User reviews

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain cells a song plays in my head. I can't forget it no matter how hard I try. It's MIDNIGHT MADNESS and it's gonna get to you! Wish i could find a copy of this on a 45rpm record. Five disparate teams head out one night in L.A. for a scavenger hunt for clues instead of physical objects. An unkempt game-master with two gorgeous assistants is the mastermind of all this insanity that's about to be unleashed on L.A. All the teams are stereotypes (this movie being from 1980, before political correctness screwed everything up): the "good guys", the "nerds" led by Eddie Deezen, the dumb beer-loving "jocks", the "we-don't-need-a-man-type ladies", especially the redhead. The giggling twins are a scream, too. And finally, the "bad guys" with Stephen Furst as the leader. Furst is hilarious as the overweight slob Harold, whose attempt to use a computer to decipher the various clues leads to a gooey mess. Movies like this aren't made anymore. These days, movies have to have an "edginess" to them with some dark characters and other nonsense. Go back to the days when the "good guys" led by David Naughton were still good and not hopelessly conflicted. So dump all serious pretensions and go back to 1980. It's MIDNIGHT MADNESS . . .

It doesn't quite deserve the disproportionate number of "10" votes it's received on this web site, but "Midnight Madness" is still a lot of fun. The eccentric Leon (Alan Solomon) organizes a cross-city scavenger hunt for five groups of college students ranging from nerds and jocks to babes and good guys. Each team must decipher a series of clues ("Mr. Carson's obese male child" leads to Johnny's Fat Boy Restaurant, and so on) before racing to the next location to do it again, all the while battling some occasional dirty tricks from rivals. The actual laughs few and far between, but you can't deny "Midnight Madness" carries heaps of cheesy '80s appeal. Look for Michael J. Fox (billed without the middle initial) in his film debut.

I had completely forgotten about "Midnight Madness" until just now when I found it while surfing the IMDB. Now, it's all coming back to me....

It was one of Naughton's first movies (as well as Fox's) and sharp-eyed connoisseurs will also pick out Kaplan (Henry from TV's "Alice"), Fiedler (he does the voice of Piglet in the "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons) and Blocker (son of Dan "Hoss" Blocker from TV's "Bonanza").

But the two that stand out in my mind are Furst (from "Animal House") and the superdude himself - Eddie Deezen. Furst plays a baddie this time out and has one of the best scenes when he asks his dad, "Why can't you just accept me for who I am?" His dad looks over his obese, slovenly frame and gives a simple, one-word response - "Yuck!"

And Deezen... well, he's a show in himself. As a latter-day Jerry Lewis he stumbles around, wades through mini-golf ponds, puts melon halves on his ears and ends up having Maggie Roswell fall for him. My hero.

As for the film, it's typical early-'80s stupidity with college kids staying up after curfew and going on a city-wide scavenger hunt to prove which division of students is the best on campus: the jocks, the nerds, the rich kids, the feminists or the group made up of a little of each.

Who wins? Who cares, you'll have a lot of fun watching Disney Pictures' first foray into PG territory before creating Touchstone Pictures.

Seven stars. Catch "Midnight Madness" any way you can!

Long live Leon!

I watched this film for the first time not too long ago. What I found was a nostalgia trip to the early eighties with the extremely "happy" disco laden theme song and the 2 roller skating beauties with nice "smiles" in the opening credits. There was an innocence and sense of fun to this movie that is lacking in today's movies. The film doesn't try to be too clever for it's own good or cynical which I actually found to be refreshing.

The plot centers around a scavenger hunt around L.A. set up by a future Bill Gates type named Leon who is adorned by his lovely assistants. The invitees for this challenge are 5 color coded groups representing every campus comedy stereotype (Jocks, Nerds, Alienated girls, the protagonists and the villains). They find themselves at Griffith Observatory, a Video arcade and the Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery among other places hunting down clues to get them to the next location and ultimately the big prize that awaits them at the end. The film loses its campy momentum when it addresses the big brother-little brother issue between David Naughton and Michael J. Fox, these actors play extremely bland characters compared to the madcap supporting cast.

I found myself smiling and even chuckling in parts although the film was predictable, contrived not to mention, dated but upbeat and entertaining all the same.

It's good to be entertained and not have your brain taxed every now and again in this day and age of cynicism and self-referential smugness which runs in abundance in today's cinema.

This is the perfect antidote to the dark malaise seen in too many films now.

