Grosse Point Blank (1997)

One of the things I love about this movie is that Martin Blank (John Cusack) always tells everyone who asks that he is a professional killer. Everyone asks him where he has been since high school, and he just tells them. They all assume that he's making a joke.
Another thing I love about this movie is the character of Marcella (Joan Cusack). She has so got her shit together. When she has the munitions dealer on one line and her sister on the other and just goes back and forth betwen cussing out the former and explaining a soup base to the latter, it's comic genius.
I can keep going with reasons why I love this film, but they all boil down to character's quirky behaviors. Whether it be the neurotic psychologist who may have been just fine before meeting Martin, or Grocer taking his experimental drugs and trying to unionize the professional killers. Or how about the classmates of Martin? Paul, the pot smoking real estate agent, or Bob the coke snorting car salesman or Terry the private security officer, or how about Tanya the neck-brace-wearing-near-death-experience-having girl who wants to dance with Martin? The only one that isn't terribly quirky is Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver), but who seems to be going through some kind of self-imposed therapy as an on-air personality for the local radio station.
The one thing that I don't like about this movie is that they are attending their ten year reunion. I can buy how much the characters have changed, but I have an issue with the actors, all of whom are older than 28. When this film first came out, I remember thinking this. It still holds true 15 years later. I was 24 when this came out and most of these actors had been doing their thing professionally since I was in junior high. But, I guess having it be a 15 year reunion would be weird, and a 20 reunion would have meant that some of the classmates had gotten together earlier. Also, not a criticism of the film as much as it is of my high school, but the music my school was listening to was not near as good. Not even close. Our soundtrack would have been all AC-DC, Metallica, Billy Idol and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Grosse Point Blank on IMDb

The Raven (2012)

For full disclosure, I have to state right off the top that I'm a fan of John Cusack. I also quite like Edgar Allen Poe, mostly for his writing, but also because we share the same middle name and our names have the same meter: Edgar Allen Poe - Eric Allen Cone.
I must also confess that while I knew a little of the life of Poe, I knew nothing of the end of his life. The opening narrative of the movie says that Poe was found delusional on a park bench in Baltimore and nothing was known of his last few days alive. I suspect that the events leading up to the start of the movie are based on what was really known about Poe. It just has the feel to it. This movie is a period piece and to my eye they went to a level of detail that would make even the BBC folks nod with approval. You don't put that much effort into realism just to mess with what is known about Poe. In furthering my confession I write this blog entry offline (like I do almost all of my entries) mostly because it's more convenient for me, but also because I like the irony. One thing that it does not afford me easy access to reference materials. So, while I have the collected works of Mr. Poe right here to peruse, I only have my knowledge from a lifetime ago from some class I took where I learned that Poe's wife died of consumption.
Disclosures and confessions behind us for now, let's get down to the nitty and the gritty. I like this movie. It was a historical thriller that did not go the route of the Sherlock Holmes movies with the over-the-top special effects and the slo-mo camera work revolving around the character because somebody thought the Matrix looked cool. I'm not saying it didn't look cool, 'cause it did, but at the same time is that really the best way to tell a Sherlock Holmes tale? Instead, the action in The Raven feels very believable and that's a good thing.
As far as the acting goes, John Cusack is the weak link of the movie. Seriously, this is not a complaint. I thought Mr. Cusack did a fine job, but the other actors, particularly Brendan Gleeson as Captain Hamilton, were superb. I'm not familiar with Luke Evans, but he does a good "intense". He also looks good with his shirt off. Just saying. I would watch other movies that followed the career of the character he plays in this movie, Inspector Fields, who is very much like Detective Murdoch from the Murdoch Mysteries television series and movies but grittier and more, um yeah I'm going to say it, intense. The last actor I wanted to mention is Sam Hazeldine, who pulls off a very good Hugo Weaving imitation at the end of the film. Maybe it's not an imitation, but I like the low-pitched voice and almost excruciatingly articulate pronunciations.
There is one thing about this movie that really chapped my hide. You're watching the resolution of the film, and if you're me, you're pretty satisfied with what you just watched. BAM! The credits start and it's this hardish rock song with some industrial elements and the graphics are abstract cgi of geometric ravens landing in piles as they die. What the fuck? This doesn't fit with the rest of the movie in either sound of look, and it doesn't fit with the second half of the credits. This really left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. So, watch the movie, skip the credits.

The Raven at IMDb

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Is this movie predictable? Yup. Does that really matter? Nope.
I forget exactly the conversation that led to me putting this movie on hold. It was something high-falutin' about the intricacies of time travel and the philosophical paradoxes that this can create. Something about timelines and knowing one timeline but living in another. Something. But, my friend failed to mention to me that this was a stupid, dorky, geeky comedy that was as much an homage to the 80s as anything else, not just the era, but the music and films of that era. And since it stars John Cusack, a lot of this is self-referential.
In short, this is an awesome movie. Maybe not for everyone, or maybe even not for me at another time, but tonight - yeah, it was good.
You know how it is, sometimes you find yourself in a particular state of mind and through the twists of fate you end up seeing or hearing exactly what you need to get through it. I was having this amazing day, actually like two days in a row, which is very rare for me. For once all the various computer things were going great. Working on the rewrite of my book has been going well, for actually a couple of weeks now, I was having good conversations with my usual crew online. And even most surprisingly I was doing okay in real life. But this afternoon, I somehow worked myself up into...something. I just went to a dark place. I took off instead of staying until the end of the day, where I knew I would get a ride and a chance to talk with my friend. By the time I was home, I was all convinced how I needed to stop doing everything I was doing because there was no point in anything. I put on some music which I hoped would be soothing, but really it probably just fed the whatever, and then I curled up on the couch, turned off the light and tried to keep from bawling my eyes out and mostly succeeded. Somehow I got the energy to eat some dinner. I say that like I often miss dinner, but anyone who has ever seen me knows that I have missed very few meals in my life, and in fact has taken on some extra ones just in case one gets missed in the future. The important thing here is that instead of eating my soup in the dark, I put in this movie. It did it for me.
And then, you couldn't possible know anything about this, but it's October 13, 2012 and I'm listening to the broadcast of the radio show, Live Wire. I turned it on just in time to hear author Daniel Smith talk about his new book, Monkey Mind which is his memoir about dealing with a life of anxiety and how he has mastered it.
I don't believe in coincidence. I really don't. I get what's going on right now. I might not remember it later. It's kind of like one of those epiphanies you get when you're high, that later seems like gobbledy-gook. Except I'm not high. I will admit that maybe my brain chemistry is out of whack. But, I can read everything I wrote and recall the thoughts, so there you have it.
You probably think, all three of you who have ever read this blog, that I have strayed farther afield than normal from this movie, but other than half a dozen allusions to oral sex, I really haven't. Don't believe me? Watch the movie then re-read this.

Hot Tub Time Machine at IMDb