{"id":10572,"date":"2025-01-14T17:06:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T22:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10572"},"modified":"2025-01-14T17:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T22:06:17","slug":"into-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/14\/into-the-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Into the Night<\/strong> (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal Pictures\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, some bloody violence, brief nudity, sexual content, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ron Koslow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ira Newborn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Paynter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 10, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer,\u00a0 Dan Aykroyd, Bruce McGill, David Bowie, Richard Farnsworth, Vera Miles, Roger Vadim, Irene Papas, Clu Gulager, Kathryn Harrold, Paul Mazursky, Carl Perkins, Stacey Pickren, Art Evans, Jake Steinfeld, Carmen Argenziano, John Landis, Michael Zand, Hadi Sadjadi, Beruce Gramian.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $7.5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Quite honestly, I don\u2019t think Into the Night<\/strong> is all that bad of a movie. True, it\u2019s not up to the standard of some of John Landis\u2019 other movies, but we\u2019re talking about classic comedies like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places and Coming to America. How could any movie possibly measure up to any of those?<\/p>\n

\u00a0When taken on its own terms, Into the Night<\/strong> proves to be an entertaining action-comedy about an insomniac who finds his life turned upside down after helping out a beautiful lady in trouble. Ed Okin (Goldblum, The Big Chill) can\u2019t sleep a wink at night. He works a dead-end job (he\u2019s an aerospace engineer) and he\u2019s just found out that his wife (Pickren) is having an affair with one of her co-workers. On the suggestion of his work friend Herb (Aykroyd, The Blues Brothers), he drives to the airport with the intention of taking a midnight flight to Las Vegas. It\u2019s supposed to add an element of excitement to his life. Turns out he doesn\u2019t even need to leave the airport parking lot for that; it literally jumps right onto the hood of his car. That would be Diana (Pfeiffer, Scarface) who\u2019s being chased by the four Iranian hoods that just killed her male companion. She jumps into Ed\u2019s car and asks him to get her out of there quickly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s just the start of an overnight adventure that finds Ed and Diana encountering dangerous bad guys at every twist and turn. They\u2019re all after the same thing, six perfect emeralds from the Shah of Iran\u2019s treasury that Diana smuggled into the country. Over the course of 36 hours, they also encounter a smooth-talking hit man (Bowie, The Hunger), a Frenchman named Melville (director Vadim) and a wealthy Iranian woman (Papas, Zorba the Greek).<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a lot going on in Into the Night<\/strong>, but the movie\u2019s uneven pacing makes the proceedings seem somewhat less interesting. For example, the movie stops dead in its tracks about three or four times so somebody can explain what\u2019s going on. This proves to be more of a hindrance than a help. What saves the movie is the wonderful chemistry between the two leading actors. Goldblum\u2019s deadpan style is perfect for the reluctant hero at the center of the action. Pfeiffer is a gifted comic actress in addition to being very beautiful. Together, they make a pretty good team. It really makes the viewer wish that the movie itself was better. It\u2019s good, but it should have been great given all the talent involved.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The most notable thing about Into the Night<\/strong> is the large amount of cameo appearances by supporting actors and various filmmakers. The supporting cast includes Bruce McGill (D-Day from Animal House) as Diana\u2019s Elvis impersonator brother, Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story) as Diana\u2019s very wealthy lover; Vera Miles (Psycho) as his bitchy wife, Kathryn Harrold (The Sender) as Diana\u2019s actress friend, rockabilly musician Carl Perkins as a henchman, Dedee Pfeiffer (The Allnighter) as a hooker and fitness expert Jake Steinfeld as a houseboat sitter. It looks like Landis threw a party and invited nearly every notable filmmaker and director he could find.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s who else you will see in Into the Night<\/strong>: Jack Arnold (It Came from Outer Space), makeup artist Rick Baker, Paul Bartel (Eating Raoul), David Cronenberg (Videodrome), Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), Richard Franklin (Psycho II), screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (Jaws), Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Muppet creator Jim Henson, Colin Higgins (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill), Jonathan Lynn (Clue), Paul Mazursky (Down and Out in Beverly Hills), Daniel Petrie (Six Pack), screenwriter Waldo Salt (Midnight Cowboy) and Don Siegel (Dirty Harry). It\u2019s fun to play \u201cSpot the Celebrity\u201d, but it looks like Landis paid more attention to this aspect of the movie than any other. It\u2019s kind of like Cannonball Run for movie buffs and Hollywood insiders. I liked this part of the movie, but I don\u2019t think the more casual viewer will care for it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With all these different people running around, one might think that Into the Night<\/strong> is a real mess. It is a little bit, but it\u2019s the entertaining kind of mess. Like I said, it\u2019s fun to play \u201cSpot the Celebrity\u201d. It has its share of funny moments, but not all of the gags work. Some of them fall flat because Landis takes too long to set them up. There\u2019s also the problem of the movie\u2019s uneven tone. Take the Iranian hoods; Landis depicts them as babbling incompetent fools. It\u2019s fun to watch them act like the Four Stooges. However, they\u2019re also cold-blooded killers. In one scene, they chase down an attractive woman on the beach and drown her in the ocean. Of course they stop to remove their shoes before getting in the water. How can you laugh at something like that?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Into the Night<\/strong> is set in Los Angeles and Landis includes many familiar landmarks like Randy\u2019s Donuts, the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Tiffany\u2019s and (of course) LAX. The movie also boasts a great soundtrack that includes three songs by blues superstar B.B. King (\u201cInto the Night\u201d, \u201cMy Lucille\u201d and a cover of \u201cIn the Midnight Hour\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Overall, I like Into the Night<\/strong>. It\u2019s more interesting than it is hilarious. Of course, I\u2019m a movie geek and it\u2019s definitely something that I would find interesting. What about the average film viewer? Will he\/she like it? That\u2019s hard to say, but I\u2019m going to say probably not. In which case, Into the Night<\/strong> may be the most expensive home movie EVER!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Into the Night (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal Pictures\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, some bloody violence, brief nudity, sexual content, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ron Koslow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ira Newborn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Paynter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 10, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer,\u00a0 Dan Aykroyd, Bruce McGill, David Bowie, Richard Farnsworth, Vera Miles, Roger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Into-the-Night-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10737,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10572\/revisions\/10737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}