MIDNIGHT MADNESS (1980) * ½

Midnight Madness plays like a Disney version of a Crown International teenage comedy.  Since it contains teens drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, saying the word “virgin”, and playing Peeping Tom (although no nudity is ever shown), it must’ve felt like real risqué stuff to the Disney suits.  Fans of the genre will be severely disappointed as its way too tame for its intended audience.  Fans of Disney children films will likewise be disappointed as it’s mostly boring and contains very few laughs.

The plot revolves around an elaborate college scavenger hunt.  Various teams must race around from one Los Angeles landmark to another finding clues.  Each clue gives them another riddle to solve, and they must race against the clock to make it to the finish line, learning assorted life lessons along the way.

There are five teams in all.  That right there is the problem.  There’s just too many people to keep track of.  The directors Michael Nankin and David Wechter try to give the characters equal screen time and as a consequence, it jumps back and forth a lot.  None of the characters are exactly likeable either, which is another problem.  The only team we really root for is David Naughton’s, mostly because he was so awesome in An American Werewolf in London and because Michael J. Fox plays his brother.  

The scenes of the teams stumbling around and searching for clues gets repetitive and aren’t funny.  The humor is lame too.  It might’ve been okay if the crude humor was… you know… crude.  Look Disney, just because you put in an occasional joke about a woman’s “melons” doesn’t exactly make it Porky’s.  

Midnight Madness just goes on way too long (nearly two hours) and there are precious few worthwhile gags in between.  (The kids have stupid names like “Barf” and “Armpit”, which gives you the level of humor we’re working with here.)  You know you’re in trouble when the funniest gag is nothing more than David Naughton drinking a Dr. Pepper.

It does have a good cast though.  In addition to Naughton and Fox, we have Stephen Furst, Eddie Deezen, and Paul Reubens.  Even without funny jokes and hilarious sight gags, the actors make it at the very least watchable.  Now imagine this cast with a script that was worth a damn (and maybe some gratuitous T & A) and you have yourself a movie!