Into the Night

Goldblum abandons a safe suburban existence in favour of nocturnal prowlings through Los Angeles, and encounters a mysterious blonde on the run. The plot is minimal, but the film scores partly because of a high sense of fun, and partly because of the way Landis uses his LA locations. As the characters race from the yachts of Marina Del Rey via Rodeo Drive to the Marion Davies mansion in Beverly Hills, he adds a visual running commentary of old film and TV ads, to milk our movie fantasies for all they're worth, and to convey a sense of Los Angeles as a truly mythical city. The casting of innumerable major film-makers in small roles seems an unnecessary bit of elbow-jogging, but David Bowie makes an excellent contribution as an English hit man, and the two leading players are excellent: Pfeiffer in particular takes the sort of glamorous yet preposterous part that generally defeats even the best actress and somehow contrives to make it credible every inch of the way.