The Rewatchables - 'Midnight Run' With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: July 20, 2018

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan got two words for you as they rewatch 1988's iconic buddy film 'Midnight Run' starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin and directed by Martin Brest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Get $160 off of Lisa mattress at Lisa.com slash rewatchables. That is L-E-E-S-A dot com slash re-watchables. All right. Sit down. Have a cream soda. This is going to be done in a second. Midnight run. 30-year anniversary.

Coming up, the re-watchables. Robert De Niro does the shooting. Don't move. I'll shoot you right through the class. Charles Rodin does the complaint. This is not good. They're the best friends. Glad to see me.

That ever wanted to kill each other. You get it started, and I'll run you over. From the director of Beverly Hills County. Kinds of different circumstances, probably still would have hated each other. Midnight Rush, rated on. Special sneak previews Saturday night. All right. Anytime it's just me and Chris Ryan,

you know it's a passion project. We like to mix it up on the rewatchables. Sometimes we do one for the masses. We do like Dark Night, Jaws, social network. You know, there's ones that we know are going to hit pretty big. And then there's...

The ones for us. Miami Vice was like that. What else was like that for us? I think you could make the argument that any Michael Man movie that we do be it, ones that we've done in the past, ones we will do in the future. Yeah.

The ultimate is when we do collateral, which would be the ultimate interest for us. No, the ultimate is the two-part black hat one. Yeah, well, that'll be season seven of the Rue Hotchables. So Midnight Run, it's the 30th anniversary of this month. I'll start here. Nephew Kyle, who's producing this podcast today, has not seen it. I feel like people in their 20s might not be on their radar. I get it.

I was in my 20s once. You don't want to go backwards. But 95% of the ring or staff at a not seen Midnight Run. Yeah. So here's the thing. A, least dated 80s movie. Can you think of another 80s movie that other than the lack of cell phones could be released right now, basically? No.

Totally. It plays just as well as it would have an 88. It plays incredible today. A little slow in places, but it's just really, really, really, really, like, feels contemporary. It's probably the best action comedy of all time. Yeah, they can't make them. Like, people have been trying to get at the Midnight Run vibe. Yes.

Since they made this. And it fails spectacularly. The plaque very quickly is Jack Walsh Bounty Hunter failed Chicago cop, had to move out of Chicago. We don't know why yet. And his job is to just basically be a bounty hunter, chased on criminals, played by Robert De Niro. Charles Groton plays the Duke, who stole a lot of money from a mobster and is now in the lamb. De Niro finds the Duke, played by Charles Grosden, and then has to take him back to L.A. by a certain deadline. and comedy ensues.

That's our plot. Super easy to explain. And the best part of this movie for me is Robert De Niro because to that point, you know, we're talking about one of the great actors of all time. Nobody knew that he had a funny side of him. Yeah. I mean, he had done like King of Comedy,

but that's... That's a black comedy. It's creepy funny. So he's coming off Godfather 2, taxi driver, Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, King of Comedy, once upon a time in America. And then in 1987, the year before, Angel Heart and the Untouchables.

And then there's a bunch of other ones. What do you think the Angel Heart rewatchables is going to be like for us? That'll be like season 18. That comes after Black Cat. He plays Lewis Seifer in that. He actually literally plays the devil. And nobody knew that he had a funny side at all. I think he was pretty pigeonholed as mobster guy slash violent guys slash overdramatic actor guy.

And this was a new side of him, new revelation. And Grotin was a thing in the 70s. He was never like an A-Lister, but he was right underneath and was in a ton of good movies. Like, Heaven Can Wait. Seems like old times. But never really kind of made it as a super-duper star. Yeah. In the 80s, this was probably a good get for him to get this part.

We're going to talk about some of the other people that had been rumored for this part. The movie made over 80 million was Gene Siskel's six best film of 1988. the legacy is for this movie over the years has been cable it's been on for 30 years it's on all the time it's on networks where it gets bleeped where it's not nearly as effective it's had major runs on and it's and it is the ultimate rewatchable because you can jump in at any point of the movie I forgot I forgot the order of the scenes all the time even though they're going east to west I forget oh this is the diner part yeah yeah chorizo right right right I think that there's a couple of really interesting things to talk about for this.

I don't remember if we've done this particular bit before, but for me, this is one of the top two profanity movies of all time with Slapshot. Yeah. So when you're a teenager. Well, comedy profanity. Yes.

Forty-eight hours is in the mixed thing. It's up there. But, like, when you're a teenager and you're first learning how to curse, you learn kind of from movies about how you're supposed to say different words and where you employ them and when's a lot to do it. And when's a punctuation mark? and I midnight run while I would not recommend anybody swear like the people in midnight run in their daily life was like I remember feeling like I was watching something almost like elicit the way these guys cursed each other. Yeah.

Especially Pandeliano and De Niro and and. And Dennis Farina. Yes. And the way that these guys would just like just scream each other so much and then actually keep working with each other. So like the profanity part was a really big deal. And even then, even like I was probably like a legist I was 11 when I when this came out. but I was aware somewhat of De Niro and his reputation just from my dad and from having like those movies be on around. And I did, I do remember Untouchables.

And he did, you know, Untouchables was almost like, he didn't jump to shark, but he like gained weight, played Al Capone, does this huge speech. You know, hits a guy with a baseball bat. It's like, it's just kind of like the end of Mafio so seriously DeNiro for a minute. Yeah. And for him to come back and do something that's so relatable is Jackson. Walsh. And then as soon as Jack Walsh is out there, you're like, yeah, Jack Walsh. Jack Walsh has become like an archetype, like this kind of beaten down cop, ex-cop who chain smokes and swears and just wants to own a coffee shop. It's fascinating how this has just become

part of the fabric of all these neuro performances that we love. And he's very similar to Jack Cates in 48 hours. And a little bit of Don Johnson in Miami Vice like Sonny Crockett. We had the 80s. A lot less racist than Jack Cates. Yeah, a lot less racist. But the chain smoking beaten down. I didn't think my life was going to turn out this way. But here's this one thing I can hold on to now. And now we've seen 30 years of variations on that. But those three were probably the best.

De Niro, I didn't know he had this in them. This movie came out. I was like 19. And in the trailer, it was like, what is this? Is he trying to be funny in this? It just didn't add up. He had such a serious reputation. I mean, think about it.

Taxi driver, Raging Bull, Godfather. Godfather, too, but just like intense. And then not the greatest interview. He had, it was coming off about five, six years ago, a little bit of a cocaine. He was involved with that Belushi thing. Belushi dies at Chateau Marmont.

De Niro was allegedly there. Rob Williams was definitely there. Both of those guys were subpoenaed. It was just a weird decade. Yeah. And he got super private. Yeah. So he got super private after that.

I don't even think he was doing talk shows. Yeah. Well, he's notoriously, he's not that he's difficult. He just doesn't seem that interested in talking about himself. Or that interesting. And playing that game. So you never really see him do the like, I've got five really good minutes here to do on Letterman or Carson. Right.

