John Cusack has had his ups and downs. I don't recall a role I liked him in better than Grosse Pointe Blank, but I don't want to pigeonhole him into one role. He did a pretty crappy job as Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven, but that was really about the script sucking more than anything. Is the problem that John can't pick a good script anymore? Well, let's find out.
John plays Robert De Niro's lackey. He is inexplicably ordered to go and retrieve a bag, to not look in the bag, and to take it to a motel in the middle of nowhere to wait for instructions. While there, he meets a cast of characters who all seem to give him a hard time. He gets shot in the hand by the first guy he meets, he gets hassled by the local muscle, he has problems with the manager, he gets stuck with an Amazon woman, and the list goes on. With everything conspiring against him, he unravels a bit and still tries to make the right decisions.
Rebecca Da Costa is the 6 foot tall woman with her large breasts on show pretty much the whole time. You never see them completely uncovered, but she wears a corset the whole time, and you get a good idea. I think the reason for all of the breast shots was to ensure that you didn't question her gender. She has some kind of a Grace Jones thing going on with her face, and it's not particularly attractive. She is in the movie quite a bit, but she only has one emotion, and that is scared bunny.
Dominic Purcell plays the small town sheriff with a very loose interpretation of the law and people's rights. He investigates various disturbances of the peace, and he generally menaces about, giving our hero a hard time because he knows something is up. Dominic is a big guy who can play an intimidating character pretty well, so it was probably a good choice in casting.
Giving the movie a boost in the legitimacy category is Robert De Niro. He has some fairly distracting hair, and we are lead to believe that we should fear him and his physical capabilities. At his advanced age, I don't think it is particularly believable that he would be a match for a professional killer.
Directing was good
Acting was generally good
Story was moderate
Dialog tried too hard at times
Effects were okay
2.75/5