Here’s the link from imdb.com: Midnight Run. I love this movie. I think this is one of the funniest movies ever. Robert DiNiro and Charles Grodin have an unbelievable amount of chemistry.
One of my favorite parts is after Charles saves Robert, and they’re yelling in the car.
Charles “You lied to me first.”
Robert: “WHAT?! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?”
The way he says the first “what” cracks me up everytime.
Jimmy Serrano is hilarious, too. And it’s got Yaphett Kotto!
It’s been at least 10 or 15 years since I saw it, but yeah, I always thought one of the best ‘mis-matched buddy’ movies in the 48 Hours kind of vein. I need to see it again.
I think it’s a totally hilarious movie. De Niro and Grodin together are one of the best mis-matches ever – on par with Lemmon/Matthau in “Odd Couple” or Bridges/Goodman in “Lebowski”.
I love this part. . .
“But you’re NOT my accountant.”
“I know. But IF I WERE your accountant. . .”
“but you’re NOT my accountant.”
“I know I’m not your accountant. I’m just saying if I were your accountant. . .”
“But you’re NOT my accountant.”
HOWEVER, this MOVIE would be perfect, IMHO, if the entire Texas-Arizona stuff were about 5 minutes long instead of 30 minutes long. You’re ready for the movie to end, and they really drag it out there.
“Why aren’t you popular with the Chicago Police Department?”
Also, I love the,
“Ever fuck a chicken, Jack? There were some mighty fine chickens by that ranch back there.”
“Yeah, there were one or two I might have taken a shot at.”
There was only one part I didn’t like - when he goes to visit his ex-wife. That’s gotta gall, you are the honest cop and your wife is sleeping with a corrupt one and to make matters worse, your little girl is there, too.
I laugh just thinking about the scene where they are in a phone booth, they have already become frined but DeNiro is talking to someone, his boss I think, and says
I’ll hit on the head and throw him in the river.
Then Grodin and DeNiro exchange some glances where DeNiro explains silently that his is kidding.
Hard to believe it’s been 17 years since it came out. Also hard to believe that since then, Grodin’s turned into a nutter and the number of good movies DeNiro’s made can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
This is one of my old favorites, too. I particularly liked the scene where Grodin pretends to be an FBI agent (with DeNiro as his “partner”) in order to scam some money from a bar. Grodin’s deadpan delivery was hilarious.
Grodin’s always been a nutter, and DeNiro is looking to build up a retirement nest egg and fund the TriBeCa film festival and other revival projects. It is a great movie, though. But DeNiro has always shown a knack for comedy, albeit in kind of an offbeat (and often offputting) way; see Mean Streets. “We don’t pay mooks.”
Definitely check out the early comedies he made with Brian De Palma, Hi, Mom! and Greetings–some very funny, acerbic stuff (though they may date a little).
I gotta get that movie. When I got on an airliner last week, I had a sudden urge to do Grodin’s “panic” scene. “These things go down!”
I like the scene where DeNiro is forced to ask his ex-wife for help, and after she turns him down, his teenage daughter tries to give him the $80 she’s saved up. It seemed very believable to me.
Baldwin, it was very believable, which is why I don’t like it…just don’t want what is essentially a massive dose of reality interjected into my comedy.
