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Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is an excellent movie. It may not be to everyone's taste, but if you like "High Fidelity", you will probably like this movie. There is enough action, drama and comedy to keep your attention. What is the big attraction, though, is getting inside the lives and minds of the people. The acting is very good, the sound is good, cinematography is good (for an urban setting). Overall, excellent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cusack in his most enjoyable role!
Review: This is one of the most fun roles John Cusack has ever had. He is fabulous as the charismatic hitman Martin Blank on a hit assignment in his hometown, just in time for his high school reunion. Cusack and Driver have fabulous chemistry, and the script is very witty and fast paced. One can watch this movie again and again; definately worth owning on DVD. Funny, original, a bit off-the-wall... but that's just part of its charm. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: not much to say, this is a great movie
Review: I never get tired of watching this movie. It's exciting, it's entertaining and also pretty darn funny. Again a great movie !!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Second Look Says It All!!!
Review: I first saw GPB in 97 on VHS. I have been a huge Cusack fan since I was four. I'm 26 now. One of my favorite movies is The Sure Thing. Anyway, I try to watch as many of John's films as I can. When I first saw this I didn't like it. I found it boring and silly. Maybe I was too immature to understand the hidden comedy. I threw the VHS away about two years ago. I bought the DVD last week and now I love GPB! I don't know what was wrong with me! This is a terrific film. John is just as fresh and funny as ever! Everyone was fantastic! Dan Aykroyd and Alan Arkin were hilarious. My point is, that sometimes you can't judge a book or film on your first glance. Many times we write reviews after seeing something once. I am glad I didn't write a review for GPB back then. If I had gone with my first instinct I would have given some bad advice and told people not to get this film. YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY OWN THIS DVD! I have been watching it nonstop since I bought it again. It gets better each time. It's romantic, funny and soothing. I am glad I got the chance to view it again. The DVD could have been much better. There were no special features, commentary, photo gallery or behind-the-scenes featurette. Usually that pisses me off but GPB is so good you don't feel you're missing a thing.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Did I miss something?
Review: I just read most of the 120-plus reviews here on GROSSE POINTE BLANK and now wonder if I completely missed something. I had no idea it was such a masterpiece! When I first saw this film upon its release, I found it mildly entertaining, although I have to tell you I find little humor in violence and, in particular, in hit men. Are we supposed to find this character charming when his job is whacking people? (I guess any whack-ee would not be charmed, so why should the audience be? In any event, I assume the same audience for Tarantino's swill buys into this kind of thing.) And on top of everything else, the biggest insult is that the great Barbara Harris is reduced to a short cameo as Blank's mother. Maybe, like Shakespeare, I'll develop an appreciation for this film over time, but, then, I still don't like Shakespeare, so I'll just bottom line this film with one star and move on.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another Cusack Winner
Review: John Cusack rarely makes bad films, and he can be highly original when left to his own devices (as here). Cusack has managed to maintain a hip/cool image even as he has grown from teen heart throb ("Say Anything") to an actor now in his thirties.

Cusack plays a very neurotic hitman who has tired of the hitman game. After a stint in the military, he found he had a very unique talent: he is very good at killing people. He's made a very good living, but he is tired of the pressures of his profession (apparently there is a lot of competition in the hit man industry). He tries to sort his life out with a very reluctant therapist (the hilarious Alan Arkin) and decides to attend his high school reunion. Naturally, a hit man can't return to his high school reunion with out some kind of high jinks ensuing.

