Product: Midnight Run (1988)
Rating: 4.0
DeNiro and Grodin - two unlikely buddies
MIDNIGHT RUN is an action/comedy/road picture/buddy film with a twist: these "buddies" despise each other.Robert DeNiro is an ex-cop bounty hunter who can earn 100K if he safely transports a former mob accountant from NYC to L.A. before a certain day and time. Charles Grodin is the accountant who embezzled $15 million and gave it to charity; he now has a vengeful mob boss to avoid while also trying to escape DeNiro's custody. Further complications are an FBI agent (Yaphet Kotto) DeNiro made look foolish, and a second bounty hunter hired to snag Grodin away from DeNiro.Grodin is certain he'll be "hit" once back in Los Angeles but DeNiro's only concern is the payoff that will allow him to open a cafe and thus escape a job he hates. As the two head west by train, bus and car, they have several run-ins with the feds, the mob and the other bountyman, sometimes simultaneously. Through these ordeals, a hostile friendship develops between the men.MIDNIGHT RUN is also available onDVD.Robert DeNiro's next role was the Vietnam Vet title character inJACKNIFE(1989). (DVD version)In 1992, Charles Grodin was master to a slobbering St. Bernard calledBEETHOVEN. (DVD version)Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.(7.5) Midnight Run (1988) - Robert DeNiro/Charles Grodin/Yaphet Kotto/John Ashton/Dennis Farina/Joe Pantoliano