A Blank Movie

I'd heard 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank was kind of boring but it's on Criterion this month so I watched it anyway. It is really boring. But why? I kept watching, wondering, and analysing. I realised what the problem was in the convenience store shoot-out scene where John Cusack's character blasts a cardboard standup of Pulp Fiction characters. This movie was one of many that tried to follow in Pulp Fiction's footsteps but didn't truly understand what made Pulp Fiction work.

There were a lot of imitations of Tarantino's crime movies in the '90s. Some of them were better than others but none ever came close to the original. The trouble is, many people saw Pulp Fiction and said it was a movie about regular people who just happened to be gangsters and killers. No, it's more than that. When they seem normal, when Vincent and Jules are talking about Amsterdam or Harvey Keitel's joking with Julia Sweeney, it isn't that they're behaving normally in spite of being killers, it's that killers naturally have normal conversations now and then. It's like the kidnappers arguing in Shoot the Piano Player.

Grosse Pointe Blank is about a man going back to his hometown after ten years away to reconnect the girl he'd ditched on prom night. And he happens to be a professional hitman and the film occasionally lapses into ludicrous, over the top action scenes. Joe Strummer of The Clash does the soundtrack, throwing in a bunch of nostalgic '80s songs like Tarantino used '70s songs and the filmmakers must have thought they basically did what Tarantino did. No.

Here's what separates them. Pulp Fiction really is pulp fiction. The situations are slightly bizarre or absurd. Think of the chain of implausible violent events that characterise Bruce Willis' story. Think of the drama in the diner as the robbery is interrupted with Jules' epiphany. Grosse Pointe Blank is just random shoot-outs, and they're tacky action movie shoot-outs, where guys unload their pistols at each other and rarely score a hit.

The other problem is character. Tarantino makes Vincent an "Elvis man" who's slightly dumb, a little belligerent, but can be level headed in a tough situation. Butch is a man caught between his sense of honour and his desire to carve out a life for himself and his girl.

Meanwhile, John Cusack's killer wears a black suit and killing doesn't bother him. The girl he likes, Minnie Driver, isn't sure she should take him back. That's it. There's very little tension between the two because there's very little of anything between the two of them.

Grosse Pointe Blank was directed by George Armitage whose Miami Blues was a lot better.