Grosse Pointe Blank

Here's the set-up: John Cusack is Martin Blank, a professional hit man who's being stalked by a competitor (Dan Ackroyd) because he refuses to join his arch-rival's union. Taking a powder, Blank returns to Grosse Pointe, Michigan for his ten year high school reunion, where he hooks up with the girlfriend (Minnie Driver) he walked out on a decade ago. The premise is, unfortunately, much better than the execution. Cusack and Driver, while occasionally charming, spend the better part of the film in sitcom level banter, while Joan Cusack (as Blank's secretary) and Ackroyd wildly overact. The capper is the reunion itself, in which the squabbling lovebirds interact with a series of stereotypical dorks while the film treads water. In fact, you should count the musical diversions here; the film is so unsure of itself that it's filled with wall-to-wall '80s music (the best aspect of the movie). Unlike its sharpshooting hero, Grosse Pointe Blank misses more than it hits. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)