Classic Movie

'If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there'

	Ultimately blows Pulp Fiction out of the water and then rams it back under to make sure it’s dead

The plot: Martin Q Blank (John Cusack) is a fast-talking freelance hitman on a reluctant soul-seeking sojourn to his 10-year high school reunion in the leafy Detroit suburb of Grosse Point. Thanks to the coercion of his lovably psychotic secretary (played by John’s sister, Joan) and his terrified therapist (Alan Arkin), Blank is persuaded to attend this corny coming-together where he covets the ‘frightening natural chemistry’ he once shared with the childhood sweetheart he jilted at the prom a decade ago, Debi (Minnie Driver).

So what happens? It’s a darkly comic story of a once cold-blooded assassin with mercenary sensibilities secretly pining for a cheesy new beginning. But, amid this acutely awkward nostalgia trip, Blank not only has to make one last hit, he remains under surveillance by two hapless government spooks and two fellow hitmen: Grocer (Dan Ackroyd) and some Eastern European badass with a penchant for Asda tailoring, microwave bombs and automatic weaponry.

Why’s it a classic? Grosse Point Blank’s a sure-footed, sardonic executioner of a movie with a clever cast all at the peak of their powers. Cusack is at his caustically comedic best and Ackroyd performs with the kind of nerdy satire only he can legitimately deliver. As a result of this, Grosse point-blank refuses to slot into any specific genre. Its twitchy laughs, subversive script, and deadpan style may resemble Quentin Tarantino’s style, but its slapstick violence boldly steers it into a genre of its own. Director George Armitage gives us more hip dialogue than an arthritis ward’s day trip to Scafell Pike – and Clash man Joe Strummer produces one of the all-time best movie soundtracks – for a film which ultimately blows Pulp Fiction out of the water and then rams it back under to make sure it’s dead. Criminally overlooked and utter genius.