Graduate student Leon (Alan Solomon) sends out invitations to five other students to participate in a night long scavenger hunt called The Great All Nighter. At first the five scoff at the idea and refuse, but through either gestating rivalries, bravado, or pressure all change their minds and embark on a energized and chaotic rush through Los Angeles.

Midnight Madness was the 2nd movie from Walt Disney Pictures to carry the PG rating (the first being the previous years The Black Hole). Midnight Madness unfortunately was not a success during it's initial release either commercially or critically, and even was branded a "Dog of the Week" on Siskel & Ebert's Sneak Previews. But despite this the movie has attained a small but devoted cult following thanks in no small part to airings on cable television, and I'm pleased to say the following is well deserved.

The movies strength is in its simplicity. The movie follows five teams who are all varying degrees of broad stereotypes which helps to set the tone from the onset. The teams include the nice guy Yellow Team led by David Naughton, the Blue Team consisting of jerks and snobs led by Steven Furst, the Red Team of a unpopular sorority lead by future Simpsons voice actress Maggie Roswell, the White Team of nerds lead by Eddie Deezen, and the Green Team consisting of a group of muscle headed jocks who call themselves "Meat Machine". Once the movie gets going with the Great All Nighter, it throws everything but the kitchen sink at the teams and puts them in shenanigans of varying degrees of outlandishness and uses Los Angeles city setting quit,e effectively. The Griffith Observatory, Pabst Brewing Company, LAX, and Hollywood Walk of Fame are used for some memorable scenes and are a lot fun. Even Leon, whose sole purpose is to oversee the game, gets some great moments as he buts heads with his landlady while his neighbors who are initially annoyed eventually become enthralled in watching the game (much to his landlady's ire).

Midnight Madness isn't a great comedy, but it is a good comedy. Playing like a softer edged version of Up the Creek or Animal House, the movie has the same level of zany energy as other Animal House inspired movies but doesn't have the raunch. For what the movie is, I recommend it.

I'm not going to knock the technical aspects or acting in this movie. I just simply want to say I enjoyed it when I was a kid watching it almost daily on cable TV. I thought it was a cool concept to have this sort of game and I suppose I thought it had a "zany" comic touch.

I was delighted to find it on DVD one day as I wondered the aisles of a local video store. I picked it up and subjected my closest friends to a personal viewing. Their response was less than lukewarm. I guess you had to see it before becoming an adult to give it an unbiased viewing; before seeing many other b-grade movies.

I found I had a far greater appreciation for it. My favorite things about this movie: 1. The blue team's high-tech on-board clue-solving computer 2. Paul Ruebens's brief appearance in the arcade scene 3. The visit to the Pabst brewery

It's an innocent and harmless way to blow an afternoon!

Well I just discovered IMDb from my twin sister, Carol. Carol and I played the "Fat Identical Twin" in Midnight Madness. We didn't have to prepare much for the fat part, that came with us, and well and the rest was natural. ;) It was our first major film role and we had a blast making it. We were 21 at the time and lived about an hour and half from The Disney Studio in Burbank and the Hollywood, California area. We grew up in front of the TV and probably some of the first generation of latch-key-kids. Twenty years later, we still have lots of fun and are still 'heavy' or what ever is politically correct these days. We don't pursue acting any more but have been know to 'come back' when the right opportunity arrives. Carol is a Chiropractor in our home town of Southern California and I am in the Information Technology field in Georgia.

I maybe bias, but I thought the film was cute, clean and fun. We knew it wasn't a master piece or an Oscar nominee, however, it was and still is a movie the whole family can watch and have fun together. It's nice not to have to worry if your young children can watch a video without having to fast forward certain parts. And no one was more exited when it was released on video as Carol and I were. Carol found it at Kmart for $6.99! Now that's an inexpensive way to capture one's memories and share it with others.

