Midnight Run (1988)

It is difficult to understand why Robert De Niro did not try his hand at more films like this, given how effective he is within it. He plays Jack Walsh, a bounty hunter asked by his boss to retrieve a mob accountant, Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Charles Grodin), who has gone on the run after having agreed with the FBI to testify against his boss, Jimmy Serrano (played by Dennis Farina). Walsh has five days to find The Duke and get him to Los Angeles, otherwise his boss will have to stump up the £450,000.00 bail bond. The FBI want the Duke back and the mob want him dead, making Walsh's journey with his reluctant companion all the more problematic, especially with a rival bounty hunter on his tail, looking for a slice of the bumper payday Walsh has been promised.
The Duke feigns aviaphobia, leaving Walsh trying to make his way from New York to LA by train, bus, truck and car. The Duke quickly starts to get on Walsh's already frayed nerves and when the rival bounty hunter manages to cancel his credit card, things get really complicated...
The film is directed by Martin Brest, who previously made Beverly Hills Cop and in many ways it is similar in tone to that Eddie Murphy vehicle - profane, quick-paced, funny but not quite as violent or action-packed. Robert De Niro is on excellent form, conveying all of the desperation, frustration and cynicism of his character, yet still managing to keep the performance light and entertaining. Showing long before the Fockers came along that he is an adept comedian, De Niro handles his banter with the Feds with ease and immaculate comic timing and although The Duke could easily have become irritating, Grodin succeeds in making him both sympathetic and endearing.
Coming across as a sort of companion piece to Planes, Trains and Automobiles, this is a hugely enjoyable, perfectly paced film and although the incredible calibre of De Niro's work before and since leaves Midnight Run outside a list of his very best work, Grodin and Brest have come nowhere near being this good since. Indeed, were it not for Beverly Hills Cop, Brest could easily have been dismissed after this as a one-hit wonder. Enjoy.