Even like somebody like Denzel who I loved interviewing as a podcast, but was a tough guy to interview. Yes. But he can go on those late night shows and do seven minutes. Also, Denzel on your pod seemed entertaining. by the game. He was messing around, but he was like, this is kind of amusing to me. Whereas De Niro, I think is just like, nope,

yep, well, you know, just great work, great material. You know, like, he's just not that expressive when it comes to the interviews. He's done a lot of comedies in the years, much later than when Midnight Run came out. But he had, like, from Meet the Parents on, kind of unleashed this funny De Niro side was in on Saturn Live. But I was never really could,

convinced he's funny at all. Yeah. He's really funny in Midnight Run. Let me ask you. So when yours, because you were a little older than me when this was happening. Yeah. Did you look at De Niro movies, like when you would hear about it De Niro movie coming out or you'd see it in the theaters, was it like seeing a great athlete?

Because in that run, that run is more or less you'd put that up against any eight, nine year run of any actor ever. Yeah, I didn't, I wasn't sophisticated enough with movies yet. It didn't really happen for me until my senior year. junior, senior, in college, and then right after college when I really started getting into them, like the art of them. So it wasn't like the way that we get excited for like a Daniel D. Lewis movie, like when the last 20 years. I was much more like I love Beverly Hills cop and those kind of movies and Rocky and Rambo. I was like a comedy action guy. I was not one of those people

who would watch the deer hunter five times like Sean Fantasy. I pictured 14 year old Sean fantasy like studying the deer hunter. I saw the deer hunter once. So he still had the legend though. Like him and Pacino, when I was growing up, it was De Niro and Pacino. Those were the guys. And those continue to be the guys all the way through the 90s.

I did my De Niro versus Pacino mailbag for ESPN.com page 2 in 2001. And it was still like the best argument you could have any somebody versus somebody. Now I think as the years have gone on, I don't even know who's ahead. But this was the type of movie Pacino never could have made.

And I think if you're going to make the case for De Niro, he could be a midnight run and Pacino can't. Yeah, Pacino did more like devil's own. And what was the McConaughey sports gambling movie? Yeah, two for the money. Two for the money. Yeah. But, you know, also I think on that flip side,

I think that Pacino did, like, he's much more interesting in Sea of Love. I think De Niro would have been almost like creepy in Sea of Love. Exactly. So Sea of Love is probably the most honest, like probably closest to Pacino as a person performance. I really feel like that was probably out of Pacino. And when he's making out with Elen Barkin, he probably really was. And you're right. If De Niro's in that, it has this taxi driver. Yeah, it's more like Mad Dog and Glory where he's like, I don't express myself. Right. Yeah.

So this starts a really great De Niro run, which goes through the 90s and you have movies like Awakening's and Cape Fear and Goodfellos. And he starts doing more like not quite cameo, but sort of cameo rules like in backdraft. Yeah. Sort of a supporting actor in Cape Fear. Madong Glory, like we mentioned, he's quite good in this boy's life.

This boy's life, I thought, was one of the best than heroes. I think him and Pacino both had the same kind of thing happen to them in the 80s. They kind of lost their way for a little bit. Pacino, when he was on the podcast, talked about how he is. had done Broadway and he just kind of disappeared. De Niro seemed like he kind of didn't know what he wanted to be. Did he want to be a mainstream star? Did he want to just pick art movies and stuff like that? And I think with Midnight Run, actually probably with the Untouchables, then he goes to Midnight Run, Jackknife, Stanley and Iris. Was that Merrill Streep? Stanley and Iris? Yeah, I think so.

Goodfellas, Awakening's, Backdraft, Cape Fear, Night in the City. Mad Dog Glory, This Boy's Life, the Bronx Tale, a Bronx Tale, Casino, Heat. It's quite a 95. Yeah, so that seven-year run, he's really laying the Smackdown and everything. And then also, let's not forget these other three that come after that because they get forgotten a lot. But Copeland, Jackie Brown, and Wag the Dog. Incredible Jackie Brown performance. Probably he won that movie if we ever do, if we ever do a rewatchables on that one.

Although I'd make an argument for Bridget Fonda. that's pretty good we'll do jacky brown at some point i think that's worthy of it so by the time we get to 95 it builds up to him versus Pacino and heat and that was the that was their NBA finals it was their bird versus magic who did we decide won that one i said Pacino yeah i think Pacino did win that one. But I think he had a better part. It's more expressive. Why do you care so much about what I'm reading, lady? I am not

lonely. All right, midnight run. A couple other notes. I want to talk a little bit about Martin Brest. About the director. Let's do it now. Okay. It's hard to explain to, let's say, someone in their

20s now, the very particular career that Martin Brest had. It's hard to explain to somebody in their late 40s. Yeah. He had very big successes and catastrophic failures. Yeah. And even with his successes came legendary tales of onset on rest or the film went over budget.

And, you know, he was, even with this midnight run, like, he was shooting, like, tons and tons of takes to the point where Yafat Koto was just, like, miserable on the set. Yeah, Yafat Koto called him hair director. Yeah. Like he was, like, a Nazi. Yeah. And it's hard. it's hard to

like nowadays it's like Colin Trevereaux you know made Jurassic the Jurassic Park sequel and was a really big success guy successful guy made Book of Henry it's like the worst movie

ever made got signed up to do a Star Wars movie got fired off of that and then just like kind of went back to Jurassic Park and we'll probably go on to make movies that's like the only thing maybe Josh Trank who got

fired off of the Fantastic Four movie basically and then fired off of a Star Wars movie but Martin Brest would be the equivalent of if I came to Bill, and I was like, hey, Bill, I want to do a DeMarda Rosen goes to San Antonio's story. And Bill's like, oh, great. And I came back six months later, having cost the company $75,000.

And I was like, I didn't really get a good Demarda Rosen story, but I got an incredible article about this taco place in San Antonio. And then I was like, but what I should really do is do this Kauai story. And then two years later, I came back having cost the company like three. $300,000 and I said I never actually made it to Canada. Like this is literally what Martin Brest was doing. He would make these huge expensive movies that maybe even underperformed with the exception of Beryl's Cop. Sent of a woman was pretty successful.

But then he would just get a chance to do it again. And it all culminates with Gile or Gile. Gile. Gile. Yeah. Yeah, he does five movies in 20 years. Beverly's Cop, a classic. Right.

Midnight Run, classic. Send of a woman, one Pacino, the Oscar and I think got nominated for Best Film. So three major hits in a row, but over the course of nine years, which is suspicious, doesn't work again for six years, meet Joe Black. Yes. Doesn't work again for five years, Gilles, and never works again as a director. Yeah.

That is one of the weirdest careers. When you could just sort of be like, I'm going to work on this script for six years. Did not die. Still alive. Very strange. Also very strange. This movie got kind of... Groton didn't get nominated for Best Supporting Actor,

which in the 1988 Oscars is just flat out inexplicable. Give me the nominees. Alec Guinness for Little Dorrit. Okay. Kevin Klein, a fish called Wanda. That's good. Martin Lando, Tucker, and The Man in His Dream. Boy, a lot of really big swings in 88.

