This is a biased review.
No surprise. An unbiased review is a tough ask. Maybe AI could give you one . . . okay, garbage in/garbage out. Scratch that.
Midnight Run, the 1988 Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin, ahem, vehicle(?) is a buddy movie. Yes it is. Despite obvious contempt for each other, Jack Walsh and Jonathan Mardukas, respectively, undertake a trip from NYC to LA.
Albeit, reluctantly for Jon Mardukas, known as The Duke. Grodin plays a former mob accountant on the run from his ex-boss, Jimmy Serrano (The way-too-funny-to-be-a-gangster, Dennis Farina), after embezzling $15 million from the criminal organization.
The Duke gives the purloined dough to charity and Serrano is on the hunt to turn Jonathan into cemetery mulch. Can't find him.
Enter Jack Walsh, former Chicago Police Officer, and proficient bounty hunter.
Walsh unearths The Duke hiding in Brooklyn; kidnaps him to return him to LA to bail out bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano, as funny as Farina); and boards a flight at JFK Airport.
Then disembarks when The Duke causes a ruckus claiming a fear of flying.
The two take a train from Grand Central.
Then a bus from Ohio, when bounty hunter competitor, Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton, as funny as Pantoliano), boards the train and tries to snatch The Duke.
The balance of the trip includes an overnight car trip from Chicago to Amarillo, Texas. Then a Hobo odyssey aboard a freight train which eventually lands the duo in Las Vegas . . . the headquarters of Jimmy Serrano.
What else could go wrong?
Midnight Run is a comedy. And a good one. There is just enough menace from Serrano to make the multiple groups of pursuers malevolent. The humanity of The Duke, and the stupidity a couple chasers (Serrano has two hitmen who give credence to the term, "disorganized crime") balance a solid script by George Gallo and a clinic in pacing by director, Martin Brest.
If you don't laugh through the entire film, check yourself for a pulse.
Rental on Prime, Youtube, and Apple TV.
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