All Night Long: A Terrific 80s Comedy Starring Gene Hackman and Barbra Streisand

Every once in a while a movie comes along that manages to completely slip under the radar despite having big name stars. Many times these movies are lower-budgeted, independent-minded, low-on-action movies that attracted the big stars precisely because they were an opportunity to show off acting chops rather than pad the paycheck. One of these kinds of movies is a comedy from the early 80s that is shockingly obscure for most people. Starring two huge-I mean huge-stars, it is titled All Night Long. The two huge-I mean huge-stars? Gene Hackman and Barbra Streisand.

If you haven't seen All Night Long, do yourself a favor and the next time AMC is showing the same James Bond movie for the tenth time in a week or TBS is airing the same movie three nights in a row, take the time to visit the video store and rent this.

I've never been a huge Barbra Streisand fan, but All Night Long and What's Up Doc are two movies I can enjoy watching over and over again. Part of the fun of All Night Long is that Barbra Streisand actually plays someone who can't sing. That alone is worth taking a look at.

But the real reason to watch All Night Long is Gene Hackman. Gene Hackman is probably the most overlooked, underappreciated actor of all time. It was Gene Hackman's misfortune to come along at the same time that his more flashy peers Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Jack Nicholson did. While Gene Hackman's understated performances often got lost in the shuffle, time has been uncharacteristically kind to him, allowing Hackman to prove he may well have the most lasting power. While all four of those other actors have suffered downturns in their career--temporary in the cases of Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson, erratic in the case of DeNiro, tragically permanent in the case of Pacino, it seems-Gene Hackman never for a moment stopped turning in quality performances.