River Phoenix running on empty. Oh, he's incredible. He's pretty good in that. Dean Stockwell married to the mob. Okay. Grotto not getting nominated is a travesty. Did Deniery nominated? So here are the best actor categories.

Tom Hanks Big. Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man. Edward James Olmo, stand and deliver. Gene Hackman, Mississippi Burning. Max von Sito, Pelly the Conqueror. Okay. Neither guy gets nominated. That's a tough one.

Interesting era, because a lot. lot, you know, one of the things I found, like, completely fascinating doing a little bit of reading about this was that De Niro wanted to play the lead in big. Right. So, and that's, we got to save that for casting what ifs because it sets off a chain of events, but De Niro goes for big, going back to the De Niro conversation, for whatever reason, decided that he needed to be in a lighthearted, some sort of funny comedy. He needed a show a different side of himself. Goes for big. And the studio says, no thanks, Robert De Niro. And they go to Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks then gets nominated for the part.

De Niro settles for Midnight Run. Does not get nominated. And I don't know who wins that in the finals, Midnight Run versus Big, for what would have been a better career tries. I love both of those movies. I think both of those, it worked out for both of those guys. De Niro is Josh Baskin almost makes my head explode. Oh, it would have been so creepy.

It would have been weird. Him as a 13-year-old. You blew it, Josh! Him on the piano with Robert Loj. Yeah, I just don't see it. I actually think they made a pretty good move. So this sets off. 48 hours started it.

This kind of pushed it over the top with lethal weapon. And now it's been 30 years of buddy cop stuff ever since. To the point that the gimmick's almost dead. Yeah. I don't, there's nowhere left we can go with buddy cops. They basically now just try to do it as homages to these movies. They're like an homage to lethal weapon or an amount. I mean, like, you know, rush out.

hour, to some extent, Pinalpo Express was really trying to capture this vibe. Yeah, it's just one of those things that is basically impossible to do, which is keep something funny while also having it be like a legit action movie. And I think part of the problem is that people think that the comedy is supposed to be and baked into the action, like it's supposed to be almost slapstick action. Yeah. But really, it should be a straightforward cop movie that actually just has great. great lines. Yeah, because there's a couple

moments in this movie that are genuinely become scary, especially when Dennis Farina, who plays the evil mobster who decides that he's trying to kill the Duke. There's a couple moments where it's like, holy shit, the Duke's going to die. Like I'm bumping, this

is, this got dark. And you're right. Nowadays, it's more slapstick, and when there's danger, it's not really danger and you never feel like the people are in danger. You feel like the people are in danger in this movie. This goes back to what Cheers was able to pull off in the 80s, which was,

it was a TV show that happened to be really funny. It eventually became a sitcom. But the first three, four years, they would have five-minute stretches where there were no jokes. Yeah. And when somebody was funny, it was actually funny.

And now it's like set up, set-up punchline. Set-up, set-up punchline. And I think the action movies are like that. Like, the way you would rip off this movie now, if you either remade it or did a rip-off version of it, you would do it with women to make it stand out a part a little bit. You would do it with like Tiffany Haddish and the Jack Walsh part and Kirsten Wig as the Duke. Yeah.

Right. And you would do some variation of that. They would not be able to bring in the danger part of it. It would still be slapstick. I actually thought Keanu, the movie that Keen Peel did it, which I like more than most people. That movie actually was able to straddle the danger versus comedy side a little bit better. But for the most part, really hard to pull off.

This movie does. one thing I noticed when I was re-watching it. And it's really something, the only other example, like, or the best other example of this I can think of, is Die Hard. And that is the one outfit movie. Yeah. Person starts out their day and starts out the movie in one outfit. And you're like, okay, so Jack Walsh, great sweatshirt, this cool leather jacket.

And over the course of the movie, you can see what he has been through because he's still wearing the same outfit five days later. Just like in Die Hard, he shows up. leather jacket. Yeah, and he takes off his short sleeve shirt and he's wearing a tank top underneath. But then, you know, Hans comes and there's a hostage situation in the Nakatomi Plaza. And by the end of it, he's just like covered in dirt and blood and you can see how bad it's been. And this is the same thing for Midnight Run.

You can see how bad it's been based on how disgusting Robert De Niro's sweatshirt is by the end of this movie. I was always fascinated to know Gloria Grecian did the costume design. Like, how many sweatshirts did they have? And how did they make them so beat up? How many leather jackets do you think he had in? That's what I'm saying. Because leather jackets actually break in and look cooler as you wear them like that. And also, how many cigarettes do you think he smoked in this movie?

Well, this is a much larger. You want to talk about cigarettes now? No, let's save it. Quick break to talk about hotel tonight. If you love to score amazing deals and incredible hotels, you will love Hotel Tonight. Hotel Tonight partners with hotels to help them sell their unsold rooms, hoping you find sweet deals at cool, top-rated hotels.

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It's super easy. Yeah. You just go and be like, I'm going here. Is there a deal? Oh, great. My air conditioning went out the other week and we used Hotel Tonight to find a place to say. Yeah, there you go. Hotel Tonight, they're an app, not a website. Get the Hotel Tonight app to start scoring amazing deals and incredible hotels. That's Hotel Tonight. The only booking app you need. Last thing on De Niro, before we get to the categories. Beaten down sarcastic, cranky, charismatic, volatile chain smoking has been Chicago cop

who always makes you feel like there's a heartbeat beneath every F-bomb and every menacing threat. He's a hard guy to like and you end up loving him. I wrote that in 2013. I used all the midnight run quotes to do an NBA fragency piece. I don't really totally know how he pulled this character off and it's the same thing with Nick Dolty and Jack Cates. these characters you're just not

likeable I don't know why I like them you almost get Stockholm syndrome with them and by the end of you're like I fucking love this guy they're just not good people and I don't know how he did it and it doesn't happen very often

Yeah let's go to the categories Most rewatchable scene This is tough because I feel like every scene is rewatchable but there's a couple that stand out

I'm just throwing out a couple The litmus configuration test, the famous scene when they go and they try to get money and they dupe the guys in the bar to give them $20 that are allegedly counterfeit. Jack goes to see his daughter emotional. Yeah. Them in the coffee shop, the chorizo. The chorizo. The 53 cent coffee. And then him saying, Serrano's that are heroin dearly you told me about in Chicago, that's the guy that's going to kill me.

Dramatic pause. hope it's a wonderful coffee shop, Jack. Great guilt trip. The box car scene, my personal favorite. And then the chase scene near the end when he loses the Duke and he stared up at the helicopters and he stops the car and he goes, I've come too far.

Too far. I'm too close. Come too far. Too far. Which favorite scene? Box car. Most rewatchable. Box car is an iconic scene.

