A rare occasion of which character actor Will Patton ("Armaggedon", "The Postman") doesn't play second fiddle to major Hollywood stars. In "Midnight
Edition" he gets a rare chance to become the lead and showcase his talents. A good act even though the character was poorly written at parts, as he plays a
confused reporter who retorns to his hometown, get a position on the newspaper that launched his career and end up getting the chance to cover a young serial
killer (Michael DeLuise) who brutally murdered a family. The duo form a bond as the newsman becomes a hit thanks to his articles on the man and the criminal
twists everything, from pretending to be innocent and to later on plan an escape from prison as he awaits for the death penalty.
I won't complain about the story having been done time and again, it's a cliche that always manages to get some audience to it. The problem comes
in its lackluster presentation, nearly zero thrills and zero plot twists. The story jumps from one short sequence to another, and sometimes even though
it's all simple acts the writer managed to create some confusion between characters and situations, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how a
family man moves to another state to get a better job and leaves his family behind and when he returns it's never explained what went wrong with his dream
job, or if he was just homesick.
Patton and DeLuise are pretty good in the movie and makes the experience somewhat rewarding. But "Midnight Special" fails at almost all levels.
It doesn't generate enough suspense or great drama, and neither makes some poignant criticism on the press task when covering similar scenarios where dangerous minds are
given voice in the media. On a lower scale it's slightly interesting to see how people can get easily obsessed with things and people that don't matter and how close
those things and those people can affect one's life and of the ones around them. That reporter should know better. 5/10.
