Reel Quick: Midnight Madness

By Brian @ Hard Ticket to Home Video


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Midnight Madness (1980)

midnight_madness

Starring: David Naughton, Michael J. Fox, Eddie Deezen, Stephen Furst, Dirk Blocker

Directed by: Michael Nankin, David Wechter

Synopsis: A college nerd named Leon inexplicably has two hot girlfriends and uses his inflated sense of self-esteem to plan The Great All-Nighter, which is not a coke-fueled threesome but a scavenger hunt across Los Angeles between five different teams: nerds, jocks, feminists, a-holes and normals.

Best parts: Twin disco dancing. (WARNING: TITILLATING)

Cherry Point (at the end of this awesome compilation of scenes)

Worst part(s): Although Michael J. Fox is always awesome, his character is pretty whiny in this. Sorry you get to run around with your brother and his college friends all night and play a cool scavenger hunt game.

Best line: “FAGA BEEFE!”

Nudity: Despite varying degrees of madness, nobody is mad enough to shed their clothes. But I’m pretty sure Leon’s girlfriends are bra-less, and there’s the waitress’ cleavage that’s crucial to the game.

midnight madness cleavage

Awesome Trivia: The movie inspired Joe Belfiore, a high school junior in Clearwater, Florida, to create a similar game. He took the game with him to Stanford University, then ultimately to Microsoft. The Game, as it came to be called, in turn, inspired the movie The Game.

Overall: No, Eddie Deezen isn’t dead. Writing his article yesterday made my nostalgia loins tingle for my personal favorite Eddie Deezen/Dirk Blocker collaboration: Midnight Madness, one of the many movies I watched dozens of times as a kid thanks to some extremely heavy HBO play. This movie has everything a kid could want: mopeds, cute ladies, and awesome van with flames on it, brightly colored sweatshirts, arcade games, Pabst Blue Ribbon, glass elevators, Eddie Deezen, roller skates, puzzles, cleavage, a guy named Leon, switchblades, cookies, plump twins, disco dancing, soup, an electronic strategy board, a necklace that says “HUG ME,” breaking stuff, Michael J. Fox trying to steal beer, Paul Reubens, Cherry Point, and one of the best theme songs ever. Being a Disney movie it’s readily available and most absolutely worth checking out if you love cheesy-but-awesome nostalgia trips to when Eddie Deezen was KING!

Score: 7.5 fagabeefes (out of 10)

17 thoughts on “Reel Quick: Midnight Madness”

  2. Omg, when I read “normals” at the end of the teams listed I almost choked on the wad of sour patch kids I was chomping on!!!
    And I was floored by how much Deezen looks like Jeff Goldblum while checking out that cleavage.
    This movie looks awesome!

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  4. Like you, I remember watching this as a child on HBO whenever I could. Those were the days long before DVD and instant streaming, so if you liked a movie, you had to invest the time and watch it when it was on. I bought a copy of it on VHS years ago, but you have just reminded me that I need to purchase this on disc.

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