It's when they finally. break down to become real friends. It's also just that kind of, it's a really, really good cathartic release after that, the car chase through the desert. And they improvised it

for the most part, apparently. And it's just such an incredibly lived in funny, genuine scene between two characters. I think that my... Two great actors. Yeah, two great actors. I think that ultimately, probably the things I love the most are the little bits, like

said it's all rewatchable. So pretty much anytime Farine is on the screen and pretty much anytime Pantaliano is on the screen is like a rewind, a rewindable scene for me. But the rewatchable scene is definitely the boxcar. And I read up on it. And for some reason they said, De Niro's mad in the beginning of the scene because Groden's character escapes and thinks he gets away in this box car. And then Jack comes around the other side.

And he's like, ah, oh. And he's mad. He's like, I'm not talking here for the rest of this trip, which is pretty funny. It's like his dad. And then they're just sitting in silence. And that's when apparently the director told Groden and tried to like loosen De Niro up. But De Niro was so wound up from the scene. He was tough to get him to crack.

And they kept trying stuff. And then finally Grotin does a, ever have sex with the animal, Jack? A couple of roosters I would have taken a run out back there. Jack? What? What's further? you think we have to go. None of your fucking business.

No, because, you know, eventually I'm going to have to go to the bathroom. Shut the fuck up. Do you ever have sex with an animal, Jack? Remember those chickens around the Indian Reservation? There's some good-looking chickens there, Jack. You know, between us. Yeah, a couple of them might have taken a shot at.

And then that leads to the new watch and, you know, a genuinely kind of, I don't know if intimate's the right word, It's the best scene in the movie. Yeah, it's really good. What's aged the best? De Niro and Grodin, the chemistry of those guys. I was thinking about like all-time chemistry between two guys.

And what's interesting is apparently De Niro didn't like Grotin that much. I don't know if that's true, but maybe it's after 30 years, the internet kind of takes stuff and runs with it. But I don't think it was perfect between them. I think it was also one of those situations where De Niro essentially is in character when he does these movies. Yeah. And Grotin, I think.

is that's probably more or less in the ballpark of the kind of guy Groden is. Yeah. And so you could see why that would basically get on each other's nerves. And also, apparently they're just doing take after take after take. Yeah, and Groden's trying to annoy him. You get the dog, man. But the chemistry of those guys, pretty rare. You don't see it that often.

I was trying to think of like best two guys in a movie chemistry. And it's like a shorter list than you'd think. So let me hear it. Travolta and Sam Jackson, I thought, were in Pulp Fiction. That's one of the best parts of that movie. I think Gibson and Danny Glover. Weirdly, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, I think that's why they kept making rush hour movies. There's something about those guys that just clicked.

I probably put Redford and Newman from the sting in there. Redford and Newman. And Redford and Newman and Butch. Redford and Newman just in general, yeah. I think Eddie Murphy, Nicole Nolte in Forty-Hourrs. That's ultimately the reason that works. Then you start going into this century. it just becomes rare and rare.

Usually it's, it's movies where it's just one person driving it. Yeah. I actually, this is going to sound crazy, but I have kids, so I'm allowed to say this. I think The Rock and Kevin Hart have really good chemistry. Those guys really like get along.

They're not great actors. Well, we just did stepbrothers. I'd say Farrell and Riley were pretty high up there. Farrell and Wilson McCarthy and Sandra Bullock had really good chemistry in the heat. Yeah, that was the reason that movie worked. It's just hard. It's hard to find two people, two people that are generally near equals. Bill Murray and Harold Ramos, I thought had a really good character.

Oh, yeah. Had good chemistry going way back. But it's rare. The F-bombs, we talked about, there's 119 in the movie. It feels like there's about 280. It feels like there's like 500 in that, in the last scene or the last time that he calls Eddie. Yeah. It's just like, they curse so much.

The phone call With Farina To more on number one And more on number two Is this more on number one Put more on number two on the phone And then at some point They're talking

And the other guy's fake punching The guy who's on the phone And because he's shadow That whole thing just slays me It's not a rewatchable seat Because it's short But just that Whoever thought of the shadow boxed thing

Fucking kills me Mcarron Airport Which is kind of a depressing place. It's happy when you land, but on your way out, when everybody's leaving Vegas, it's the saddest place on Earth.

Absolutely. It has not really changed since this movie at all. And this movie came out in 88. I started going to Vegas in the mid-90s. And when you're walking through it, you just have the urge to scream, Serrano's got the discs!

Serrano's got the disc! And just walking around, it just has that feel to it. You know, it's another underrated setting that actually has not, I'm sure that the stores have changed, but the vibe is kind of similar. What?

Grand Central Market, downtown L.A. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where Chin Luz is. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I didn't even, I never even made that connection. Yeah. And it looks pretty much the same there.

I mean, I don't think you could take a pay phone call from one of the restaurants now. But it's pretty like they're down on, on Fifth Street is where. Oh, we have to go down there in Instagram video for the nine fans who were listening to this. Danny Offens music. Okay. So you remember, what's the time? the name of the band in 48

hours? The busboys. This is like, this is a Danny Elfman score, but it's essentially like if the busboys did a soundtrack. And I've seen some people who don't like this. I would venture to say that this is one of my favorite soundtracks. I know that's crazy, but it is so memorable.

Anyone who's anti-s soundtrack is a moron. This is one of the best soundtracks ever, and it's got like the right feel to it, and then it slows down at the right parts, and then it kicks back in. It sounds like the music that Steely Dan's backing band would play before Becker and Fagan would walk on stage or something. Like just vamping around a little bit.

A little bit more like R&B blues, but it's so good. Looks like I'm walking. One of the better last line of a movie lines we've had. Are we still talking about what age the best? Yeah. Looks like I'm walking. I love great last lines to end a movie. And that one's way up there,

especially like him walking out of LAX, which having lived there, That's not a fun walk at all. And then we mentioned the scene when he goes to see his daughter before. That's one of my favorite De Niro scenes. Yeah. It's just, it's really awkward. You feel for him.

He's trying to connect with, he gives her that weird hug. Like everything he does in that scene is like a list. The 40 seconds while Gail goes to get the car keys or whatever. He's just like, I don't have anything to ask her. I don't know what to, like, you're eighth grade. eighth grade huh and then it's just really really well done and then she offers him money as he's leaving

he can't take that it becomes a little warmer and they walk to the car and he lets Grodden in and he kind of opens the door of his wife station wagon so Grodin's coat doesn't get caught in the car like almost like it's his wife that every beat in that scene is like A plus list yes it's really that that's one of my favorite denierre scenes ever so you could say that the thing

the age the best almost is like the weird sentimental emotional moments like that because because the and we'll talk about the end, I'm sure. But there's a couple of moments in this that are really unexpectedly poignant. What do you think are the greatest De Niro scenes of all time? That's a great question.

I think when he kills the guy and Godfather, too, the way he plays that. They're walking across the rooftops and stuff. Just the intensity of it. There's a couple great moments, weirdly, in Cape Fear. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out the specific De Niro part in Goodfellas. because there's, I mean, the coolest thing.

