Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Directed by George Armitage
Hitman Martin Blank becomes a moving target after he rebuffs a fellow assassin's invitation to form a union. On the advice of his quirky assistant and neurotic psychiatrist, Martin begrudgingly heads out to Grosse Pointe, Michigan for his ten-year high school reunion, where he soon comes across the woman he jilted on prom night.
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Grosse Pointe Blank (the title echoes John Boorman's 1967 hitman thriller Point Blank, but Lee Marvin didn't have Jeremy Piven as a high school buddy), directed at a trust-smart-viewers pace by George Armitage (Miami Blues), is buoyed aloft in its warped universe of as-seen-on-TV violence and late-Gen-X irony with an unusually keen-witted script by novice screenwriters Steve Pink, D.V. DeVincentis, Tom Jankiewicz, and John Cusack.
Its influence is apparent in movies as far-ranging as "Grosse Pointe Blank," "Go" and "Memento."
The first is Grosse Pointe Blank, and before it gets dismissed as yet another Quentin Tarantino rip-off (as were most of the post-Pulp Fiction films of the late 90s, and rightly so), let's remember that its director, George Armitage, shot his own Tarantino-esque film before QT ever became a Hollywood player.
This action-comedy may have been inspired by Pulp Fiction (there's a poster for the video release in a convenience store), but it very quickly takes on a life of its own.
And on that scale, "Grosse Pointe Blank" is more like "Fargo" than "Pulp Fiction."
In reality, Grosse Pointe Blank is a bleak, black satire that occasionally strays all the way into Pulp Fiction territory.
But for folks who appreciated the dark humor of "Prizzi's Honor" and "Get Shorty," they'll find "Grosse Pointe" in that vein, only with a hipper cast, snappier dialogue and more slapstick-like violence.
1990's Miami Blues was a quirky crime thriller packed with eccentric characters and rat-tat-tat dialogue, and this follow-up operates in much the same manner.
Grosse Pointe Blank (the title echoes John Boorman's 1967 hitman thriller Point Blank, but Lee Marvin didn't have Jeremy Piven as a high school buddy), directed at a trust-smart-viewers pace by George Armitage (Miami Blues), is buoyed aloft in its warped universe of as-seen-on-TV violence and late-Gen-X irony with an unusually keen-witted script by novice screenwriters Steve Pink, D.V. DeVincentis, Tom Jankiewicz, and John Cusack.
And Armitage (Miami Blues, The Big Bounce ) is especially good at staging exciting action sequences.
The story of a professional assassin who returns home to an affluent Detroit suburb for his 10-year high school reunion is like Armitage's offbeat cult hit "Miami Blues," which also was an odd and violent comedy.
Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Minnie Driver, and Joan and John Cusack star in this 1997 comedy directed by George Armitage (Miami Blues), about a hit man who returns home for a high school reunion.
Grosse Pointe Blank, directed by George Armitage (Miami Blues), has an audacious edge, but, at times, the film's daring actually works against its success.
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It seems like just yesterday John Hughes was pumping out two or three teen angst movies annually, yet here we are in 1997 witnessing not one, but two 10th class reunion comedies aimed at the "The Breakfast Club"/"Pretty in Pink"/"Say Anything" crowd.
It seems like just yesterday John Hughes was pumping out two or three teen angst movies annually, yet here we are in 1997 witnessing not one, but two 10th class reunion comedies aimed at the "The Breakfast Club"/"Pretty in Pink"/"Say Anything" crowd.
The production team of Susan Arnold and Donna Roth have a history with unusual stories such as "Benny & Joon" and my favorite, "Unstrung Heroes", so I wasn't too surprised to find that when John Cusack approached them with Tom Jankiewicz's script, they let him run with it.
It may not have reinvented the genre entirely, but the action movies that soon followed ( The Professional , Con Air , Grosse Pointe Blank ) were far more enjoyable than their predecessors (again, The Last Boy Scout ).