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Grosse Pointe Blank
Martin Blank is a hitman for hire. When he starts to develop a conscience, he botches a couple of routine jobs. On the advice of his secretary and his psychiatrist, he decides to attend his ten-year high school reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
Release : | 1997 |
Rating : | 7.3 |
Studio : | Caravan Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Roger Birnbaum Productions, |
Crew : | Production Design, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | John Cusack Minnie Driver Dan Aykroyd Joan Cusack Alan Arkin |
Genre : | Action Comedy Thriller Romance |
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Really Surprised!
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
If you are at all into interested in the following sections of assassination films, with a dark humor meshed with it, classic 90s films and John Cusack you will love this movie. I was intrigued just from the trailer. I watched it and you can see why John is such a successful and great actor, he puts all his effort into films and it just makes them better. I loved the humor of this film, its quite dark, so not to everyone's taste, but I laughed my head off.
Grosse Point Blank is a serviceable black comedy. It's full of that 90's witty dialogue that Hollywood just couldn't get enough of in that era. The plot is fairly original and there is solid acting throughout. Alan Arkin is a scene-stealer in this flick and probably the funniest part of the movie. John Cusack and Minnie Driver have excellent chemistry and their scenes together are quite good. Dan Aykroyd's character is just idiosyncratic and goofy enough to work. I think he gives a great performance, one of his best. There are a few problems with the movie. The script can get a bit over the top at times. The subplot involving Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman is fairly unnecessary and dull. I know the producers envisioned these two partners to have witty banter back and forth but it never really works. As far as direction and cinematography goes, there's nothing really of note here. It's not bad but it's nothing special. It never distracts you from the actors or the plot so in that sense, it works.Overall, I'd give it a recommendation.
Grosse Pointe Blank depicts murder you see, hear, and speak about, but eventually end up not seeing, hearing, or speaking about. In this way, it represents a genre of film that takes place during the aftermath of the Cold War, then famously referred to as "the End of History." The chimera of civilization means nothing in such a world, shed long ago like baby teeth when entering adulthood. Unlike the untamed frontier of westerns or urban chaos of gangster films, the scenery of this newer Libertarian genre consists of little else than free enterprise and its own built-in default morality: if not "laissez faire Capitalism," what else would you have? The intentional cynicism can only disturb you (even more than the violence in westerns and gangster films), but any sting from its moral slap in your face goes away unless you're Old World enough to deliberately make yourself remember it. Blood, violence, guns, bullets, knives, poisons, bombs, and deft lethal use of otherwise harmless household items all blend into the background like camouflage as the characters routinely exchange recipes, attend their high school reunion, and even propose marriage.Other critiques I've read about Grosse Pointe Blank try to fit it into yet another array of familiar genres: quirky romance; post-Brat Pack black comedy; or pulpy action-adventure. Instead, watch Grosse Pointe Blank again and again and know that it knows precisely what genre it is, even if you're still struggling to follow its rapid-fire dialog and ultra-dry humor.Think of all of our most salient conspiracy theories and how they all start with a square-one premise that in our paradise of free enterprise, murder-for-hire is inevitable. Whether you've met a drunk in a bar who swears he will deliver you the dead body of your choice for $5,000 or you're filthy rich searching for the most competent service by discreetly "asking around," money way too easily buys you death. (For this reason, you might even mention Grosse Pointe Blank in the same breath with Oliver Stone's JFK, especially since Oswald is even mentioned at one point.) Then again, the other unavoidable premise of our beloved conspiracy theories is that the more people are skeptical, the more they refuse to face the unavoidable consequences of the first premise. They deny that murder-for-hire exists. They shrug off a genuine solicitation to murder by that drunk in the bar with a chuckle, even though if they truly thought about it, assassins (whether trained by the American Government or a private enterprise like the Mafia) naturally fall into a guild of professionals much like any other butcher, baker, or candlestick maker.If we aren't denying this in our daily lives, wouldn't we all be writing endless letters to the Attorney Generals of our State and Federal governments to solve these heinous murders, just as John Walsh used to egg us on to do by showing us reenactments of vicious true crimes of homicidal passion every week on television? Again and again, John Cusack as Martin Q. Blank openly tells his friends he's a professional murderer, but they are so numb in their tidy worlds that they shrug it off jokingly or with dull irony. When those closest to him actually see him kill, reality might sink in a little more, but any moral dilemma becomes a mere afterthought when it comes time to help him—your friend in a jam—dispose of, say, a body (Benny Urquidez's unforgettably chilling Felix La PuBelle) in a high school incinerator.Cusack improvises deftly around the basic notion of Blank's coldness as trained killers must do, impersonating a gorilla ("oo-oo-oo") whenever drawing his weapon on someone. Dan Aykroyd (known for his own adherence to certain conspiracy theories) masterfully plays Blank's more conservative counterpart, Grocer, with a more Jack-Webb coldness, imitating the sound of popcorn ("bing-bing-bing-bing-popcorn!") and reciting the Bible before blowing away a victim.Cusack's real-life sister Joan convincingly plays Marcella, Blank's loyal and uncannily competent secretary. Alan Arkin hilariously plays Blank's cowardly charlatan of a psychologist, Dr. Oatman, while Jeremy Piven gives remarkable nuance to Blank's once passionate best friend in high school, Paul Spericki.The real acting fireworks come from Minnie Driver (here, successfully curbing her London accent) as Blank's sweetheart Debi Newberry, whose chemistry with Blank matches all his little deadpan quips with spontaneous quips of her own, while always struggling between her decade of anger about getting stood up on prom night with her genuine love for her mystery man. Hers is the only character (besides perhaps Dr. Oatman) who breaks down and says no to Blank's indifference to life, but eventually must shed this by the end of the film, as she finds her own sense of self-preservation (as the daughter of one of Blank's marked men) and confirms her love for Blank who, after all, is not so indifferent to life after all.So far, such a story would fall flat if there wasn't at least some affirmation of the mystery of life. This comes at several points in the story, but most poetically as Blank stares down an infant named Robbie to David Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure": "it's the terror of knowing what the world is about watching some good friends screaming 'let me out.'" The Violent Femmes rerecorded their "Blister in the Sun" for this film (filled with other 1980s hits) with the effect of making it most memorable as a theme song.This essay can only chip at the surface here. I can't praise this film's courage enough, even though I'm sure that even people who enjoyed it and laughed with its sense of humor might have missed the bigger social commentary, which had to be understated to be plausible. At least let's all pray for a renewal of morality in America that ends any indifference to murder, but until then, Grosse Pointe Blank is an extraordinary way cinematically of stating the issue clearly for those brave enough to recognize it.
Great and recommended for a variety of reasons.A "bumble bee" movie, on paper it seems crazy, hi-concept, and unlikely to work. In reality with a killer script, killer direction and great acting, one of the most memorable and entertaining films of the era.Holds up well on a second or third viewing.Is a comedy or an action film with elements of satire? That is the genius. It is hard to tell.A demarcation point for Cusack -- likely the last film in which he was able to recreate the "charm" of his "brat pack" days, and he milks it for what it is worth. Shortly thereafter he became (according to his agent) "the hardest working actor in Hollywood" and went for clearly adult roles.Great film.