History Film / GrossePointeBlank

* LargeHam: Grocer. ''BOUDREAUX'S COMIN' FOR YA!'' and singing how he's going to kill Martin to "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" at the climax.

** Grocer wants to commoditize the assassination industry, turning hitmen into interchangeable products like in a grocery store.

-->'''Grocer''': ...well, yeah!

* StepfordSmiler: Arlene Oslott-Joseph seems to be this. She's heavily involved in organising the reunion, works the door and provides introductions with a fixed grin, but never actually enters the hall and socialises with her former classmates and seems to sit alone the entire evening.

-->'''Mr. Newberry:''' ...aww, fuck it. Let's have a drink and forget the whole thing.

* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: A large part of Grocer's reason for setting up his "union" is due to recently available former Soviet and Eastern Bloc hit men flooding the market.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: During the climactic gun battle, the NSA spooks burst in through the patio doors and both start firing at Martin, who while hiding from Grocer is in plain sight for them. Not only does neither of them him him, they both get blown away by Martin and Grocer, when he stands up from where he'd been hiding from Martin.
* ImprovisedWeapon User: "I killed the [[BananaRepublic President of Paraguay]] with a fork". During the film, Martin also kills with a fountain pen, a frying pan and a TV Set.

* AffablyEvil: Grocer comes off this way. Marty too, to an extent, although he tends to be more "affably amoral."

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Grocer is anxious to recruit Blank into his Hitman Guild, so there won't be any more "embarassing overlaps."
* ArcWords: ''You're a psycho!''

* BurgerFool: The air-headed guy who works at the convenience store which used to be Martin's home and on account of "Ace of Spades" by Music/{{Motorhead}} blaring in his [[HeadphonesEqualIsolation headphones]] is completely oblivious to a brutal gunfight between Martin and an assassin.

* UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}: Or rather, its poshest suburb, Grosse Pointe.

* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:Debi's father is to be killed because he's blowing the whistle on his company's ''leaky sunroof''.]]

* FacialDialogue: During the reunion, Martin [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6hQx9PW20E has a deep and profoundly spiritual conversation with a baby]] using nothing but facial expressions. The baby manages to convince Martin that cynicism isn't the way, and that there really is some good in this life, and its worth pursuing.

* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: A guy in a convenience store playing ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and listening to Motorhead is oblivious to a gunfight happening all around him.

Martin Blank is a government-trained freelance hitman living under a decade-long existential crisis. When his latest job takes him to his old home town on Grosse Point, Michigan, on the very weekend of his high school reunion, his worlds collide and he's forced to confront some dangling threads of his past life. Complicating matters is the unwanted attention he's receiving from his professional rival Grocer, who's given him an [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse offer Blank can't refuse]] to join his his WeirdTradeUnion of [[MurderInc assassins]]. Blank has to dodge hitmen, elude the NSA, find his target, and (most alarmingly) reconnect with the girl he abandoned on graduation day.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: During the final battle, Grocer quotes selections from Revelation 13:1-4.
-->'''Grocer''': "...And I saw a beast rise above the sea, with seven heads and ten horns...And they worshipped the beast, saying 'Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?'" Are you, Pinky?

A 1997 romantic comedy action film about an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] going home to attend his 10-year high school reunion. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensues.]] The film stars Creator/JohnCusack (who also receives a writing credit), Creator/DanAykroyd, Creator/MinnieDriver and Creator/JoanCusack.

** Although Grocer could also be considered FauxAffablyEvil, less because his joking, chummy persona is a facade (it's not), but because he [[AxCrazy genuinely doesn't seem to see the problem]] with [[NoSocialSkills being chummy with the guy]] he's [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor (not so) jokingly threatening to murder]].

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "You're a handsome devil. What's your name?" Asked by his mother.
** Part of Martin's anxiety is that he has so little in common with anyone else, he has no idea how to answer when people ask him what he does for a living or how he's spent his last few years. So he tells them the truth, knowing they'll think he's joking.
** When Debi finds out that Martin's SarcasticConfession is actually an IgnoredConfession;

* BottomlessMagazines: Blank is often seen reloading his weapons, but in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZt0fAZ018E&feature=player_embedded#! this scene]], the villain is never seen/heard reloading, and fires way more bullets than his guns should theoretically be able to hold.

* ContrivedCoincidence: If Martin's target hadn't been [[spoiler: Debi's father]], the movie would have been half an hour shorter with a DownerEnding.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Martin:
--->'''Martin Blank:''' "Dumb fucking luck..."

