Preview
The ultimate nineties comedy for anyone who wishes they could attend their reunion with a silencer.
High school reunions are widely considered by civilized people to be a form of cruel and unusual punishment. In the 1997 dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank, director George Armitage takes that universal social dread and arms it with a silencer and an assault rifle. The film centers on Martin Blank, an independent contract killer who is suffering from severe job burnout and a late-onset moral crisis. When a lucrative assignment lines up with his ten-year class reunion in his affluent childhood hometown near Detroit, Martin decides to go home to face his past and track down the high school sweetheart he stood up on prom night.
Co-written by its leading man, John Cusack, alongside Tom Jankiewicz, D.V. DeVincentis, and Steve Pink, the movie balances cynical nineties workplace angst with bloody shootouts and an aggressive soundtrack. The ensemble features Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Alan Arkin, and Joan Cusack. By dropping international hitmen and federal agents directly into the middle of suburban nostalgia, Grosse Pointe Blank delivers a sharp, offbeat comedy about growing up, selling out, and trying not to get blown up by your former peers.
Review by Ben Dover
I dragged my aching back onto the couch after a miserable day dealing with customer service people who sound twelve years old and do not understand plain English. Every time I ask a simple question, some kid on the phone tells me to download an app or check their social media page. I do not want to download an app. I want you to do your job so I can sit in my chair, eat a sandwich in peace, and watch a movie where grown men actually know how to wear a suit without showing six inches of ankle.
Watching John Cusack run around as a depressed hitman who is terrified of seeing his old classmates hits uncomfortably close to home. The entire concept of a high school reunion is completely ridiculous anyway. Nobody actually cares how your insurance business is doing, Dave. Nobody wants to look at pictures of your kids or hear about your timeshare in Florida. The fact that an international assassin would rather dodge bullets in a war zone than make small talk with the kid who ate paste in eighth grade is the most honest thing put on film in forty years. Cusack plays it with that dead-eyed, exhausted look of a guy who just realized the last decade of his life was a total waste.
Dan Aykroyd steals half the movie by playing an unhinged, sweaty rival killer named Grocer who wants to unionize the hitman racket. Aykroyd is screaming, sweating through his shirts, and firing automatic weapons like a maniac, which is exactly what I want to see. Then you have Alan Arkin as the psychiatrist who is clearly wishing he had chosen any other career path. Arkin looks like he wants to jump out the window every single time Cusack sits on his couch, and his dry delivery is perfection. Minnie Driver does a fine job as the radio DJ ex-girlfriend, Debi, though why she is willing to give this guy five minutes after he vanished off the face of the earth for ten years is a mystery to me. Today they have fancy internet terms for that, but when I was growing up we just called a guy like that a complete scumbag.
The movie does run into some slow patches right around the middle where Martin starts moping around town like a high school poet. You take bags of cash to put people in holes, Martin. You are not an artist with deep feelings; you are a criminal who needs to get his act together. We do not need twenty minutes of walking through empty hallways and crying about your wasted youth. Cut the whining, stop boring your poor therapist, and get back to the part where people are throwing each other through grocery store display cases.
Even with the self-indulgent second-act drag, the writing is leagues ahead of the mindless superhero slop that the studios dump out today. It makes fun of the eighties without turning into a lazy nostalgia commercial, the jokes actually have bite, and the gunfights look like they were filmed by people who actually understand how gravity works. It is funny, cynical, and it does not insult my intelligence.
Cast and Characters
- John Cusack as Martin Q. Blank: An emotionally numb, sharply dressed freelance assassin having a midlife crisis who reluctantly attends his ten-year high school reunion.
- Minnie Driver as Debi Newberry: Martin’s former high school sweetheart who works as a local DJ and is rightfully furious that he vanished without a word on prom night.
- Dan Aykroyd as Grocer: A loud, relentless rival assassin trying to force Martin into joining an organized syndicate of contract killers.
- Alan Arkin as Dr. Oatman: Martin’s deeply stressed-out psychiatrist who only continues treating him because he is terrified of being murdered.
- Joan Cusack as Marcella: Martin’s fiercely capable assistant who manages his travel schedules, weapon orders, and reunion paperwork with military efficiency.
- Jeremy Piven as Paul Spericki: Martin’s hyperactive high school buddy who works as a local real estate agent and refuses to admit he hates his life.
- Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman as Steven Lardner and Felix McCullers: Two bumbling federal agents tasked with keeping surveillance on Martin’s suburban chaos.
