Midnight Run with Alan Sepinwall

In a first for Blank Check, Ben Hosley produces an entire episode while handcuffed and under threat of legal action. What else would you expect from a MIDNIGHT RUN episode? The great Alan Sepinwall returns to the pod to talk about Martin Brest’s fantastic cross-country buddy caper, a film that proved that DeNiro could do comedy and that Charles Grodin might be the funniest man alive. We’re talking about the unofficial Larry the Cable Guy sequel (?), the famous casting what-ifs (Cher!), and the magic that went into making this movie so breezy, effortless, and fun. We didn’t know how good we had it back in 1988, did we?
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[@phillipbarlow9387]

Thanks for this! I think I've probably seen "Midnight Run" more times than any movie. It was a "go to" for me & my college roommates, after coming home late on a Friday or Saturday night. People either don't know -- or generally dislike -- "Meet Joe Black." (Which as you point out on this episode, is a little "roomy.") But I've always liked that film. You don't think of Martin Brest as the Hollywood director who emotionally captures father-daughter relationships...but Robert De Niro's 5-minute scene with Danielle DeClos in this movie is unforgettable -- and the Anthony Hopkins - Claire Forlani relationship in "Meet Joe Black" is also an all-timer in my book. I really look forward to your "Meet Joe Black" podcast! When I lived in L.A. I became a movie buff; Bertolucci's "The Conformist" is my favorite film, I've seen the 183-minute cut of Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev" on the big screen, and either Theodoros Angelopoulos ("Landscape in the Mist," "The Travelling Players") or Yasujiro Ozu is my favorite filmmaker. And having spent so much of my life watching, thinking about, and talking about movies -- I only listen to 2 podcasts about film: "Blank Check," and Sean Fennessey on The Ringer. You of course had him as your guest for the "Dr. Strangelove" episode -- and not infrequently, he mentions you guys. Sometimes he'll just say something like, "Griffin and David talked about that recently, on their episode for this film," without providing any frame of reference. I guess it's just one of those things: If you know, you know.

[@XTravoltronX]

As someone who has a vague memory of maybe seeing this as a child, and watching it for the first time this week since, This movie coming out of a vacuum is great, top tier, everyone on their A-game. But watching in the context of Brest's filmography, this movie feels like it was the pitch for Beverly Hills Cop II and I can't stop thinking about how amazing Eddie would be in the Deniro part.

[@phillipbarlow9387]

You just blew my mind! Eddie Murphy and Charles Grodin together? That would've been something to see.

[@XTravoltronX]

@@phillipbarlow9387 Right!? It gives Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder vibes. Like they would probably hate each other off screen but it would've been magic onscreen.

[@Frazbot]

And this is how I find out Midnight Run and Midnight Cowboy are different movies. It's a good one.

[@CineRam]

Would that be the Jackson 5 "I Want You Back"?

[@phillipbarlow9387]

I thought the exact same thing! But it pretty much has to be, doesn't it?

[@luisrizo8813]

Firewall and Iceberg

[@RockyRoyale84]

Midnight Biden