Film

Grosse Pointe Blank

A hitman comedy that runs on deadpan cool and a killer soundtrack: John Cusack's contract killer heads home for his high-school reunion, forced to explain a decade of silence to the girl he ghosted on prom night. It's fast, funny, oddly romantic, and soaked in mid-90s alt-rock. For anyone who wants their romantic comedy with a body count and a therapist joke.

TMDb rating3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like black comedy that treats a hitman's midlife crisis as a genuinely funny, slightly sad problem, with sharp dialogue and a romance that keeps catching you off guard.

Skip it if you want a clean, fast action thriller; the violence is played for laughs and the romance and self-reflection often slow things down between the gags.

What it asks of you: It runs about 107 minutes and rewards close listening, since the jokes are verbal and the mood swings from breezy to melancholy without warning.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

In Bruges2008

Martin McDonagh's hitman comedy trades California cool for grim Belgian tourism, but the mix of guilt, banter, and sudden violence is the same high-wire act Grosse Pointe Blank pulls off with a smile.

But The humour turns pitch-black and the violence lands harder than anything in Blank's world.

In Bruges poster

High Fidelity2000

Cusack again, older, nostalgic, and narrating his own romantic failures with the same wounded wit — a mixtape instead of a hit list, but the same guy trying to make peace with who he used to be.

But No hitmen, no action — just a man cataloguing breakups, which is a much smaller kind of thrill.

High Fidelity poster

Mr. & Mrs. Smith2005

Assassins, marriage, and a soundtrack doing a lot of the emotional work — this one just swaps the reunion for a house in the suburbs and turns the ex into a spouse.

But Glossier and less funny, more concerned with chemistry between its stars than jokes.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Grosse Pointe Blank

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Barry2018

Same engine — a professional killer trying to reinvent himself through an ordinary civilian pursuit — stretched over years instead of a weekend, so the joke curdles into something much more serious.

A hitman trying to build a second life — here through acting class instead of a reunion — across four seasons that swing from pitch-black comedy to genuine tragedy, deepening the exact question Blank asks: can you actually walk away from killing people for a living?

But It gets much darker and sadder than Blank ever does, and asks you to sit with the cost of that violence rather than laugh it off.

Barry poster
More like this (8)

The Whole Nine Yards2000

A hitman relocates to suburbia and chaos follows his new neighbour — broad, silly, and unashamed about mixing murder with farce, the way Blank does with a straighter face.

But Cruder and less clever, more slapstick than satire.

The Whole Nine Yards poster

Killers2010

A rom-com about a woman who falls for an assassin without knowing it, played entirely for laughs — the wildest, dumbest cousin of Blank's killer-with-a-heart premise.

But It's shallower and broader, more studio rom-com than character piece.

Killers poster

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion1997

Same year, same premise from the other side — outsiders faking success to survive their own reunion, with the same fond mockery of who we pretend to be for people we used to know.

But No hitmen or stakes, just pastel comedy about self-invention and popularity.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion poster

Analyze This1999

A mobster in therapy, panicking about feelings instead of hits — the same joke of professional killers being emotionally stunted, played through a shrink's couch instead of a class reunion.

But Broader, more slapstick, and leans harder on De Niro's mob-guy persona than character work.

Analyze This poster

Bullet Train2022

A hyper-stylised ensemble of assassins trading quips mid-massacre — the pop soundtrack and self-aware cool of Blank cranked up to a cartoon pitch.

But Much more violent and chaotic, with none of the melancholy or romance underneath the jokes.

Bullet Train poster

Assassins1995

Stallone versus Banderas as rival hired guns, one of them clearly nearing the end of his usefulness in the trade — the professional-killer midlife crisis Blank has, played dead straight.

But It's a grim, humourless action thriller — the crisis without any of the charm.

Assassins poster

Kind Hearts and Coronets1949

Both ask you to like a serial killer because he's funny and self-aware about it; Blank just has better music.

A young man murders his way up the family tree to a dukedom with impeccable manners and a running voiceover of dry wit — the same trick of making a charming murderer someone you root for, half a century before Blank did it with a Beretta and a grunge soundtrack.

But Black-and-white, very British, and paced for a 1949 audience — patient and verbal rather than fast and physical.

Kind Hearts and Coronets poster

A History of Violence2005

Same premise, opposite register: a man's old capacity for violence collides with the ordinary life he built to escape it.

A quiet family man's violent past resurfaces in his hometown, and the film refuses every opportunity to make it funny — the same buried-history-catches-up-with-you shape as Blank, stripped of the jokes to show what it might actually cost.

But It's bleak, tense, and genuinely disturbing where Blank is breezy — not a date movie.

A History of Violence poster

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Recommended by

Analyze This, In Bruges, Barry, High Fidelity, Midnight Run, Nikita, The Killer, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Day of the Jackal, Mickey Blue Eyes, The Whole Nine Yards, Married to the Mob, Killers, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Assassins, The Last of the High Kings, The Matador, The Replacement Killers, The Baxter, Point of No Return