Into the Night

Like Andrew Bergman, John Landis is also a director with a penchant for offbeat comedies. Into the Night contains many moments that hit the mark, but unfortunately the film is too loose-limbed. It is episodic in structure, and a little more coherence would not have gone amiss. Perhaps Ebert is right when he writes in his review in Cinemania that Landis partied with his movie friends during the shoot, when he ought to have partied afterwards instead. The film's many supporting roles are teeming with famous and semi-famous film people.

Ed Okin is the prototype of an upper-middle-class man - and yet not. He cannot sleep at night, which only gets worse when he discovers that his wife is cheating on him with her boss. One night Ed drives to the airport. Perhaps he will follow a friend's suggestion to go to Vegas and let loose all night, but the night's events turn out far more dramatic when the pretty Diana suddenly lands in his car and asks him to drive away fast. She has four Iranian gunmen on her tail and has just seen a dear friend shot down, so you can understand why. Without really wanting to, Ed becomes Diana's loyal squire and confidant in a tangled affair involving gemstones worth an awful lot of money. Ed leaves his old life behind and regains the ability to sleep!