I would say it's when Joe Pesci does. Yeah, there's the phone booth, but there's also that when one of the intro shots of Jimmy or when Jimmy, I think, is first starting to kill a bunch of people. And it's like that slow-mo shot, I think while Hendricks is playing and he's smoking at the bar. And you're just like, that's the coolest person I've ever seen in my life. Yeah.

They did a great job with that. Yeah. That's going to be a seven-hour podcast. And then in heat, basically every scene. Yeah. But the diner scene, he's really good in that one. too. But yeah, he's had a lot of great moments. This is way up there. There's got to be a couple other ones. I mean, there's many scenes in Deer Hunter. There are many scenes in taxi

driver. There are many scenes in Raging Bull. Raging Bull is kind of tough to watch now, though. To me, that was a one and out. That's too intense. Black and white. He's just an awful guy beats the hell out of his wife over and over again. That's a tough watch. What's age the worst? I got this I got this locked up Oh what did we say For what's age the best

I think we said the poignant moments In Danny Alphen's music Okay What's age the worst De Niro bringing a gun on an airplane That's kind of jarring This movie could be released now Except for he brings a gun on the airplane

The pay phones The lack of cell phones And no internet But yeah he brings a gun on an airplane There's another thing that we don't do anymore. You're just saying what sort of like this movie would play fine if it wasn't for cell phones

and guns on the internet? How about the fact that he fucking smokes everywhere? Yeah, but I had that too. All the cigarette smoking. And then Groening gets pissy at him and you're kind of mad at Groden. It's like, come on, man. He's smoking on a bus next to him. He's like,

come on. He's like, these cigarettes are killers. If I ever did a podcast with De Niro, which will probably never happen, it would be one of my first questions. How many cigarettes did you smoke during mid-down run? The first has to be a million. Seen is him going to pick up a guy in downtown Los Angeles. And he's walking through this. It's like a kind of beaten down apartment building, but he's walking through this carpeted apartment building hallway. And as he's about to pick the lock on this guy's apartment, he just puts his cigarette out on the carpeting outside this guy's door. And I was just like, what kind of savage barbarians

were we in 1988 where people were just like smoking and then putting it? had cigarettes in the carpet. Can you imagine what that smelled like? Oh my God. Well, I remember even as recently as the 90s when you flew. Yeah. You were like, ah, fuck, I got stuck next to a smoker on the plane. Like, that's like inconceivable now.

Yeah. And then there was. Now it would be sitting next to nephew Kyle. Everybody would just be vaping now. That's true. Yeah. That's probably happening now anyway. Well, they have to say like if you do this like vaping is also not allowed.

Is that true? Yeah, they have to say that now. But yeah, the smoking constantly Marlboro Reds too or kind of a harsh thing to just be like chain smoking all day long. But in combination of what you said about Martin. Are you reds, Kyle? I am.

Martin Brest, who made them do take after take. So they have to get the cigarette back to the right side. They don't have smoked like five packs a day. I mean, they have those mad men cigarettes that are basically like air or whatever, but even those are thinking. No, De Niro's method actor. He's not smoking fake cigarettes.

You think he's smoking reds. Oh, I think he's smoking reds a whole thing. Kyle, you want a cigarette? I told Camelites. They were a little like, I felt like that was a little bit more of a subtle experience. Reds are just intense.

Reds are tough. Reds are like, because he talks so much shit about my reds. Anytime this shows on cable with the bleeps, that's age the worst. Yes. This movie is not intended to be watched with bleeps. As Chris mentioned earlier,

the art of the fuck, the art of the F-bomb is really in full, place. But the number one thing for me that's aged the worst, eight guys get knocked out in this movie. Eight. There's no concussion awareness whatsoever. They never bleed. They never bleed.

Marvin gets knocked out four times. He's got CT. Marvin, Jack's rival bounty hunter. He gets knocked out four different times over the course of a hundred-bed movie. He's one of the nice cops in Beverly Hills cop. Yeah. He gets knocked out four times. The Duke gets knocked

out twice. More on number one and more on number two, both get knocked out. We have eight knockouts. Often by pistol whip. Yeah. Or shotgun butt. Yeah. You're not getting up from that. I wrote in 2013 that this movie was actually directed by Roger Goodell because there's no concussion awareness at all. But I think that's age the worst. Is there any, would you have any alternative for that? No, I never thought about the amount of head trauma that happens in this movie. Eight knockouts. I mean, Marvin. Marvin is definitely like on an E60 piece right now. Now, Jeremy Shapson, he's in a dark room.

Just talking about the midnight run filming. He's never been the same. He can't remember his wife's name. Casting what ifs presented by ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to go to ziprecruiter.com slash BS. This has one of one of like the pantheon, pantheon, in my opinion, of all time casting what ifs. So we talked about

We talked about how De Niro opted in only because it's big But you have to go back further Paramount attains the script They line up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh And Chevy Chase as the Duke By the way, that's a pretty good movie I mean That's about as good of a backup movie as we're doing

So that's post-fletch? Yeah, we're talking like 86-87 I think Chevy Chase as the Duke is actually pretty good Yeah I mean I would have enjoyed it Harrison Ford is Jack Walsh is unbelievable. Just he's basically wearing his Blade Runner outfit? Yeah.

I don't know if he pulls off the cigarette smoking. Or the profan. He may be a little too handsome. I haven't heard him curse that much. Yeah, it's still interesting. Chevy Chase has a conflict. He can't do it. He's doing two other movies.

This is a funny farm and something else. Harrison Ford drops out. De Niro opts in only after he was turned down for big. They go to Albert Brooks to be the Duke. Turns it down. Albert Brooks is the Duke, another incident. Incredible. Kind of actually, I don't know how it would have been that different from Grodin.

They were always kind of on each other's corner. Wesley Morris would have said the market correction for Grodden was Brooks or vice versa. Brooks probably wins that one head to head. Probably. Probably. Yes. But I think they could have played each other's parts pretty easily over the course of 15 years. Like Albert Brooks easily could have been in heaven can wait.

Yeah. Paramount decides Cher should play the Duke. Yeah. I remember this because when I wrote my thing five years ago, I had done the research, and Alan Sepawaw was the first one. Shout out to Alan Seppinwall, by the way. I know he's listening to this. Alan Seppinwall and eight other people.

Alan Seppewall and his family and then eight other people. But they wanted Cher to play the Duke. I can't imagine how bad that would have been. And Cher's moment as an A-list actress was really only like, what, three years? and this was right during the kind of the peak of that share moment, which I don't even totally understand whether there was a share moment. So Paramount pushes for Robin Williams. This is the same year that he makes Good Morning Vietnam.

