Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

George Armitage

Writers (WGA):

Tom Jankiewicz (story)
Tom Jankiewicz (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Even A Hit Man Deserves A Second Shot!

Plot:

Martin Blank is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence, his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time.

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | High School | High School Reunion | Hitman | Union

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

John Cusack	...	Martin Q. Blank
Minnie Driver	...	Debi Newberry
Alan Arkin	...	Dr. Oatman
Dan Aykroyd	...	Grocer
Joan Cusack	...	Marcella
Hank Azaria	...	Steven Lardner
K. Todd Freeman	...	Kenneth McCullers
Jeremy Piven	...	Paul Spericki
Mitch Ryan	...	Mr. Bart Newberry (as Mitchell Ryan)
Michael Cudlitz	...	Bob Destepello
Benny Urquidez	...	Felix La PuBelle
Duffy Taylor	...	Ultimart Carl
Audrey Kissel	...	Arlene
Carlos Jacott	...	Ken
Brian Powell	...	Husky Man

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, language and some drug content.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #34841) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:14A (Ontario) (video rating: 2004) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (original rating) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | South Korea:15 | Netherlands:12 (TV version) | Spain:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Trivia:

The attempt to kill the bicycle messenger as he rides down the hill in the first scene is a reference to the I want my two dollars bike-riding paperboy who menaces John Cusack's character in Better Off Dead... (1985).

Goofs:

Continuity: Martin's phone changes. Early in the movie when he meets with Grocer, he has a small cellphone with a flip down section. However once Grocer leaves, he picks up the same phone and it is now a much bigger one piece phone.

Quotes:

Mr. Grocer: Look, I don't want to play against you! This thing is real.
Martin Q. Blank: How real?
Mr. Grocer: Maranga Brothers, them, uh, East German ex-Stasi guys...
Martin Q. Blank: Oh, I don't like those guys.
Mr. Grocer: Them butch Filipino ladies...
Martin Q. Blank: What, the dwarf, maid...
[makes stabbing motion]
Mr. Grocer: Stabbers! Queens of the hotel hit, you know.
Martin Q. Blank: You got a great crew.
Mr. Grocer: Everybody's in!
[...]

Movie Connections:

References "Crossfire" (1982)

Soundtrack:

Doors of Your Heart

I'm drawing a complete...

Good movie. Particularly the part where John Cusack is using the frying pan to put his point across to the bad guy on the kitchen floor. It's hard not to belly laugh. I thought it took cues from 'Blue Velvet', with its uncommon blend of humour and ultra-violence.

I read that parts of the dialogue were contributed by Cusack and a couple of [real-life] school friends, though cannot confirm this. It's believeable though - for example when he meets the legal guy propping up the bar at the re-union. His offering of the pen, the aside that Cusack should 'read the cap' and asking to use the funny quip - 'they all seem kinda related' - must have been based on a real person. Too sad to be fiction.

Minnie [cab] Driver, Joan Cusack and Dan Ackroyd personalise their performances very well. The support cast were excellent too. The music was an oddly enjoyable mix and the fight sequence with the pen was the most realistic (and exhausting) I'd seen. It was the attention to small detail which swung it in the end though. Cusack's buddy's coke-fuelled, paranoid banter was spot on ("Jenny Slater, Jenny Slater") as was the burning the fingers on the furnace, to name just two random details. The effect of this, is that they all add up to a movie which you can enjoy watching many times. And that makes it a rare gem.