director : george armitage cast : john cusack , minnie driver , dan ackroyd and others the nice but somewhat strange martin blank ( john cusack ) has an uncommon profession . his nice clean office with secretary soon turns out to be a flourishing killer agency . but although the hitman business is going well martin has problems . they are of a more personal nature and he regularly stretches out on a therapist's couch to solve them . the therapy comes to an abrupt end when he finds out that all his therapist's book that he admired so much where written by a ghost writer . nevertheless he lets this psychoterrorist who has severe problems himself talk him into attending his high school reunion at grosse pointe , michigan . by doing this he combines business and pleasure for his next contract is taking him there anyway . moreover a visit to his hometown gives him the opportunity to meet his high school sweetheart debi ( minnie driver ) whom he left without saying good-bye ten years ago . unfortunately things don't go according to plan because there's a hitman going after martin as well . the sleepy little town is in for one hell of a ride . john cusack who wasn't able to show his talent in this year's blockbuster 'con air' can do so now . he is very convincing as the troubled killer who justifies his deeds by pointing out that he never kills innocent people . his methods are just as extravagant as his personality . it doesn't always have to be a gun , does it ? the president of paraguay e . g . was killed with a fork . you have to be creative in a job that doesn't require a college degree , much less a ph . d . tom jankewicz seasoned the script with a healthy dose of black humor to prevent it from being just another big gunfight and thus defuses the more brutal scenes . he doesn't quite reach the skillfullness of the coen brothers but the dialogues and the funny situations stop the viewers from thinking about the fact that many people are killed in this movie . e . g . in the scene when martin has to kill one of the hitmen that try to kill him in a corridor of his old high school during the reunion dance . with the help of a friend he wraps the body in a piece of decoration and burns it in the school's furnace . the attentive viewer asks him- or herself where the big bloodstain in the corridor has gone and why there are no other bloody marks . the coens wouldn't have let this happen . on the down side are - once again - the female parts . they remain one-dimensional as usual . here they are secretaries ( joan cusack ) or ex-sweethearts ( minnie driver ) . especially debi's part could have been better . debi who is a dj with her own call-in radio show doesn't hesitate to embarass her former lover in public asking her audience whether she should give him a second chance after ten years . martin watches this in horror and can't believe the punishments the callers suggest . unfortunately that's minnie driver's only good scene . a big plus is dan ackroyd as professional killer grocer whose job it is to kill martin . their exchanges are a joy to watch for every lover of bizarre humor . grosse pointe blank has too many loose ends and boring parts to be a masterpiece , but it makes a nice change to watch it in between blockbusters . sense of ( very ) black humor required . 