I don't know if he chose Good Morning Vietnam because he didn't get Midnight Run or whatever that played out. But he tried out. He wanted to audition. He tried out, he auditioned. And Paramount wants Robin Williams. Breast says no, I want Charles Groden. Paramount says, fuck you, and sells the rights to Universal. With Groden and De Niro attached, Universal then makes the movie,

and it becomes a major success for them. So I guess my question is, man, what a casting, what if? Is this movie better or worse with 1988, Robin Williams? But here's the sliding doors. if he's making this movie either instead of Good Morning Vietnam or after Good Morning Vietnam, it probably has a knock-on effect as whether he's in Dead Poet Society.

Yeah. Which is the career changer for him, right? But if he does Good Morning Vietnam and Midnight Run back to back, I actually think he's in a bigger place than he would have been. But I don't think Midnight Run is Midnight Run if Robert Williams is doing the Duke. So that's my question.

It's because he's just too, the energy was just, Groden kills it because Groden is just like, come on, come on. I'm going, where am I going to jump off a train going 90 miles per hour? Like, it's so measured. It's dry measured. It perfectly plays with De Niro.

But you don't think Robin Williams could have done that? No, I think he would have been doing bits all through the whole thing. Which makes it a comedy. Yeah. My only counter to this would be, what if he was like rolled according to garp mellow Robin Williams?

He was like Dead Poet Society, Robin Williams, with just a little bit of funny in it and played it much more seriously. I think he could have done it. I don't know. I think you're right, though. I think they would have been doing those takes over and over again.

I think he would have lost his mind and became Robin Williams. Yeah. I don't know. It's an interesting what if. He's certainly a better actor than Charles Gordon is, but I think Charles Gordon had played it better. And I think that it's also another thing is one of the things that's so good about Williams and Goodwill Hunting

is that he is like kind of grown into this body. And he's kind of like more bulky and burly in Goodwill Hunting. and he feels like a kind of, he feels like that character. He looks like that character. He was still so slight back in the 80s. Yeah. And I don't know.

I can't imagine like I got, it's a really, really interesting what if, but I think they, Groden, I can't see anybody else doing it, but Groding. Huge cock, Robin Williams.

Big cock. That was a big revelation in the HBO documentary. Really? Hung like a fucking stallion. I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that. Bobcat Goldwyns making jokes about how huge his crank was.

Okay. Rob Williams. Good boarding Vietnam. That documentary, that documentary, my biggest problem with it is completely underplayed, mismanaged his transition into being a dramatic actor. Yeah. I thought I had good parts and bad parts. I thought I was pretty uneven. But, you know, Morka Mendi ends.

It makes it seem like his movie career is over because Popeyes didn't work. and then he goes and does the comedy stuff. But it leaves out like World Corny Garp, Moscow and the Hudson, all these movies that he made in the 80s that I saw all of them because I loved Robin Williams. And he gradually evolved to that kind of Good Morning Vietnam where he was able to handle more in a movie and then ultimately Dead Poets Society and Goodwill Hunting.

And, you know, serious Robin Williams was the all-time hit or miss actor. Yeah. He had some awful. What was that one with Cuba Gooding? That's one of the worst movies ever made. Oh, man. I had, when I had my legal cable box in the mid-late 90s, that movie was on for a week,

and I tried to watch it a couple times. I don't know which one is with Cuba Gooding. Yeah, it's what dreams may come or what those? Oh, God, that one? Yeah, that's one of the worst movies that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But when he was good, he was good. Anyway, Groden's probably a safer pick for this movie.

If Robin Williams had played it correctly, I think it would have been great. The only other casting would have, Jimmy Serrano played by the late. great Dennis Farina. Ron Perlman, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Ray Leota, and Alec Baldwin, all considered to play Jimmy Serrano. Alec Baldwin in the late 80s would have been an interesting choice.

Nobody's better than Dennis Forina in this part. It's impossible. But, you know, Leota, too, would be a little too young, probably. The Deion Waiters Award. Dare I say we've never had more candidates. No. Maybe heat? Yeah, heat would be up there.

But this is basically every single person. making a move, man. I had to get it on. New! Deanne Waiters, we have Dennis Farina as Serrano the mobster. The great John Ashton. I hate on the internet when people do the great dot, dot, dot, and it's some writer who's mediocre. It's like another piece by the great so-and-so.

It's like, that person's not great. Stop it. The great John Ashton. This movie in Midnight Run. Beverly Hills Cop. I'm sorry, Beverly Hills Cop. where he plays Rosewood's partner.

Detective Billy Rosewood? Cop two? One of the great he checks anyone's had. He is so good in cop two. I never understood why John Ashton didn't have a bigger career. I love John Ashton.

I love John Ashton. In any other movie, he wins the Dion Waders Award going away. But I don't understand why he didn't have some Fox cop drama where he's, like I feel like he easily could have been the Dennis Franz character in NYPD Blue.

John Ashton? Yeah. God, that's a good. shout. I don't know. I don't know what happened to him. John Ashton's agent. Go to hell. You fucked that up. Yafat Koto. Not in a lot of scenes, but huge stats in this movie. Maybe what? Fifteen minutes?

I mean, it's like seven threes. Just his like presence when he's just like, remember me. And then he carried that over to some network stuff. He plays, Yafat Koto plays the, FBI agent who's looking for both of these guys and then De Niro Steele's stuff and there you go. Joe Panelliano, who has his own award on this podcast, the Joey Pants Award. This was during a stretch where he stopped being that guy and he really kind of became Joe Pan Aliano in this movie because he had been in risky business and running scared and

Eddie and the Cruisers and he had all these things. And then by this one, it's like, all right, who is that guy? that's Joe Panelliano. One of the great ones. Died here, by the way. And then Philip Baker Hall as Dennis Farina's lawyer. So by this strict letter of the Dionne Wader's law, it's Panellano,

as making the most of your opportunity. Over Dennis Farina? Dennis Farina is in like five scenes. They had to film all of them in Vegas because he was doing crime story. He's barely in it, and he's completely over the top. I go Farina.

We can agree to disagree. I'm just going to give you some phrenna lines. I'm going to stab you through the heart with a fucking pencil. Sidney, relax, have a cream soda. Don't say a word to me, Sydney. Don't say a fucking word to me. I'll get up and I'll bury this telephone in your head. I don't know.

He's doing this all while wearing a baggy gray and black sweater. Yeah. And was global warming not a thing yet? Like, why was it so temperate in Vegas where they are? Very, very, yeah. It was a cool, cool week in Vegas when they filmed this movie. Farina, my favorite Farina performance, going way, way back, the first Miami Vice season, he plays a mob boss called Lombard.

And it's probably one of the best three start to finish Miami vices. And he's this kind of mob boss who's in trouble. And at the end, I think he ends up either getting killed or he's about to get killed. And then he played a mob boss in crime story. And then he played, and he became typecast as like a mob boss. He's either a cop or a mob boss. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was actually a Chicago cop in real life for like 18 years before he became an actor.

My favorite Farina. This is the best version of Farina. My favorite Farina is probably in Manhunter. He's good at Manhunter. As the, as Will Peterson's boss. I think, did you like Chas Pomerterian in Broxtow? I thought he was okay. He's fine.

