Just Films & That is a podcast that celebrates underrated and underseen films. In this episode, one of our supporters on Patreon, Jason, chose Grosse Pointe Blank because he reckons it’s underrated and underseen. So, what did we make of this one? You can listen to all full episodes of `Just Films & That now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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00:00 "I just honestly don't know what I have in common with those people anymore. And what
00:04 am I going to say? I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How have you been?"
00:09 "Gross Point Blank" is a film from 1997. It's an action-dark comedy about an assassin
00:15 and the emotional turmoil that he faces from having to go to his high school reunion. So
00:21 this one was chosen by one of our supporters over on Patreon called Jason, and he thinks
00:26 that this film is underrated and underseen.
00:29 So at the time of recording over on IMDb, it gets 7.3 out of 10. The audience on Rotten
00:35 Tomatoes give it 87%, so a little bit higher, and the critics give it 82%, which is sort
00:40 of in the middle. It didn't do great at the box office, but it has become a little bit
00:44 of a cult hit, so we'll see if we think it is underrated or underseen. Now, I had seen
00:49 this one before, but you hadn't, so tell us a little bit about what your thoughts were.
00:53 So like you said, I hadn't seen it, I hadn't even heard of it, but I was actually really
00:57 impressed by the whole film as an entirety. So I really like the concept, and I think
01:02 it lends itself so well to the genre, and it gets that balance of darkness and comedy
01:07 just right. And the idea of an assassin, this cold-blooded killer, being fazed by the fact
01:12 that he has to go to his high school reunion just opens the doors for comic creativity.
01:16 I think the character introductions are really strong as well, and just bouncing off from
01:20 that, there's a lot of side characters in this that feel really well-developed and bring
01:24 quite a lot to the story. And I think the script is really sophisticated at times as
01:29 well. The way the characters interact with each other, the conversations that they have,
01:33 there's a lot going on in there.
01:34 Do you know what? Watching it this time, I actually enjoyed it a lot more. I remember
01:37 watching it the first time thinking, "Yeah, it's good, it's decent." But this time, I
01:40 think I appreciated that script a little bit more that you're talking about there. It's
01:44 really sharp, it's really witty, it's dark, but it's also funny at the same time. Like
01:49 you said, John Cusack's character, Martin Blank's killing people for a living, but he's
01:52 scared of his high school reunion. So there's loads of different layers of comedy in there
01:55 which I really liked. I think John Cusack really is an interesting screen presence.
01:59 I always see him as a bit of a sexy everyman, but he's also a bit of a dark side. He's got
02:03 that touch of the Nicolas Cage about him, but at the same time, he's also got that touch
02:06 of the Tom Cruise about him. Quite your standard leading man, but with an edge.
02:10 What have you been doing with your life?
02:11 Uh... professional killer.
02:15 I would say there were probably two main things that I didn't like about the film. The first
02:18 was that in the odd occasion, there was a bit of lazy storytelling where we were told
02:22 things as opposed to being shown them, and I didn't really think this was necessary.
02:26 The other thing is, I would have really liked to have seen more assassinations or more assassination
02:30 attempts, because the ones that we do see feel really creative, they feel really engaging.
02:35 So looking at those scores then, 8 out of 10 average. Is it underrated? And also, is
02:43 it underseen based on what you know?
02:45 For me, that score isn't underrated, but from what we've seen after putting the episode
02:49 out there, a lot of people really love this film, which has been really interesting to
02:53 discover. So I can see why people would think it's underrated, but I do certainly think
02:58 that it's underseen, and I just don't think that people, especially modern audiences,
03:02 are going back and watching this.