Sincerely, Betsy Lynn and Carol Gwynn; The Thompson Twins

I always used to say that Weird Science was my favorite movie until I found this movie. I grew up in the 80's but had not seen this movie since we didn't have HBO or cable TV back then. By the time the late 80's hit we (my brother and my friend down the street) were all watching horror movies at sleepovers so I missed seeing this somehow. Fast forward to the days of the Internet and I found this movie for free on YouTube but broken into parts and I was delighted to find the perfect movie. There's no cuss words or bloody violence, no nudity or sex, and no drug use. (except for when Blaylak jumps into the vat of beer at the Pabst Brewery, but I give it a pass). This movie transports me back in time to a time when I was still watched over by my parents and older brother and sister only being 4 years old in 1980. This was a time when if you went out to eat at a restaurant it was with your whole family. There was no one speaking about reptilians back then, however Land of the Lost had come out, so people did know about Sleestaks. I love the whole progression of the scavenger hunt, and especially at the beginning when they're looking up at the stars, knowing that the sky wasn't polluted with as many satellites as there are today. I still like to go outside and look at the stars and pretend that I'm under the protection of this movie. You know when people check up on you and ask if you've been keeping it PG? I think this would have been the movie that they had in mind, as this movie can't really be faulted for too much, no matter how bad the Siskel & Ebert review is of this movie. Midnight Madness truly is good clean family fun in an old school way. I need the same protections today that I would have had back then when the movie came out, being watched over, cared for and loved.

Cheesy, yep. Good acting, now, for the most part. A bit nostalgic, yep.

I will admit my favorite part of the movie was realizing that Scott was played by a very young Michael J Fox. And he was good even back then.

Peewee Herman makes a very brief appearance as well.

Mindless entertainment, for the most part. Feels a bit like Revenge of the Nerds meets Gumball Rally or something.

Reasons to watch -

* Michael J Fox * Leon, he's pretty funny * Peewee Herman brief appearance * That late 70's low budget comedy feel

Reasons not to watch -

* Something better is on

They don't make movies like this anymore – though some may say that's a good thing. Although this was amongst the first of Disney's PG rated films, it has more of the feel of the G films their studio turned out in the‘70s (i.e. "Freaky Friday," "The World's Greatest Athlete") than the PG films that came out in the early ‘80s (i.e. "Watcher in the Woods," "Tron," "Something Wicked This Way Comes"). Because of Disney's backing, "Midnight Madness" obviously had a large budget. A huge cast and a ton of diverse locations go to show that. But zaniness, a madcap scavenger hunt, and spectacular visual style weren't enough to save the film from being an enormous flop... A failure at the box office, most of us were introduced to the film on HBO in the early ‘80s, back in the days when the same films would be shown 29 times a week (Oh, wait – they still do that!). Essentially HBO did for this film what CBS did for "The Wizard of Oz" – they created an enormous cult audience for a sugary-sweet mega-flop....

The biggest problem that makes this a "bad" film is that there's too many characters and very few of them are fleshed out – Eddie Deezen's "squad" don't even have names! The blue team, although they're the villains, are the most endearing and have the most work put into their characters (with the exception of the girl, who can't act & doesn't have enough to do). Harold, perfectly played to the hilt by Stephen Furst, is really the only one whose character is fully realized in the film. The other standout character is goof-off Melio, played with tons of charm by now-director Andy Tennant. Although then-Dr. Pepper spokesman David Naughton was supposed to be the star, his character often comes off obnoxious, particularly when pitted against his brother Adam, Michael J. Fox. While everyone has favorite characters, I don't think anyone who loves the movie could disagree that Furst and Fox are the only two characters that you really learn anything about.

Despite the film's many flaws and bad actors (most of whom fell off the face of the earth after this movie) it still works because the actors appeared to be having fun -- and fun on the set equals fun on the screen. Come on, what college jock doesn't dream of floating around in a beer vat and what zoftig girl doesn't dream of stealing the show at the local discotech... er... I guess it would be at a rave nowadays... Campy, squeaky-clean fun for anyone who was young in the ‘70s & ‘80s, it's only fitting that this has finally gotten the massive video release that it deserves. But where the hell's the widescreen DVD release with the commentary, trailer and the full version of the song that plays in the disco?

i taped this as a teenager in the mid 80s based upon the synopsis in the cable guide (the scavenger hunt aspect appealed to me), having no knowledge or expectations of the film. what a pleasant surprise when i viewed it! this was such a fun film and i remember watching it repeatedly. i thought that the concept was well executed, i enjoyed the harmless competition between the different groups, and i thought that the scavenger hunt itself was quite clever. sometimes it seems that people have far too great expectations for movies. not all movies are going to have a weighty "message" or stellar acting, production values, or special effects. sometimes movies are just meant to entertain and be fun, and this one succeeds on both levels. it was so nice to read the comments from the actors who played the twins. i haven't seen this movie in years, but if i did i think i'd have just as warm and enthusiastic a reaction to it as i did as a teenager. even as i type this, snippets of the cheesey yet appropriate theme song are running through my head: "when midnight madness starts to get to you...it doesn't matter what you say, it doesn't matter what you do...!"

