John Cusack's best movie

agree w shakey in that the film tries to cuddle up to cusack, ultimately emphasizes his charm over his murderous sociopathy. does so in a way that allows it to function as a romantic comedy, but i wanted something a bit more dark & nihilist at the end, something more in keeping with cusack's character.

GPB is sort of like heathers, if at the end of heathers, snatchy and pump up the volume had gone off happily ever after.

xpost you wear a crown of challops

lol @ snatchy and pump up the volume

The ending of GPB is a disappointment. The only way it could have ended satisfactorily was if he'd murdered Driver's dad and she'd said "YAY!" and fucked him on Dan Ackroyd's corpse.

lol

"wait, you go down a tunnel and become john malkovich for 15 minutes? just conceptually this makes no sense to me."

John Malkovich was a very unconvincing John Malkovich

all this discussion of GPB is centered on cusack's sad sack assassin character. i think one of the reasons that it's so easy to accept both martin's sociopathic amorality AND the happily ever after ending he's granted is that cusack is basically just playing "john cusack in a weird role." we're accustomed to seeing him play the loserish but basically decent suitor, and that's pretty much what he gives us here, washed down with a bunch of "insane psycho killer" joeks.

another way to look at the movie, though, is to think of it as a romance, as something that occurs between two characters, male and female. i liked and related to minnie driver's debi a good deal more than cusack's martin (a joke of a character that quickly becomes repellent if taken seriously). she deserved better than this emotionally impoverished crazyman who's almost certainly going to get her hurt or killed in short order.

the fact that the movie shrugs all this off at the end bugged me. didn't make me hate it, i still count it one of my favorite cusack movies, maybe one of my favorite 90s pop comedies. i remember having reservations, that's all. should probably see it again...

The key phrase right there is "pop comedy". it really isnt worth being taken to task for not being "convincing" or "silly ENOUGH" or whatever.

well, all art works for us or it doesn't, this way or that. pop comedies shouldn't be exempt from critical analysis just cuz they're, you know, just pop comedies.

2 votes for 2012... really?

thought it was a Rush poll sry

wow I actually thought SA was a shoo-in for first. wow @ grifters love.

So did I, but the rules were to vote for best use of Cusackness, perhaps that skewed it.

Cusacker Blues

wow, i'd better watch 'grosse point blank' again. i remember it being pretty funny but i can't remember much about it other than wishing it had someone other than minnie driver -- most unwatchable actress ever.

he doesn't want to go to his reunion! he's only in town because he's supposed to whack somebody in town the same week!

Maybe obvious, but I always figured this happened on purpose - Joan C's character deliberately messed with his jobs to force him to Grosse Pointe and thus have to go to the reunion as well. This bears out when you see Grocer getting pissed cos the job's been pulled out from under him (when he spits out his pen and goes "alternate vendor? WHAT fucking alternate vendor?" I lol).

Thus, Grocer is pissed at him stealing his job so he goes after him... the CIA guys are after him for stealing their "we don't assasinate people, we do our jobs" angle, and hilarity of crossed purposes ensue.

Speaking of which, Hank Azaria's role in this film is totes underrated. I love that guy.

speaking of which, america's sweethearts is great

minnie driver is an absolute delight, idk what happened to her career

*cautiously waves sarcasm meter around*

I feel sorry for Grace Is Gone.

_dying_ at shakey in this thread

i know right! i've been speechless

"its like the premise of Cars. does not compute"

theyre cars... who are alive.

*shakes head* nahhhhh. no way!

but american psycho... that's some convincing depiction of a psychopath right there (and it's funny too)

hahahahaha max

a psychopath who is superficially charming...? couldn't be!

so youre telling me these guys... dress up as women... to escape from the mob?

does. not. compute.

nuns on the run?

agree with contenderizer tho about the end, which is the whole reason why the

~let my love open the door~
*holds baby*
this changes everything epiphany

scene just derails the movie for me

good morning!

well, I guess it could be a thing for ppl who want to have babies

who says "good morning" 17 minutes before noon? completely unconvincing, I don't buy it.

time travel

babies solve nothing.

unless you need a cheap source of baby meat

"cheap"

$60k/lb

and that's for a fresh, white baby!

man swift really didnt factor in inflation

Babies, fyi, solve pension crises iirc

still GPB.

"are you alright?"

"No, I'm NOT all right! I'm hurt, I'm pissed... I gotta find a new job!"

"You must have done some naughty shit there, Bart! There's a contract out on your life. I should know, I was hired to kill you. But I'm not going to do it. It's either because I'm in love with your daughter, or I have a newfound respect for life."

"That punk is either in love with that guy's daughter, or he has a newfound respect for life!"

I used to have such a thing for John Cusack. But in my opinion GPB is where he started coasting. I'd have said High Fidelity, but upon looking at his filmography, there's not a lot of there there.

Love & Mercy is probably my favorite of his since Grosse Point Blank

it’s not for everyone but i just love his portrayal of wilson, i like how he stops short of doing an impression but somehow still physically carrying and/or suggesting all of the turmoil

that was a good'un, yes, and I saw it during the throes of my BB obsession

Yeah he was good in that movie.

Anyone seen Grand Piano? I found it in a list of underrated thrillers and saw it had Cusack and Elijah Wood and was written by Damien Chazelle - surprised I'd never heard of it, with those names. It's a decent enough high-concept thriller but Cusack doesn't make much of an impression. Elijah commits much better to the ridiculous concept