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Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: No better does it better...
Review: John Cusack is the KING of sweet comedies like this. He's not slapstick; he is completely believable. He's someone you could know! He could easily be your junior high boyfriend.

John has ease and angst all at once--no small feat. The premise of the movie is funny and the whole plot line works. You are amused, entertained, and invested.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Black Comedy!
Review: Martin Blank plays a professional hit man who is seriously thinking about getting out of the business. He is just unhappy with his work and it doesn't give him the same satisfaction that it use to. During this time of contemplation he is sent out on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Gross Pointe, and he finds out that his 10-year high school reunion is coming up in the same place. Desperate to get away to a new change of scenery he decides to go back to his hometown and figure out his life from were he left off after senior prom. He meets up with his high school sweet heart (Mini Driver) who isn't very happy to see him because he never showed up on prom night and left her standing on the front porch.
Dan Aykroyd plays an unwelcome colleague that keeps either trying to kill him or recruit him for a hitman union he is trying to start. Meanwhile, Martin is shocked by all the changes that have been made in the 10 years since he left his home town, and finds out that he is still in love with his high school girl and wants to try and make it up to her!
This is a very good darker sort of comedy, if you like John Cusack this one will not disappoint! Check it out!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I'd rate it more if there're more stars available
Review: This is one under-rated classic flick. Every decade has their own under-rated classics. In the 1980s, it's the Big Chill and Breakfast Club. For the 1990s, it's Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, and this one. They don't age no matter when you watch them.

Believe it or not, the movie is also very educational. I frequently use the the convinent store scene to make my son appreciate what happens to someone who spends too much time on video games, and the scene with what Cusack did to the TV set in the end to show the effects of watching too much TV !

I'd rate it with more stars if Amazon has more stars for me to rate.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of Cusack's best
Review: this is by far one of John Cusacks best movies and one of his great roles as he is a hitman who returns to his home state for a little high school reuion and everyone wants to know what happened to him, including his ex-flame Minnie Driver. other hitmen like Dan Aykroyd and the cops want him either put in jail or dead, but he gots some things up his sleeves. Jeremy Piven adds some spark as a property salesman. great moments include the classic scene when the store blows up, all of Alan Arkin's scenes and it just goes down the line. a must have in anyones collection

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Hit-man Satire EVER!
Review: If I'm correct, after this movie came out, all the big Cusack fan sites started. Coincidence? I think no compadre. I know I definatly fell head over heels for John Cusack after this movie, not only because of his performance, but because he also wrote the movie, produced it, and supervised the soundtrack (which also kicks some serious boo-tay, featuring some great 80s hits such as: "Blister In the Sun"-by The Violent Femmes, and "Rudie Can't Fail" by The Clash. A little trivia for you...When John Cusack and his buddies at New Crime Productions were writing the script to this movie, they kept The Clash in mind throughout and had Joe Strummer write the score for the movie.)

I was a little dispointed in the DVD version of this movie because of the lack of extras. I was hoping for some commentary or deleted scenes, but alas, all you are left with is the trailer and some "suggested titles," which bore everyone to death. Still, it is wide-screen and the movie is amazing by itself so the rating will not be lowered.

I'm sure everyone viewing this review has seen the movie, but I'll outline the plot for the unblessed among you.

Plot: Martin Q. Blank doesn't know what to do with his life. He has the money, car, but his life feels empty. His therapist reminds him that the angst over killing a lot of people might have something to do with this (He's a lonegunman, professional killer, hitman, however you'd like to describe that profession.) He and his assistant (a brilliant Joan Cusack...what great genes that family has) tell Martin to go back to his high school reunion on the way to do a hit to reunite with his old girlfriend...the one he ditched on prom night and has not stopped dreaming about since. Chaos insues when after not joining a hitman's union fronted by Grocer (a phycotic hitman with frayed nerves), plans to kill Martin by siccing Feds on him after he performs his hit. In the process of reuniting with Debbi, (Minnie Driver, love that woman, she is funny and great in this movie) he realizes that there is so much more to life that he overlooked. It so cute when he holds that baby at the reunion...he realizes the value of human life when he looks into the baby's eyes...a very touching moment.