This movie is mind-numbingly awful, it makes you wonder how it's possible that people actually got paid for doing this, it's that bad. The story makes no sense, the actors seem to be doing a bad job on purpose, not to mention that it is as cheesy as can be (and not in a good way).

I remember watching this as a kid and decided to watch it just for the nostalgia (knowing it would not be a good movie), but wow, I wasn't expecting it to be THIS bad.

You will cringe every time you hear those fat twins laugh, makes you want to put a fist through the TV.

The only thing noteworthy is that you can see Michael J Fox and Pee Wee Herman before they were famous, it's amazing that this steaming pile of movie s**t didn't end their careers.

I saw this movie a few days ago for the third time. Boy that movie is such a riot! Leon sure knew how to make a great game with his two girls Candy and Sunshine. I loved it when his apartment kept filling up with nosey tenates who keep complaing about the noise and they wind up joining the fun listening to the results of the game. The teams were pretty cool even though they were stereo types. I now use that new word all the time that Barf made up "faga beefe" to aggravate my brothers. This movie has no sex or terrible violence Very few swear words are heard. Plus they great gags that were new in the 80's thats still funny today. I have a lot of comments to say about this film. I just love the two twins Peggy and Lulu,when they were dancing, eating a man out of business, stealing a man's tow truck and giggling all through out the movie made me laugh and cry. The white team Aka the Nerds were very histarical when they got into a food fight and dressed as bellhops. The Green Team aka the Meat Machine were funny too when they destroyed the arcade and had a run in with the Paps Beery. The Blue team was the best in the movie since they were the crooked team. The yellow team turned out to be the most boring team and also caused most of the cheesy scenes to happen. I'm not going to tell you who wins though, thats the secret of the movie which is sort of expecting. Still over all if you want to make milk come out of your nose buy this film before its too late. I give it nine out of ten stars because of the cheesy parts and the end was too expecting.

Midnight Madness is a fun, silly movie that details a scavenger hunt through the city of Los Angeles one night. There's nothing serious about this film, but I didn't mind that and was able to watch the movie all the way through (always a good sign). You can see MIchael J. Fox in a very early role here and the others do an adequate job. I wouldn't go buy this, but if it's on tv or you're looking for a silly comedy to rent, go for it.

It was 1980, a new decade at Disney Studios and they were looking for new ventures, new stars and new audiences. Crime mystery, horror-fantasy, and suburban-comedy films were what the 80s were all about at Disney.

Midnight Madness was released without any mention of Disney involvement at the time in an attempt to gain a wider audience that believed the Disney name was intended for younger children. The film, rated PG was something fairly new for the studio as well (Touchstone not having been established yet). Some of the stars of the film had previously been in more adult fared films (like Stephen Furst from Animal House) or were unknowns (like Michael J. Fox).

The film helped to jumpstart the career of Michael J. Fox (who would later go on to star in Back to the Future and Family Ties) and also also started a legacy of college aged kids creating their own citywide scavenger hunts. Another film, released just the year before, called Scavenger Hunt with Roddy McDowall and Cloris Leachman has the same concept, teams or groups collecting objects around the city in an attempt to win a grand prize.

All I can say is this is the perfect movie to see on a late Saturday night watching the USA Network or TNT. This movie is a classic for the MTV Generation (I imagine the MTV Generation was the people living at the time the M in MTV stood for "music" instead of "merde"). For those of us who remember the 80's, this is nostalgia a-go-go. Only the early 80's sword-& -Magic fantasy films (the Beastmaster, Krull , Conan and Dragon Slayer) would beat such Saturday nights.

Probably the only Disney film to feature extensive Pabst Blue Ribbon product placement and an actress credited at the end as playing "Busty Waitress", Midnight Madness came out in the late 70s/early 80s period of madcap raunchy youth comedies like Animal House and The Hollywood Knights, and its intent was apparently to capitalize on that market while retaining a shiny Disney veneer of innocent fun.

Essentially a more youthful, more superficial It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but with college kids and the object of their competition being an inexplicably appealing trophy instead of cash, Midnight Madness is similarly silly, fast-paced, and irresistible if you don't take your movie viewing habits too seriously. Adding to its charm is its loose 70s feel, with a cute disco theme song sung by Donna Fein setting the tone for the proceedings.

