Thursday, March 7, 2013

Film: Grosse Pointe Blank

I didn't much like this movie when it came out, but I think it's growing on me now.  I tend to not like movies where the characters run through dangerous situations while ignoring the danger.  John Cusack shoots people while arguing on the phone with his assistant, and then again exhanges gunfire while talking about his romatic feelings for a girl.  I'm going to acknowledge that this annoys me, and then set that aside and continue the review.  We'll be adults here.

Alan Arkin plays a charming troubled therapist.  I wish he had more screen time.  His lines are like a Woody Allen movie.

The music is very, very 90s. It's quite noticable also, almost like they were trying to establish a particular time period with the music, as they do in the Wedding Singer or Hot Tub Time Machine.  But actually I think it came out in 90s and they just picked all the pop hits of the day to put on the sound track.  No other aspect of the movie requires the 90s.  It's just an odd choice.  The girls radio station didn't have to be the top singles of 1996, it could have been oldies or anything else.

Again, the girl and her radio station...  I don't like Mini (or is it Minnie) Driver.  I'm not sure I've ever liked her in a role.  Her radio show sounds overly-personal.  If she's going to vent over the air about your relationship with her, does the relationship really have any hope?  He calls later: "That didn't go as I planned."  Minnie: "Oh, it went just as I planned."  She's not nice.  She's not very pretty.  There's really not much going for her except that she's the one who got away.  She's got history on her side.  But isn't part of going to a 10 year reunion, finding girls you used to like and realizing you aren't attracted to them now?  People change.  What was once a cute, carefree teenage is now a near-30 year old with kids, an ex-husband, and a job she hates.  Or she's a soured radio DJ who obsesses about her prom and treats the radio like her personal blog.

There's some nice 80s music at the actual reunion.  I appreciate the change.

How good a friend is Jeremy Priven?  Hasn't seen his buddy for 10 years, comes to the reunion and helps him dispose of a body with hardly a question.  No real sense of right and wrong in his head, just endless loyalty.  Who has friends like that?  All my friends can think for themselves, and I honestly hope they'd have a "call the cops" instinct if they caught me killing someone.

I'd forgotten that Minnie Driver breaks up with Martin Blanke after finding out that he's a hit man.  Someone rational in this movie!  He changes her mind by saving her dad.  (Spoiler! Sorry.)  I guess he's saved enough money to retire?  Is that what he was saying during the gun fight?  I can't remember now.  But never mind the two dead CIA operatives, nobody will miss them.

Hitting someone over the head with an old television would burst the vacuum tube inside.  Instead of there being electrical zapping noises you'd hear a quick sucking sound when the vacuum tube implodes.

Still not a very good movie.  But watchable.  I'd give it 6/10.

No good quotes here.

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