I think Farina's better in it. Farino also very good and out of sight as Jennifer Lopez's father. Oh, yeah. I'm off for Dennis Farina. The Joey Pants Award, it was an all-time that-guy extravaganza, as we discussed. There's a couple of these that guys are not that guys anymore. We said their names, but like more on number one and more on number two, both that guys. The dad from my so-called life, who's also in this movie, who's an F-by-A-A-age.

And then one of the great, great that guys, Eddie Mascone's sidekick. who's dimming him out. It's Jack Kehoe, right? Why don't I go get some donuts? Like, should I go get some donuts? An unbelievable that guy. But we have to give it to Joey Pants because the awards named after him.

Half-assed Internet research. A couple things. Groden has permanent scars resulting from the real handcuffs he had to wear for a great deal of this film, not to mention all the takes. That'd be a great thing. Is Charles Groton alive? Yeah.

All right. If there's ever a Charles Groton podcast, I'm going to ask him to see the permanent scars. The box car scene in, entirely improvised on the set. We talked about that. De Niro got so into this part that John Ashton said

during the fight scene on the train, he actually punches Marvin. Got that into it. Actually, literally punched him. The script originally had Marvin die in the scene where Serrano Stugs knocked him out, but they felt like the climax

would have been less dramatic and suspenseful without him. They shoehorned him into the McCarran airport scene. So there you go. Let's take one more break. Let's talk about freshly tired of spending hours on dinner or trying to master those meal kits. Do you do meal kits, Chris?

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at freshly.com slash re-watchables. Okay. Apex Mountain. Groden, yes. Yes. I didn't even think that's a debate. De Niro's complicated. It's not.

It can't be. But it is a high step on the way to the apex. What is your apex for De Niro to curiosity? Is it Marvin's room? It's probably taxi driver. Marvin's room? I would say his apex has to be Raging Bull. Okay.

Coming off Godfather 2. I have to say I think Goodfellas is pretty high up there. Well, it's way up there. It's weird because he's had multiple apexes. because for me personally, Midnight Run is his apex. Because I just loved De Niro and I don't think anyone else could have played that part. Right.

Nearly as well and made it the movie that it was. But then you get to Casino and it's like, now we have this familiarity with De Niro, we've seen him and all these things. And then he comes into our life as Jimmy Conway and there's anticipation with it. It's like Scorsese's making a mob movie. De Niro's in it.

Yeah. And that was really the hook. We didn't, oh, it's based on this Henry Hill thing, but we didn't know that much about it. But De Niro was in it, had this credibility and anticipation. So you could argue that was his apex, that he had built his career to the point that it was like De Niro Scorsese. What, when? Where is it?

Dennis Frieda, yes. John Ashton, I still think Beverly Hills Cop 2. Beverly Hills Cop 2 over Midnight Run. He's unbelievable in Cop 2. Doesn't he get shot in the beginning of Cop 2? No, his wife leaves him. It's all jokes about how his divorce with Judge Reinhold. just making fun of him for his divorce all the time.

Joey Pants? I mean, Joey Pants has done a lot of really good movies. He's great in Memento. He's great in The Matrix. But this is my favorite Joey Pants. I think this is his apex because he becomes Joey Pants. Also, Joey Pants has to do so much that's basically like running to Chin Luz or saying like, Jack, Falsh got the Duke.

He asked him as my second favorite quote in the movie. He called me 10 minutes ago yelling and screaming and telling me. to me go fuck myself. You're telling me to go fuck myself. I don't know what I'm telling me go fuck myself. Then everybody else, whatever. So last week we asked the listeners to tweak the Danny Treo category for us. Because we had already decided that Danny Trao should be in every movie. A couple people did variations of the idea that I'm going to use and adopt.

So I can't give one person credit. But we picked three actors. And we have to decide which one of those three would have been the best in this movie. And here are the three that I've settled on. I haven't even told you this. Okay. Danny Treo. Steve Bouchemi.

Okay. Michael K. Williams. In 1988 or just in general? We're taking them out of a time machine in their primes and we can put them in this movie. Which one are you picking? For Midnight Run. For Midnight Run. I think it's obvious.

Bushemi. Yeah. This is a fun game. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah, it's a good one. Yeah. I think Bouchemey could have played seven parts in this movie. He could have been more number one or number two.

The donuts. Yeah, it could have been the donuts guy. He could have been Joey Pants. Yeah. He could have been one of the FBI agents. He probably could have snuck him in as the Duke if you're trying to save a little buddy. Yeah. Yeah.

Fun category. Thank you for all the suggestions. The Mark Ruffalo, they do! Which is also now the Robert Shaw and Jaws. Bill Simmons as Robert Chaw as Quint Mark Ruffalo they do slash Simmons Quint

Who overacts in this movie? I don't know Nobody really overacts I would say that I'd say that Pantiliano never really modulates his performance very much in a good way Yeah everybody's telling me to go fuck myself

Pickinits other than the eight people getting knocked out which we discussed earlier Number one, they made three sequels. They did? Three TV movies starting in 1994 with Christopher Christopher McDonald playing Jack Walsh. I don't know that.

I'm not against Christopher McDonald. Boy, that was a time when you could just like kind of fire those into space and no one would notice, man. Yeah, I think I don't know, straight to video or what. The sequels were called another midnight run, midnight run around and midnight run for your life. I live my life pretending they never happened. Okay.

I suggest you do the same. It bothers me. I remember there's a time in the, in the blockbuster era of running movies. And we had a great piece on Grayland this week about Blockbuster. You'd see the, mid-dun run, you'd have this split second. They'd have a Midnight run sequel. And then you realize it was the Christopher Murthano one.

So fuck you for that. My biggest nitpick is the Serrano got the disc. Jack Walsh basically gets caught. He finally gets caught. He loses the Duke. He's now officially run out of time to get the Duke back to L.A. unless he can somehow get the Duke back in the next. 18 hours. He's with Mosley on the FBI. He's impersonated for the last week, which seems like a

federal crime that you go to jail for a long time. Yeah, it's a felony. You'd go to jail for a long time. Not to mention all the other stuff he does on this whole road trip. Comes up on the plane. He's like, I have a way to get Serrano. I'll give him these discs. We'll say they have information or whatever the criminal information, he'll take them and you'll be able to get him for whatever. It was like state racketeering charges or something like. Dennis Frieda's like, cool, good plan. Let's go.

Yeah, Vlad of Vegas. Yavakota's like, I will throw the full force of the federal government behind this plan that a bounty hunter came up with on a plane. That bounty hunter who's been impersonating me for a week. And then they go in and now he's relying on this crazy ex-cop who's been impersonating him to pull off this crazy plan. Surrento's death that's this

Move in Jimmy There's something I've been wanted to say to you for 10 years Oh yeah What's that You're under arrest It's a flaw

It's the flaw of the movie Anything else you have? Yeah I know that I can People will probably respond to this By saying well It's like this I find it

A challenge to believe That someone with the mental acuity of Marvin Especially after going through So much head trauma Throughout this movie consistently is able to get ahead of the Duke and Walsh's westbound traveling. So it's like he's in Pittsburgh when they leave New York.