Among the cast of dweeby dozens you get Animal House's Stephen Furst, a young Michael J. Fox, Dr. Pepper commercial star David Naughton, legendary supernerd Eddie Deezen, and, in a small part, the future Pee Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens. Catch Midnight Madness tonight and thrill as delinquent arcade dork Michael J. sweats teenage angst and asks in complete earnestness, "What do I look like, a nerd or something?"

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. Nice theme song, too!

Grad student Leon recruits five captains to form teams to compete in "The Great All-Nighter" where they solve clues to go on the road. Yellow leader Adam Larson (David Naughton) is a nice guy. Blue leader Harold (Stephen Furst) is a lazy slob. Red leader Donna has her sisters from an unpopular sorority. Wesley (Eddie Deezen) leads the nerdy White team. Lavitas leads the offensive line on the Green team. Every one of them laugh off Leon at first but they are all pushed into the game.

This is Disney doing its silly family fares. It tries to incorporate college but only with the cleanest of smiling family fun and tamest of raunchy sex comedy. It's kind of sad and a bit campy. In addition to a couple of early 80's stars, Michael J. Fox has a minor role. It's bad acting, bad slapstick, and bad writing. It's so bad that it does have some camp value. Unless one sees the camp value, there is nothing funny and it's ultimately boring.

WEEE this is still jolly good fun! As with most of my friends, we had seen this movie on HBO when we were young, and then had been searching ever since for a copy of it. When they finally rereleased it a few years ago, we had a Midnight Madness party... and the movie held up well. Sure, it's pure cheese, but it's still a lot of fun. If you didn't see MM when you were young, you might not appreciate its value today.

I can imagine that the number of people who will click with Midnight Madness is limited. This is a movie that is drowning in the 80s, and lumps every character into broad stereotypes that are exaggerated to the extreme. Yet it was like a blast of nostalgia for me. The road race with a scavenger hunt idea is a tried and true storytelling device. Some of my favorite TV shows had episodes with this exact plot structure. By and large, that's what Midnight Madness felt like to me, an extended episode of classic 80s television. It didn't hurt my opinion of the film that I recognized virtually every actor from other movies. Of course the most notable is the first film appearance of Michael J. Fox as the "annoying little brother" cliche. It's too bad he looks a little too old for the part, and also is just too likable to be that obnoxious. Despite the heavy-duty wave of nostalgia that I got from Midnight Madness, it certainly wasn't a great film. Almost no one in the movie is a likable character, and that includes the team we're meant to root for, hoping they might succeed. The plotting is also a bit messy as it can often be in movies about scavenger hunts like this one. When everyone is heading to the same destinations at the same time, it doesn't make for a very compelling game. They don't even have to figure out the clues, just follow the one team that does solve them (In fact, several teams skip a stop completely and just catch up later.) They try to make up for the lackluster journey by having wacky things that go on at each location. I struggled to laugh at these antics as my brain kept wanting to focus on the amount of damage they were causing to the different businesses. There are several different things, like the amount of chaos these teams cause everywhere they go, where I figure you're just supposed to turn off your brain and enjoy the ride. Perhaps the most blatant example of that is the fact that Leon has set up a number of things that seem utterly impossible. Perhaps the most blatant of these is the arcade game. Most of the time I was able to just enjoy the silly antics of the film rather than dwelling too much on the nonsense. At times it did feel like the movie was going on a bit long, but I think that mostly came from the fact that I could predict how it was going to end, so I just wanted them to get there. Midnight Madness is far from an amazing film, in fact I don't know if I would ever seek it out again. But there were enough small things that I enjoyed to make it a movie I was glad to see once.

Midnight Madness is pretty much madcamp fun around a college campus. The movie is low on acting, writing, what-have-you. However, it has somewhat of a cult type following because the premise of the movie has both an hilarious and a mystery/clue-type atmosphere. It is for these reasons to watch the movie. Watch it to see clues in action (not for acting because you won't find much). There are also a couple of interesting cameos and a minor reference to Star Wars. What adds to the mystic of the movie is that many college campuses put on a "Midnight Madness" type of caper. This adds to an otherwise below average/average movie and it should be required viewing for such organizations.

Rating: 5 (because of Midnight Madness tie-in) Viewed: VHS (pan/scan)