Stats:

Movie:
Grosse Pointe Blank

Stars:
John Cusack
Minnie Driver
Dan Ackroyd
Joan Cusack

Date: 1998

Bottom Line:
Excellent film.
Very funny. Highly Recommended

Grosse Pointe Blank

This is one of the best movies of 1998!

If you're a John Cusack fan, in my opinion this is John at his best. the film is paying homage to the action film, Point Blank. In this update, the location is moved to Grosse Pointe, Michigan and John Cusack plays John Blank; who proves that "you can't go home again, but you can buy a coke there."

The premise is that a hitman (Cusack) goes back to his old high school, Grosse Pointe High for his 10-year high school reunion. He's been employed to assasinate a man who turns out to be the father of his '86 prom date - but he re-kindles the flame with her. Both of them have been obsessing about each other for 10 years since the night he stood her up for the prom. Then a rival assassin (Ackroyd) comes in to do the job and Cusack defends his girlfriend and her father in between odd moments of comic relief. Needless to say, much of the humor is a bit dark, but mostly it's just fun. The soundtrack is full of '80s music sure to bring on nostalgia - Violent Femmes, Ice-T, Yaz, etc. (the reunion is for the class of '86). I also highly recommend the soundtrack album as well.

I really liked this movie! It was very funny & very unpredictable. I thought it was very well written - Cusack was also the co-writer of the script. It was also nice to see Dan Aykroyd in a good movie for a change. The interaction between Cusack & Aykroyd was excellent. I loved how they greeted each other. There were so many good relationship scenes like when Cusack visits his shrink, but the shrink doesn't even want to talk with him because he's terrified of him because he knows Cusack's a hit-man. Also, the early meetings with Minnie Driver as the former stood-up Prom date are wonderful. She gets to exact her revenge for being stood up for the prom by making Cusack incredibly embarrassed - over the air on her radio station. This was a lot of fun & definitely was a movie which I bought as fast as I could when it came out on video.