Midnight Ride (1990)
6/10
Midnight Madness
17 August 2004
****SPOILERS*****

Action flick that never lets up for a moment as it takes you on a terror ride that will leave you on edge and out of breath.

Mark Hamill is as creepy as you can get in this film as the escaped mental patient Justin who takes Lara, Savina Gersak, hostage and ends up killing sixteen people, by my count, before the night is over.

After having a domestic fight with her cop husband Lawson, Michael Dudikoff, Lara leaves for a friends house and picks up a harmless looking hitch-hiker Justin and then ends up having the ride of her life.

Killing everyone that he comes in contact with Justin ends up murdering ten policemen and six civilians as he takes Lara to the hospital where he escaped from earlier in the evening. Justin wants to see and have a talk with his doctor Dr. Hardy, Robert Mitchum . Lawson who Justin tried to murder by driving a taxi with him strapped to the hood gets to the hospital just before Justin puts Lara under electric shock treatment, which Dr. Hardy refused to do. They then both have it out with Justin falling down a balcony and getting electrocuted on a grid. Were told later by Dr. Hardy that Justin is insane, to no ones surprise watching the movie. Only to have Justin re-appear later in the hospital elevator, disguised as a hospital patient, with both Lara and Lawson only to get a bullet between his eyes by a fast thinking and fast shooting Lawson.

The movie "Midnight Ride" works on all levels as a suspense horror thriller as well as a chase action movie and it's a wonder that the film is not as well known as it should be. Mark Hamill steals the acting honors in the film as a psycho killer who makes movie psycho's like Michael Myers from Halloween and Jason from Friday the Thirteenth look like school yard bullies in comparison.

No matter how unbelievable the actions that Hamill does in the film are you still believe that he could do them. Thats just how convincing he is as a uncontrollable escaped psycho. Robert Mitchum is effective in his small part as Justin's doctor and both Michael Dudikoff and Savina Gersak were very good as Lara and her husband Lawson. But it's Mark Hamill's one man show as the murderous and insane Justin that really makes the movie "Midnight Ride" as good as it is. This is one movie to watch that you would need to strap on your seat-belt and hold on tight for an unbelievable adrenaline rush.
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