A genius grad student organizes an all-night treasure hunt in which five rival teams composed of colorful oddballs furiously match wits with one another while trying to locate and decipher various cryptic clues planted ingeniously around Los Angeles.
Midnight Madness is a comedy adventure movie brought to us from the fine folks over at Disney! That's right. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh. The whole lot. Now, I understand that Disney puts out a lot of things with different companies. But Midnight Madness was released officially by the mouse. This is the first Disney movie that I have seen with such overt sexual content. It's wonderful!
The plot is in the same vein as movies like Cannonball Run or It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. This movie just mixes in a bit of Animal House and other College Comedies of the era. Five teams of bombastic stereotypical young-adults set out on a treasure hunt. They follow clues that lead them to locations with more clues. The winners are given a trophy. The secondary plot follows Adam and his brother Scott as they try to bond.
The teams are color coded. Green, Blue, Red, White and Yellow. The Green team is the Jocks. Your stereotypical meat-heads appropriately driving a cropped VW Bug called the Meat Wagon. Dirk Blocker plays Blaylock who has some hilarious scenes at a Pabst Blue Ribbon factory. Easily the best jock. The Blue team are jerks. Stephen Furst of Animal House is the leader. He is short tempered and seems unenthused. The Red team is the female group. Their memorable members are these obese twins that giggle, a lot. The White team are nerds. Their led by Eddie Deezen.
The Yellow team is our star team. This is the featured team of the film. It features your stars like David Naughton, Debra Clinger, David Damas, Michael J. Fox and Joel Kenney as Flynch. Flynch is your McLovin' character. Fox is making his film debut in Midnight Madness. It's also an early feature that cameos Paul Rubens before his Pee-Wee Herman fame.
Midnight Madness is fun. It's a comedy with light raunch that is entertaining above all things. It has it's issues. But all of that is overshadowed by the fact that this is a Disney movie with boob jokes! You can't beat it.
Pretty good fun.
I was expecting a little more enjoyment given the premise, but 'Midnight Madness' is still amusing enough; even with its over-reliance on fat jokes. None of the characters are particularly likeable either, though they do have their quirks which makes it entertaining.
Michael J. Fox makes his feature film debut here, which is very interesting to see - even if his role isn't the biggest. Stephen Furst (Harold) and Eddie Deezen (Wesley) are the only others from the various teams that standout to me.
Events start to drag as the film goes through its 112 minute run time, but it just about keeps to the right level.