Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank follows blue collar assassin Martin Blank (John Cusack) as he returns to his hometown for a high school reunion, whilst carrying out an assassination there. A lot of the humor in Grosse Pointe Blank is derived from making Blank’s unusual line of work look mundane. He has a therapist (Alan Arkin) who he discusses his life with, against the therapist’s wishes. He has a long lost love (Minnie Driver) and he has to fight to keep himself out of the local union that his competitor, Grocer (Dan Aykryod), is trying to start. Now that I’ve gotten to Grocer I have to admit that Dan Aykroyd steals the show in this roll. He rarely plays villainous characters but this one is done perfectly! He has a lot of great lines throughout the film and his adversarial relationship with Blank is the best part of the movie. He even has a great demise that is so sudden, it keeps you from thinking you’ve stumbled into an action movie. That said Cusack is just as good in the film but he plays a new twist on a character we’re used to seeing him play. Blank is the loveable misfit, his honesty is charming and his awkwardness is relatable. Aside from the humor and the acting this movie also has an excellent soundtrack composed by the Clash’s front man, Joe Strummer. The only thing that would have made this film even better would have been a bit more explanation as to how things worked out after the film’s exciting climax. If you haven’t seen this one yet, invest some time in viewing it on Netflix.