Since Mardukas is afraid of flying, or at least claims to be (“These things go down! These things go down!”), the short-fused Walsh has to escort the annoying, motormouthed fugitive across the country via stolen cars, lumbering freight trains, and even white-water rapids. All he cares about is getting out of his bum racket. Meanwhile, Grodin’s Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas is a deadpan loose-cannon who claims that by taking the wiseguys’ money and going on the run he was trying to do the honest thing. De Niro’s Jack Walsh is a former Chicago cop who looks at this no-brainer assignment as his last big score-he’s getting $100,000 for the job-so he can open a coffee shop and maybe even work his way back into the life of his teenage daughter. For those who may not be familiar with this under-appreciated gem, Robert De Niro plays a hard-bitten bounty hunter hired to bring a neurotic Mob accountant who’s embezzled $15 million from the Chicago Mafia (Charles Grodin) from New York to L.A. Released on this day in 1988, Midnight Run takes the creaky, knee-jerk formula of pairing two mismatched stars with completely different acting styles and pushes it somewhere bizarre, unexpected, hilarious, and ultimately poignant. But if you missed it (or just decided to sit it out) and want to belatedly dive in and experience that glory, then allow me to make a possibly controversial suggestion: The place to begin is at the top with what I’m convinced is the Greatest Buddy Action Comedy in an era of Great Buddy Action Comedies, Midnight Run. If you weren’t old enough to experience this cycle first hand, I’ll just say this: It was a glorious period. This era would come to be known as The Age of the Buddy Action Comedy. And it kept rolling right along into the ‘90s with Bad Boys, Men in Black, and Rush Hour. kickstarted a rich, gold-rush era in the genre with subsequent ‘80s flicks such as Tango & Cash, Running Scared, and the Lethal Weapon franchise. There’d already been movies like Some Like it Hot and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Freebie and the Bean. Well, maybe not new exactly, but long dormant. But back in the early ‘80s, it was fairly new.
#Charles grodin and robert de niro movie update
It probably even comes as a default setting in the latest software update of Final Draft. Today, that sort of odd-couple pairing feels so commonplace that it’s become a hack screenwriting cliché.
Traditional film music) given its fullest presentation in "Walsh FreesĪlbum is made up of mostly very short variations on these pieces, with Hunter, and a melancholy theme (the closest the score comes to Kind of comedy bluegrass-infused piece for de Niro's rival bounty
ThereĪre a couple of other good themes too, including "Dorfler's Theme", a "Superstition", but never mind - it really is tremendous.
Main theme - which owes more than a passing debt to Stevie Wonder's He was a very different film composer back in those days,Īnd this easy-going score written mostly as instrumental rock music is The fuck up!"), a fine supporting cast including Yaphet Kotto and JoeĮxtends to its wonderful music, an early score composed by DannyĮlfman. Witticisms in the script, and various obviously-improvised quips fromĭe Niro and Grodin (my favourite: "I've got two words for you - shut It features Robert de Niro as a bounty hunter escorting Charles GrodinĪcross the country so he can pick up his return, encountering various Martin Brest's finest film (yes, it's even better than Gigli) For me, that film is Midnight Run, one which can make me laugh endlessly. Of leftfield, a film not really regarded that highly by many people (or People probably have a film in their top ten which comes a little out Cover copyright (c) 1988 Universal Studios review
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