Does Martin deserve a second shot? (Bad pun, I know) Will he redeem himself? What will Debbi do when she finds out what he really does for a living? Will Martin ever live down his shame at being know as "poodle puncher?" Watch the movie one time to find out, and twenty more times for fun and the joy of seeing John kick some butt (he does all his own kick-boxing stunts that he learned in Say Anything...his kick-boxing instructor also plays the "thug" that is trying to kill him) and wear all black suits. Great plot, witty dialogue, wonderful cast, plus John's friend George Piven's in it. Amazing John movie, definatly in my top five list.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Unconvincing
Review: I was told this movie was Lloyd Dobler, of John Hughes' "Say Anything", ten years later, but it isn't. (That would have been a much better movie.) Instead, a guy flips out at his highschool grad, becomes a contract killer and is approaching fatal burn-out when he has to go to his ten-year reunion while dodging assassins.

This is one of those movies which is supposedly about the moral emptiness and disgustingness of a life of violence, but the assassination scenes are the most stylish and exciting scenes. The protagonist even claims that if he comes to you, you must have done something to deserve it (probably). At least in John Woo movies, he makes the point that innocents are hurt in this kind of gunplay.

The action scenes are linked together by highschool reunion jokes, and the material seems to be stretched to fill in the time. There's also some elementary screenwriting errors (did they dispose of the basque-whacker's gun or not?) and the writers apparently don't follow Chekov's axiom that if you introduce a loaded gun, it must be used by the end of the scene.

John Cusask does a great job with what he's given. He can still do that deeply sincere monologue, as he does a couple of times while still strung out on adrenaline. Imagine Lloyd Dobler coming off a three-day meth session.

Minnie Driver, as the girlfriend Cusack's characer dumped ten years ago, is appealing, but she's not sharp or beautiful enough to make her worthy of coming back after ten years. Let's just say she's no Ione Skye.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome soundtrack!
Review: A complete laugh out loud flick about hit man (Cusack) who goes back home to Grosse Pointe to his ten year high school reunion.....Very very funny....And Minnie Driver is so hilarious and so likable in this movie...I think she did a great job!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very funny
Review: Love this movie. Great dialogue and great soundtrack. Haven't you ever dreamed of attending your high school reunion and telling people your a contract killer? This movie will always be in my permanent collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: John Cusack's Best
Review: I first saw this during it's initial VHS release. The story is of Martin Blank, a professional Los Angeles hit man who is drawn back to his rural hometown to both attend his high school reunion and take on a contract to whack a guy.

One of the most well-written scripts of the 90's, in my opinion, doesn't work without John Cusack being cast as Martin Blank. He sold the role perfectly, and shines throughout the film, alongside a witty, phenomenal supporting cast of Minnie Driver, Jeremy Piven, Dan Akroyd and Joan Cusack.

Often mistaken as completely morbid, the film takes on not only a tone of humor, but that of vengance and morality. You must see this film.

The DVD, on the other end, [stinks]. Yet another incredible film thrown out there on DVD with a poor transfer and a trailer for an extra. The film sounds fanastic though, and scenes such as the Akroyd/Cusack gunfight and the destruction of the mini-mart can be greatly enjoyed with a good surround sound setup.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cusack, the hippest actor in Hollywood
Review: This is an endlessly fun movie with a great soundtrack (The Specials, The Clash, to name a few) and perfect-pitch dialogue.
If I, like Cusack's character, were an assasin on my way back to a ten-year high school reunion, I'd hope to be as cool and witty and honest as him. This is a movie for former punk-kids with romantic tendencies. I will always recommend it.


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