Review of Midnight Run

Introduction

In this movie the great Robert De Niro produces another fine comedy performance – a role that he is underrated at. Charles Grodin, an actor used to comedy (Beethoven, Filofax) is also very good – and together they are hilarious. Midnight Run is a great comedy, superbly written, fabulously scored and well directed by Martin Brest – famous for ‘Beverly Hills Cop’.

Video

A surprisingly good, although non-anamorphic, picture is on offer, considering that Universal didn’t put too much effort into this disc (see ‘Extra Features’). The picture is clear and fairly sharp, with no artifacts that I could see.

Audio

The Dolby Surround mix is decent, and handles the LFEs fairly well. Considering this film was made in 1988, and is probably not considered deserving of a remix, the sound is not too disappointing.

Features

None. Absolutely nothing. Not even a trailer. Disappointing for such a good movie. It would have been nice to see a behind-the-scenes – De Niro and Grodin seemed like they had a lot of fun on set. I`m sure there must be some archive material lying around somewhere.

The only thing stopping me giving a ‘0’ is that there are a decent selection of subtitles and foreign language dubs.

Conclusion

This is a great feel-good comedy, very witty and almost farcical, but without being embarrassing slapstick. De Niro sends up his tough-guy image, but without going overboard as he did a decade later in ‘Analyze This’. It’s just a shame that there weren’t more (or even any) extras.