Films that Don't Get Old #1: 'Midnight Run'

posted by Gareth Higgins

I watched  ‘Midnight Run’ last night – for the umpteenth time.  I remembered it as one of the funniest US comedies of the 80s – a decade in which Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy competed with Steve Guttenburg for a crown that seems to belong to Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler these days.  ‘Midnight Run’ – you know, the one about the bounty hunter (De Niro) and the white collar thief (Charles Grodin), the Vegas gangsters (Dennis Farina and Philip Baker Hall), the dodgy bail bonds guy (Joe Pantoliano), the bounty hunter competition (John Ashton) and the grumpy cop (Yaphet Kotto).  Isn’t that enough to recommend it?

It still makes me laugh – and the pleasure was reinforced by watching it with someone who was new to its charms. (In a weird The Film Talk coincidence my genial co-host was, unbeknownst to me, also watching a De Niro film with a new viewer at the very same time…the wheels of TFT spin in ever-increasing metaphysical directions…Not sure what the film was, but I believe it had something to do with marinara sauce and a plane heist.)  Re-watching ‘Midnight Run’ raised the question again that we’ve tried to work with on TFT – what makes a good comedy?

That question will, of course, only be answered when you see one – in this case, it seems to be something to do with characters who grow and change over the course of the story, small roles that seem as well defined as the protagonists, an emotional journey to accompany the physical one, and something more than mere ‘jokes’ to elicit laughter.  ‘Midnight Run’ also does something very rare – it makes profanity sound poetic.  Martin Brest didn’t put a foot wrong in shaping George Gallo’s script, an all-too rare coming together of the right director for the right script.  My jury’s still out, however, on whether or not the infamous censored-for-TV edit made more sense than the original.  (Those of you who read Empire magazine in its early days know what I’m talking about.)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 7:48 pm. It is filed under Blog, Character Actors, Comedies, Gareth Higgins, Gareth Higgins Reviews, Stars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.