Audience Member
90's television fodder. Mark Hamill plays an escaped unhinged but somewhat likable mental case so this forgotten movie has one asset.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
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Audience Member
I mean, how could I not watch this movie? It's got Michael Dudikoff, Mark Hamill and Robert Mitchum improbably together in a riff on The Hitcher or The Vanishing or any other number of hitchhiking maniacs on the road movies.
Dudikoff is a cop who is more married to his job than to his Russian wife Lara, who finally decides to drive off and then make the decision to pick up Justin Mckay (Hamill), who grew up with a mother who parted her sister's hair with a butcher knife and has passed on the willingness to kill to her son.
Over one brutal evening, Lara must ride with the killer as he destroys everyone he can, ending with him trying to convince Mitchum, playing a doctor, to give her electoshock therapy against her will.
If you're used to seeing Dudikoff be a ninja — an American Ninja — he barely fights in this. But hey — it's a Cannon Film, which means that it has some level of strangeness, maybe because it was shot in Italy* instead of America, but has stuntman Bob Bralver directing it, who only made one other full-length movie, Rush Week, which isn't all that bad. He's joined by writer Russell V. Manzatt, who also wrote that aforementioned college stalk and slash.
*That's the claim I keep reading, even if IMDB says that it was made in California. I mean, with all the neons and blue color, this could have been a late Italian direct to video movie.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
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Audience Member
This movie is something for sure. Lora's story would've been pretty interesting if they showed her and Lawson's relationship before she left. The movie started with a soft opening of the killer, Justin, trying to buy a card but he doesn't have a card to prove his identity or something. Anyway, his anger gets the best of him and it's obvious that this will play a role in the movie.
Throughout the movie Justin's mental illness becomes more evident and it's obvious that Lora and the people around are growing uneasy. He seems soft and cute but then BOOM! he's taken a woman's eye. A turn off if you ask me.
Lora is one of those tropes that she just continuously ends up in Justin's clutches and she's super chill throughout the movie. Instead of possibly saving one of the girls that Justin kills, she drives off. I mean. . .free for all. She's even super chill when she tells the "cop" that Justin had just killed a woman.
Screw Lawrence, that's all I have to say about him.
Justin is just coming from every place, at the worst possibly times, dressed for his roles. He dresses for his roles and that king doesn't give a shit. He takes pictures of EVERYTHING, Lora's side profile like 15 times and then all the people his k-words. It's great.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
an edge of your seat action/thriller with some slasher moments. excellent movie!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
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Audience Member
Uhm... WTF!? lol.
Raaandooooom!
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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Audience Member
A dark, murder-filled road trip movie in the spirit of 'The Hitcher' and 'Halloween," 'Midnight Ride' manages to be-paradoxically- one of Michael Dudikoff's darkest films, but also an unintentional comedy thanks largely to the "hammy" Mark "Ham"ill (Star Wars).
The plot of the movie is as follows: Michael Dudikoff plays a guy named Lawson Markman (cool name, huh?), who gets in an argument with his Russian mail order wife (or whatever she was supposed to be), and she runs out on him, and he swears up and down that he'll "have every cop in this city lookin' for you!" in a very creepy way, and spends most of the film chasing after her. While driving, Russian bride Lara picks up the unstable drifter, Justin (Mark Hamil), who is on his way to see his "best friend." Justin likes to take pictures of things with his polaroid camera. He also likes cutting out people's eyeballs and making it into a beautiful necklace for Lara; he also finds time to set a few people on fire as well. Along the way, people are strapped to car hoods, eyeballs are cut out, and shoot outs supposed to look "dark" and "scary" are dulled because of completely inappropriate 80s action synthesizer music.
Man, this one was hard. Once again, it's got a lot going for it because of the Dudikoff factor. On the other hand, it's a very different role for him (most of the movie). To be honest, his character is kind of a dick most of the time. I spent much of the first half of the movie wondering who the villain was, Hamil or Dudikoff. I don't know if the script wanted him to come off as passionate and Stanley from 'Streetcar,' but he more just came off as creepy and obsessed like one of those guys who tracks down his wife and kills them or something. That's just my take. Of course, by the end of the movie, he's just plain old likable Mikey, and he saves the day as always. He takes a lot of punishment from Hamil in this- in one scene, he's strapped to the hood of a car while Hamil drives maniacally. He's stabbed, thrown into shit, and just getting his ass kicked (in addition to having a broken foot), and that was kind of hard to swallow, because it's Dudikoff. But anyways.
In all honesty, Mark Hamil steals the show from everyone. He's deliciously hammy as the crazy Justin, and seems to kill somebody every 10 minutes or so. I guess he was going for a crazy guy who strikes terror into people's hearts, but I just found it more hilarious than anything else. He dresses up like every other scene and is always snapping photos. His facial expressions are almost as hilarious as Dudikoff's at some points, and that's just as important here as the physical: this was a showdown of the faces. I loved the bad, cheesy "evil" faces Hamil made almost as much as Dudikoff's vacant, worried expressions.
'Midnight Ride' is only on VHS, so it might be tough for you to find. Hardcore Dudikoff fans will find it well worth their while. It's a different film for our boy, Duds, but, thankfully, he ditches the creepy "obsessed husband" deal and is just the big, lovable, "Santa Fe Ranch style home" designing, goofball we all know and root for by the end.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
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