Hello! Welcome to the FREE Monday newsletter where I give you my unsolicited movie recommendations! This week, I’ve rewatched a couple of comedy classics and caught up on another. Without further ado: Midnight Run The best thing about Midnight Run is not the pitch perfect Charles Grodin brand of comedy that is the tea v. coffee scene. It’s not the unexpected emotion of De Niro seeing his daughter for the first time in nine years. It’s not even De Niro’s last line (a perfect, perfect last line). In any other movie, any one of these things would be the best thing in the movie, but that’s the beauty of
Hi, Sammie! Boy, it’s been decades and decades since I’ve watched midnight run. I had forgotten all about the high-tech digital electronic gear they had back then….not! Thanks, Sammie!
Thanks, Sammie! I agree with everyone that you picked three winners. I especially like how you reach back into the "classic Hollywood" era in your reviews. Because of the Hays code, films then had to rely on pretty clever use of dialogue and situations to zip past or through restrictions. The result was writers producing some very sophisticated verbal and visual comedy that has held up for generations. It inspired some of the wickedly funny dry wit and double entendre used in later movies, whether they were comedies or not. For example, I cannot sit through The Lion in Winter without falling apart laughing at some of the dialogue. A non-comedy comic classic.
You picked three real gems. I think I was 9 when I saw Some Like it Hot at Radio City with my parents, and fell in love with MM. But the line I remember, and what might be the best closing line in movie history, is "No one's perfect.". That movie was so far ahead of its time and so influential on so many levels.
Midnight Run is one of the best buddy movies of all time - I rented it on VHS from Blockbuster! Right up there with The 3:10 From Yuma (the remake this time).
I think some re-viewing might be in order. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
Sammie, you picked three huge classics this week. My only sadness is that you saw them on a flat screen, instead of the BIG screen. Imagine this dynamic added to the experience, watching each in a crowded theater on a Friday night. Oh boy. Doesn't get better than that. I was a little older than you when Midnight Run came out. It was so unique, so different, so funny. I watched the other 2 movies in the old repertory houses that projected the classics. Glad to know these play on the small screen too.
Rumour has it that Curtis said that kissing Monroe was like kissing Hitler.....a tad unfair I think. Walked past Curtis at the Avoriaz film festival many years ago......looked too fierce to even thinking about asking for an autograph 😁
Midnight Run - one of my all time favorites. Grodin and DeNiro on that train. So funny!
Thank you Sammie for your perspective on these wonderful comedies. Charles Grodin, like Alan Arkin, brings such understated timing to all his roles.
Hi, Sammie! Boy, it’s been decades and decades since I’ve watched midnight run. I had forgotten all about the high-tech digital electronic gear they had back then….not! Thanks, Sammie!
Thanks, Sammie! I agree with everyone that you picked three winners. I especially like how you reach back into the "classic Hollywood" era in your reviews. Because of the Hays code, films then had to rely on pretty clever use of dialogue and situations to zip past or through restrictions. The result was writers producing some very sophisticated verbal and visual comedy that has held up for generations. It inspired some of the wickedly funny dry wit and double entendre used in later movies, whether they were comedies or not. For example, I cannot sit through The Lion in Winter without falling apart laughing at some of the dialogue. A non-comedy comic classic.
You're right about The Lion in Winter although it was always billed as a comedy on Broadway.
Thanks, I never knew that! I always wanted to see the stage production but never had the opportunity.
I was involved in a production once and did see the Lawrence Fishburne/Stockard Channing version on Broadway.
You picked three real gems. I think I was 9 when I saw Some Like it Hot at Radio City with my parents, and fell in love with MM. But the line I remember, and what might be the best closing line in movie history, is "No one's perfect.". That movie was so far ahead of its time and so influential on so many levels.
Midnight Run is one of the best buddy movies of all time - I rented it on VHS from Blockbuster! Right up there with The 3:10 From Yuma (the remake this time).
I think some re-viewing might be in order. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
Sammie, you picked three huge classics this week. My only sadness is that you saw them on a flat screen, instead of the BIG screen. Imagine this dynamic added to the experience, watching each in a crowded theater on a Friday night. Oh boy. Doesn't get better than that. I was a little older than you when Midnight Run came out. It was so unique, so different, so funny. I watched the other 2 movies in the old repertory houses that projected the classics. Glad to know these play on the small screen too.
Rumour has it that Curtis said that kissing Monroe was like kissing Hitler.....a tad unfair I think. Walked past Curtis at the Avoriaz film festival many years ago......looked too fierce to even thinking about asking for an autograph 😁