Special Effects
There are no cheap cartoon computer effects here to give you a migraine. The stunts and visual gags are handled with real practical stunt work, real prop firearms, and actual glass breaking on real floors. The hand-to-hand fight in the school hallway between Cusack and kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez is tight, rough, and looks genuinely painful. When a building or a convenience store blows up, you get actual fire and smoke instead of a computer graphic generated by someone who has never been outside.
Music
The entire soundtrack was overseen by Joe Strummer of The Clash, so the whole film is loaded with classic punk, new wave, and ska. You hear tracks from The Clash, English Beat, Violent Femmes, David Bowie, and Specials. It has real instruments played by real musicians, which makes a nice change from the electronic garbage kids listen to through their little ear pods these days.
Rating
4.5 out of 5 Stars “A sharp movie with real stunts and no cartoon effects, exactly the way Ben Dover likes it.”
A sharp, mean-spirited dark comedy with plenty of laughs and good action, even if the main character spends a little too much time whining about his sensitive feelings.
Complete Synopsis and Plot Breakdown
Martin Blank is a freelance assassin operating out of an office in California with his loyal assistant, Marcella. Following a blown assignment in the Basque Country caused by an erratic rival named Felix McCullers, Martin receives a new contract targeting an office equipment executive located in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Because his high school class is holding its ten-year reunion in Grosse Pointe that same weekend, Marcella and Martin’s reluctant psychiatrist, Dr. Oatman, convince him to take the job and attend the event to work through his psychological issues.
Upon arriving in his hometown, Martin discovers that his old family home was demolished to make room for a convenience store. He visits his institutionalized mother and reconnects with his high school friend Paul, who has become an overcaffeinated real estate salesman. Martin tracks down his old high school girlfriend, Debi Newberry, who works as a radio DJ. Debi is furious at him for abandoning her on prom night ten years earlier, but she agrees to let him take her out so she can demand an explanation.
At the same time, rival hitman Grocer tries to intimidate Martin into joining a new hitman labor union. When Martin repeatedly refuses, Grocer tips off federal agents Steven Lardner and Felix McCullers and recruits a vengeful Basque assassin named Gianni McCullers to track Martin down.
Martin brings Debi to their ten-year reunion at the high school. Between awkward conversations with former classmates bragging about their corporate jobs, Martin is ambushed in a hallway by Gianni McCullers. Martin kills him with a pen in self-defense and stuffs the body into the school furnace with the help of a drunken former classmate. However, Debi accidentally discovers Martin’s weapons and his dossier, realizing what he does for a living, and runs away in terror.
Martin follows Debi to her father’s house, only to realize that her father, Bob Newberry, is the client target he was originally sent to kill for agreeing to testify against a corrupt corporation. Grocer, his henchmen, and the federal agents assault the house simultaneously. Martin takes out the attacking hitmen, protects Bob, and kills Grocer by smashing a television set over his head. Martin announces his immediate retirement from the assassination business, reconciles with Debi after proving his loyalty, and leaves town with her to start over.
5 Famous Quotes
- Grocer: “No meetings. You know why? Because I’m talking to you right now, and I don’t see no meetings.”
- Martin Blank: “I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How have you been?”
- Dr. Oatman: “Don’t kill anybody for a few days. See what it feels like.”
- Debi Newberry: “You’re a psycho.”
Martin Blank: “No, a psychopath kills for fun. I kill for money.” - Martin Blank: “I’m a pet psychologist. No, I’m a professional killer.”
5 Interesting Facts
- Kickboxing Legend: The assassin who fights Martin in the high school hallway is played by Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, who was John Cusack’s actual real-life kickboxing trainer for more than twenty years.
- Cusack Family Project: John Cusack’s real-life sister, Joan Cusack, plays his assistant Marcella, while his other siblings Ann and Bill also make small appearances throughout the film.
- Punk Rock Heritage: Joe Strummer, the legendary lead singer of The Clash, composed the film’s original score in addition to putting together the licensed punk and ska soundtrack.
- California for Michigan: Although the entire movie is set around Grosse Pointe, Michigan, nearly the entire production was shot in the California towns of Monrovia and Pasadena to save on production costs.
- Real-Life Schoolmates: Co-writers John Cusack, Steve Pink, and D.V. DeVincentis all went to high school together at Evanston Township High School in Illinois and used their own fears of attending high school reunions to write the movie.
Photos
