{"id":750876,"date":"2026-06-21T13:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T13:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:15:20","slug":"the-1988-movie-matt-damon-can-quote-every-line-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750876\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1988 movie Matt Damon can quote \u201cevery line\u201d of"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n

Sun 21 June 2026 8:44, UK <\/p>\n

Few actors boast the kind of popularity and cultural pull of Matt Damon<\/a>. Ever since his arrival on the American cinema scene in the early 1980s, Damon showed promise, but it was towards the end of the next decade that the Massachusetts-born actor announced himself as a Hollywood star with his effort in Good Will Hunting, which he also co-wrote.<\/p>\n

From there, Damon never looked back and continued to establish himself as a hero of Hollywood. Countless quality movies have been released with Damon<\/a>\u00a0at their centre, including the likes of\u00a0The Talented Mr Ripley,\u00a0Saving Private Ryan,\u00a0The Departed,\u00a0Syriana,\u00a0The Martian,\u00a0Oppenheimer\u00a0and Christopher Nolan\u2019s upcoming adventure\u00a0The Odyssey.<\/p>\n

Part of Damon\u2019s enduring appeal is his versatility. Whether playing an underestimated genius, an action hero, a morally compromised antihero or a stranded astronaut, he has consistently demonstrated an ability to adapt to vastly different genres without losing his natural screen presence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that Damon has been sought out by some of the most notable directors in American cinema such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan. Damon himself is no stranger to the brilliance of other individuals movies either, and he once named his five favourite films of all time in a feature with Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n

After discussing the brilliance of The Godfather Part II and Goodfellas, Damon named yet another film starring Robert De Niro as his third selection. However, the movie differs from the themes of his first two picks in that it possesses more of a comic element, Martin Brest\u2019s 1988 action comedy Midnight Run.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Credit: Universal<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to put a comedy in there and say Midnight Run,\u201d Damon noted before going to explain why the film was so important to him in his younger years. \u201cThat was a movie that in college and in high school, my friends and I could quote probably every line of that movie. So, I haven\u2019t seen it in a few years now, but that was definitely a favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midnight Run is a brilliant buddy comedy in which Robert De Niro plays Jack Walsh, a hardened ex-cop come bounty hunter, while Charles Grodin takes on the role of Jonathan \u2018The Duke\u2019 Mardukas, a runaway embezzling accountant. The film focuses on Walsh\u2019s being hired to bring Mardukas back to Los Angeles from New York in just five days so he can collect a $100,000 reward.<\/p>\n

Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n

Going on to express his admiration for Brest\u2019s film, Damon explained that he doesn\u2019t see its viewing as a \u201cone-off\u201d, noting, \u201cYou watch it again and again and again. My friends in college, we\u2019re now in our fifties, but we can come up with obscure lines out of that movie and instantly crack each other up through texts.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Damon, Midnight Run is \u201cjust a beautifully acted movie\u201d that still makes him laugh even today. Indeed, much of the film\u2019s overall quality is based on the dynamic chemistry between De Niro and Grodin. De Niro had been known mostly for his serious roles but showed a striking versatility in his comic ability, too, delivering deadpan lines with brilliant comic timing.<\/p>\n

Grodin, on the other hand, seems to be the straight man of the two, dousing Midnight Run in a seriously dry sense of wit. This kind of dichotomy between the two characters is what made Midnight Run such an excellent entry in the De Niro catalogue, and Damon signed off on his thoughts on the actor<\/a> by noting, \u201cI put three of his movies in there! I didn\u2019t do that on purpose. I am a huge fan of his, though, and I love him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damon\u2019s affection for Midnight Run highlights what has made the film such a lasting favourite among audiences. Beyond the sharp script and memorable performances, it captures the rare chemistry between two actors operating at the top of their game. Decades after its release, it remains a film that rewards repeat viewings, which perhaps explains why Damon and his friends still find themselves quoting it all these years later.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still Sun 21 June 2026 8:44, UK Few actors boast the kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[143368,360432,64,63,447,134,31174,30815],"class_list":["post-750876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-1980s","tag-360432","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-matt-damon","tag-robert-de-niro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}