This movie is wildly original and funny, sometimes over the top, but always entertaining. My only real problem with it, there just did not seem to be a lot of chemistry between Minnie Driver and Cusack. In fact, she almost seems disinterested in her part from time-to-time. Still, this is worth viewing again and again. And everyone I lend it to loves it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Unique, Clever and Fun Film
Review: John Cusack is great in this film playing a contract killer in the midst of industry conflict (secondary to the formation of a union for contract killers spearheaded by Dan Akroyd) who goes back to his 10th high school reunion. This movie is funny, exciting and clever. Alan Arkin is wonderful as Cusack's reluctant therapist. The soundtrack is great also (especially for anyone who was in High School in the early 1980's)and fits with the movie's energy level. Jeremy Piven (as the old best friend, naturally) and Minnie Driver are very good in this film also. This is definitely a movie worth owning.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: CHARMING CAMEOS FROM MINNIE DRIVER, GOOD SOUNDTRACK.
Review: Almost all movies that Cusack has done after "Better Off Dead" and "Say Anything" have him trying to be uber-cool, but seldom managing to really pull that off. A fact that is not really helped a lot when he pulls in the crook-lipped Joan Cusack into the movie as well.

With one exception: Grosse Point Blank.

The theme here (a hit man with a burgeoning conscience decides to go to his 10-year high school reunion but has to deal with a hit man union out to get him at the same time) sounded promising, and as with most Cusack movies has a great soundtrack plus some pretty interesting lines. You may and probably will have a very hard time believing that Cusack is a hit man.

It is a black comedy, hence pretty violent, and they weren't kidding about the "grosse". The ending is particularly unsettling, with Cusack and his snappy patter blowing away the bad guys.

But that's not to say that there aren't good points. Dan Aykroyd is interesting, Alan Arkin is always welcome, and Minnie Driver pitches in some of the movie's high points of humor. The saving grace really has to be the music if you care about 80s tunes.

A decent watchable movie, perhaps even comical in some predicaments, but not something I'd be seen raving about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My All-Time BLAM! BLAM! Favorite KABOOM!! Love Story...
Review: Grosse Pointe Blank is a quaint little movie about a professional assassin (John Cusack) and the woman (Minnie Driver) who loves him. Martin Blank (Cusack) is tired of his job as a hit man. He's finding that life as a semi-sociopathic killer-for-hire just ain't what it used to be. His terrified therapist (Alan Arkin) is no help at all. Mr. Blank's salvation arrives in the form of an invitation to his 10 year highschool reunion. At first he doesn't want to go, even though he's got a hit to perform in the same locale. After all, what would he have to say to all those former classmates? Plus, he'd have to face the girl he stood up on prom night (Driver)! GPB is not your typical love story. I was wide-eyed during the explosion, gun battles, and karate sequence, while at the same time admiring the cuteness of the Cusack / Driver coupling! I kept saying, "Aw, they really need each other!" throughout the death and destruction. I have never seen a movie that is able to balance the action, romance, and (jet black) comedic elements the way this one does. Check out Dan Aykroyd as the rival hit man, obsessed with either getting Blank to join his new hit man's union ("it's more like a club") or killing him. Joan Cusack is brilliant (as usual) as Blank's contact person / "secretary". Easily my favorite romantic / action / black comedy / John Cusack movie! Buy it right now...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly Remarkable Movie
Review: In Grosse Pointe Blank John Cusack plays Martin Blank, a troubled hitman who returns home to Grosse Pointe, Michigan to attend his 10-year high school reunion and do what may be his last job. This plot may seem like a strange place to start, but this movie ends up being one of the best films of the 90s. What is most remarkable about Grosse Pointe Blank is how many levels is succeeds on. It is an accomplished comedy, a truly moving drama, a great romance... All of the humor is delicate, intelligent, and perfectly realized by Cusack and the rest of the cast, whether it be the physical humor or dry banter. The movie truly moving, and yet it takes its dramatic subject-matter in stride; that is to say, never does the film insult the viewer (as so many movies seem to) by drawing attention to the more serious aspects. Again, the sensational acting of Cusack and the rest of the cast help to get the movie's more serious themes across without bringing the movie down or loosing any momentum. I did also mention that the film is romantic. In fact, the romance is almost an afterthought, and yet this movie is one of the best romantic comedies that I know, and certainly one of the very best in recent year. If this was not enough, Grosse Pointe Blank has great action sequences. One of the finest gunfights on the screen and what may be the greatest REALISTIC martial arts fights in movie history. This is simply a top-notch film with great acting, great writing, great directing, and great everything else.


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