fbone

Hey, this movie was OK, and an interesting concept. The sets and art direction were actually very cool. Unfortunately, the one thing they forgot to do was hire someone who knows how to write some dialogue and make some characters. I was intrigued until any time someone opened their mouth. The acting was bad, but I really don't know what anyone could have done with lines like that. If they would have had some believable dialogue instead of a string of catch phrases, I would have given the movie an '8'. Instead, I gave it a '5'.

It was an attempt at a contemporary romantic comedy about a guy who moves to the big city ("the toughest move a guy can make"....huh?). After arriving there, he falls for a girl who sings in a folk act. Wackiness does not ensue. This movie certainly wasn't _bad_, but there was not one original thing about it. Jokes like, "guy doesn't want to wake up, so he throws beeping alarm clock out window to street" have been done a million times before on The Partridge Family and Three's Company. This movie is full of ideas that someone else already came up with. Ed certainly seems like a nice guy, and Matt Ross puts on a decent performance, but the movie is boring and unoriginal. If you want to see a really funny movie with a similar plot situation, see Swingers. But I wouldn't bother with Ed...

That line pretty much sums up the sub-meaning of this film. The movie represents John Cusak's graduation into the world of mature, adult filmmaking. Cusak, of course, became famous for being the center of films such as Say Anything, Better Off Dead, and The Sure Thing. I'm not saying that these films are bad - the first two are great. But they're not the type of film that Cusak wants to make anymore. Grosse Point Blank is his _last_ high-school flick.

I saw this movie for the first time when I had graduated from college and moved into my parents' house while I started my first post-college job. Tons of the things that Cusak was trying to do in this film rang true for me at that time. Martin Blank is forced to return to his high-school environment (obviously one he didn't miss) and re-visit his life there. Things have changed and he realizes why he hasn't come back before and why it's not his life anymore. The line "It's not me," is not just referring to his current job, but also the conceptions that everyone in Grosse Point has about him. The whole thing is a metaphor for Cusak's career. This is also why the movie references Better Off Dead (_killing_ the bike messenger) and You Only Live Twice (Cusak's second life as an actor/writer/producer). This is why the black comedy works so well here. Professional killer is obviously an adult occupation, so how could he possibly be back at High School? So, Cusak makes one last return to the concept of high school, complete with a graphic, morbid death scene. An excellent subplot, pulled off to perfection by Cusak.

By the way, don't ever live with your parents for an extended period of time once you've been out. It'll mess with you.