duke by the end. Their goodbye at LAX brought tears to my eyes.
Eliciting tears from the audience is a pretty stunning achievement for a late ‘80s action-comedy, and just maybe an utterly unique achievement. I can’t think of another action-comedy that is so affecting.
Cheers! To Jack and the Duke.