* INeedAFreakingDrink: An old schoolfriend of Martin's at the reunion, after helping him dispose of a body.
** His outrage only increases when Martin only orders a club soda.

* GenreSavvy: Both Blank and Grocer. The latter is able to instantly figure out that Martin became a HitmanWithAHeart in the final act (funnily enough, using Blank's words verbatim to describe why).

* StrawmanPolitical: Both Grocer and Martin. Grocer is a psychotic version of a corrupt labor organizer trying to force someone into joining, although the union he intends to form is one of assassins; Martin expresses some right-wing sounding statements to the effect that being a hired killer is "just business," and is implied to have participated in some of America's less savoury actions during the late UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

A 1997 romantic comedy action film about an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] going home to attend his 10-year high school reunion. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensues.]] The film stars Creator/JohnCusack (who also receives a writing credit), Creator/Dan Aykroyd, Creator/MinnieDriver and Creator/JoanCusack.

A 1997 Creator/JohnCusack comedy about an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] going home to attend his 10-year high school reunion. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensues.]]

Martin Blank is a disaffected 28-year-old ex-soldier turned Government-trained freelance hit man. After he ends up botching his most recent job because of the handiwork of Grocer, a rival hit man, he gets an offer from the same rival looking to form a WeirdTradeUnion of [[MurderInc assassins and professional killers]], to, in Grocer's words, "prevent embarrassing overlaps." Blank flatly tells him he's not interested, only to be told to reconsider, given that [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse one way or another, Grocer's going to get him.]] Then there's an invitation to his high-school reunion, which he also refuses, until the company he's on the hook with for the botch tells him he needs to make good by killing someone out that way. Reluctantly, he heads back to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, followed by a slew of other hitmen from the union looking to change his mind and two overly enthusiastic NSA agents also out to get him. Along the way he comes to grips with his emotional issues and reconnects with Debi Newberry (Creator/MinnieDriver), the girl he left behind ten years ago.

* AxCrazy: Grocer. Not a lot of killers in film that think it's a good idea to tell someone they're going to kill him by singing a ditty set to "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain".

* AxCrazy: Grocer

* ByronicHero: Martin

* GenreSavvy: Both Blank and Grocer.

* HitmanWithAHeart: The film is one of the best examples of this trope.

* LargeHam: Grocer. ''BOUDREAUX'S COMIN' FOR YA!''

* MurderInc: The creation of one of these, to avoid overlapping contracts, is a major plot point.

* PetTheDog: In a memorable scene, Martin holds a baby and the infant takes to him immediately. More importantly, Martin takes to the baby just as quickly. Or, at least, has a revelation about people, life, etc... This is somewhat subverted, as the positive impression the audience and his love interest receive of him is shaken by the fact he has to stab a guy to death in self-defense with a pen.
* ProfessionalKiller: A boatload of them.

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: During the climax, Martin shoots someone approaching the front door, without even looking. [[spoiler: In a shot lasting only moments, it's revealed Martin just shot Terry (uh... No it isn't), the security guard for the neighborhood.]] He doesn't notice, and given the quick pace of the scene, it's easily missed.

->'''Mr. Newberry:''' What have you been doing with your life?\\
'''Marty:''' Uh... professional killer.\\
'''Mr. Newberry:''' Oh! Good for you, it's a... growth industry.

* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: The assassin protagonist tries to convince his psychiatrist to continue seeing him (the psychiatrist freaked out when his patient revealed his profession). The protagonist mentions doctor-patient confidentiality as a reason why their continued visits wouldn't be a problem and then adds, "And besides, I know where you live". Given the protagonist's admitted profession and the fact that he would know the psychiatrist by name, that's not so hard to believe.

-->'''[[spoiler:Mr. Newberry]]: So design division wants me dead because of a leaky sunroof? You wanna kill me because of ''that''?

* DisproportionateRetribution: [[Debi's father is to be killed because he's blowing the whistle on his company's ''leaky sunroof''.]]

--> "But I guess you can shop there."

* CaliforniaDoubling: There are no palm trees in suburban Detroit.

* {{Expy}}: The film ''War Inc.'' which also stars both Cusack siblings is a SpiritualSuccessor to this one, and they play basically the same characters with different names (although [[DarkerAndEdgier more sociopathic]] in both cases).

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: During the climax, Martin shoots someone approaching the front door, without even looking. [[spoiler: In a shot lasting only moments, it's revealed Martin just shot Terry, the security guard for the neighborhood.]] He doesn't notice, and given the quick pace of the scene, it's easily missed.

* BadAss: Martin.