Yeah. But he is able to find the specific train that they are on and easily get into their car. And then is able to catch up with them multiple times across the country. And he remembers his Amex card. Yeah, he remembers he has Jack Walsh's Amex card written down. That he cancels. So I always, I was always just a little challenge to believe that like they are always able to This is especially in a world where, you know, Eddie calls Dorfler and he's just like in that hotel room.

Like he just knows what hotel room he's in. Or when they're calling Tony Darvo and it's like just call this matchbook and they'll put you through to wherever I am. It's like, how the hell did we ever get in touch with each other back in the 80s? That's a really good nitpick. Plus he had four concussions. So he was like, I got to cancel my credit card. Yeah. I can't remember any of the digits because I have severe trauma.

I don't know what my own name is. Probably unanswerable questions. I really only have two. One is how long does the Duke actually stay alive? I feel like he's dead within six months. Probably. Well, I guess the Serrano's in jail. He's still putting the word out through the bosses and stuff.

And then does Jack Walsh are, or this is actually a multi-part question, does Jack Walsh actually use the money to start the coffee shop? Yes. Where is the coffee shop? I was just going to ask you what Los Angeles. coffee shop or diner. Do we think it's L.A. area or does he go like Echo Park? Does he pick an up-and-coming neighborhood? Well, in my

dream of dreams, there is a collapsing of the singularity and Jack Walsh opens the restaurant that Neil McCauley takes 802. It's a book about metals. Yeah. So why are you so interested in what I do? But yes, I do think he opens a coffee shop.

But where is it? Oh, hi. Oh, you think he goes outside of Iowa? Yeah, I think he moves to the country. It starts over. Just smokes in Ohio. I think it's in early. I think it's in Korea Town.

I think he got in early and then it got destroyed in the riots. Okay. Then that's our sequel. His coffee shop's in Korea Town. Loses the coffee shop. I don't think that has the same tone as Midnight Run. Who won the movie? De Niro from me.

De Niro. De Niro. It's my favorite De Niro performance ever. This is a good fellas. This is good. This is one A, Jimmy Conway's one B. Probably third place,

Godfather too, because he's doing like a young Brando impersonation that's kind of crazy when you think about it when you're watching it, he's like, I'm not only creating a character

but I'm creating a character based on what I feel like Marlon Brando's interpretation of this character. would have been 30 years earlier. She's fucking crazy acting. Heat for... Taxi driver, original bull.

Raging Bull 5. Okay. He really perfected the I'm getting a crazy shape. I rewatched Deer Hunter again recently, which is a tough hang, but he is incredible in. Deer Hunter is kind of an amazing movie. Yeah. And it's, like, nephew, Kyle, would fall asleep and take nine cigarette,

breaks during it. But the first hour of it and the wedding and Merrill Street. It's also another like, oh, John Cazal only made the four best movies of all time. De Niro wins honorable mention for Gerdin. And then all the that guy people. And then you can make a case, Danny Elfman's in there. And then Martin Brest. I think De Niro wins it.

De Niro wins it. Do we do Best Quote? Oh, best quote is. But it's like the entire movie. best quotes the entire movie but I think the one iconic iconic quote is here come two words for you

shut the fuck up Yeah can we I want to see I've said that one the most Jack you're a grown man You have control over your own words You're goddamn right I do so Here come two words for you

Shut the fuck up It's just hilarious It's timeless It's I want to put a special shout out To one that's not exactly Um It's not exactly like this

As profane or funny as the rest of them but the scene in the next life, Jack. Yeah. The end of this movie is astonishing. Yeah. The gesture that they make at the end, that he makes at the end,

and the way in which it's like, he hangs up on Eddie and he lets him go. And he's like walking away, and he's like, it would have been a nice coffee shop, you know, and he starts to walk away. And that the way that they have the happy ending where he's just like, it's not a bribe, you already let me go.

When I was making my getaway, I thought the FBI was closing it. on me take it take it I took some traveling I take it take it it's not a payoff it's a gift you already let me go you son of a bitch you son of a bitch I wish you had money I know you had money

I didn't know you had money you know you had money you know it's so good but to see you in the next life is just such a perfect thing because it's like these guys are never going to be friends these guys are never gonna have it that's why there can't be a sequel to this movie yeah Gruden has to go to the Virgin Islands or like some you know, some tax haven and Jack's going to do probably stay a bounty hunter. But it's just so great.

Jack's probably never going to see his kid again or not for another nine years. They're not changed, but there is this moment of recognition for each other. That was a borderline nitpick for me. Groton has all this money on him. They never ever is like, I'm going to break character to do that. Grotin, this whole movie, it turns out he has a money belt on him that has how much money you think. But I think that the whole point of that. How much money do you think he had on him?

Like 500 grand? 500 grand. Yeah. And I think the whole point is that if he ever is with Marvin or anybody else, he would try. Because he says to Jack in the beginning, he's like, I'll double whatever Eddie's giving you for me. Yeah. So, you know, he obviously was trying to bribe Jack. That's also a borderline nitpick that Jack won't take a bribe.

Well, I think it's pretty consistent, though. But we'll impersonate a federal officer to try to nick money. Like, what? What are your moral standards? It steals Marvin's car and caves his head in four times. Yeah. What are your moral standards? I think Grodin at some point sneaks out maybe a thousand.

Also, do they have $1,000 bills? What could have been? $100. I think they have hundreds. Yeah. So he couldn't have grabbed $100? Said he found it on the street. Yeah.

Oh my God. This is our lucky day and done it that way. I mean, super hungry. Yeah. Seating triso and eggs. I'm good with these cigarettes. I need these cigarettes. Anything else?

Trezo and eggs. Anything else? No. All right. Midnight run. A classic. I don't know where it's streaming. Hopefully we got Nephrykoyo excited enough to.

Yeah, hopefully we got Nephikayo excited enough to see it. Next week, we have a vote right now. By the time you hear this, we put four movies up there. It was Fury Road in the lead? Mad Max had a slight, slight edge over Bad Boys, too. So see my Twitter feed to see who won that one. And then the week after that is diehard. We're taping diehard at the Nakatomi Plaza, it looks like.

Yeah. A week from, they're doing this 30th anniversary diehard screening at the plaza. So check out next week. I'm not going to be on next week's one, but I will be on the diehard one. Chris Ryan? See you in the next life, Bill. See you in the next life, Chris Ryan. Thanks to Freshly, if you're tired of spending hours on dinner trying to master those meal kits,

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Thanks as well to Lisa, L-E-E-E-S-E, a quality night's sleep. Helps you prevent burnout, make better decisions, improve your memory. John Ashton's character, Midnight Run, definitely needs us. He's four concussions. He needs a better memory. Design a better mattress. Lisa leveraged 30 plus years of experience and hundreds of hours of testing to develop the perfect mattress for all body shapes and sleeping styles.

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