John Cusack's best movie

Everything about the essence of Cusack is captured in High Fidelity imo. Quibble if you must about whether or not the film is any good, but that's a crash course in HIM.

I think a movie can display him well, and he can be great it in it without it being essence of Cusack: Grace Is Gone, for example, which is completely counter-Cusack, but still an amazing showcase for him.

I thought he was great in True Colors too (and it was a better than okay movie iirc). Also a counter-Cusack role.

I gotta vote for Grosse Pointe Blank. The rapid-fire funny dialogue is everything I love about the guy.

(its prob my fave Joan role as well)

It was hard to choose between 2012 and Serendipity.

thin red line, bullets over broadway or eight men out for best movie cusack's been in, grosse pointe blank for best cusack movie

I gotta vote for Grosse Pointe Blank. The rapid-fire funny dialogue is everything I love about the guy.

^^^^

I'd rank'em:

Say Anything
Grosse Pointe Blank
High Fidelity
Being John Malkovich

I have a colleague who lauds Better Off Dead. I bought it on DVD. I can see why Cusack has all but disowned it.

man i've seen a lot of this dude's movies

top ten: Say Anything, Bullets Over Broadway, Better Off Dead, Grosse Pointe Blank, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, The Sure Thing, America's Sweethearts, Cradle Will Rock, One Crazy Zummer

bottom ten: Identity, 1408, Serendipity, Con Air, 2012, War Inc, Pushing Tin, Hot Tub Time Machine, Max, Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil (not so much a bad movie as a terrible Cusack performance)

Gosh, this is hard. I'd be sad so see no votes for 'The Road to Welville', in which he is so funny and so on the ball all the time. Cusack up to his best screwball shenanigans (like Bullest over Broadway).

I vote for Tapeheads even though it's not very good. All sorts of personal connections to what is, in all honesty, mediocre at best.

There are better films on the list but The Sure Thing is essence of Cusack for me.

Until Owen Wilson he was the best Woody surrogate too.

DL otm, so i'm going with Malkovich

There are better films on the list but The Sure Thing is essence of Cusack for me.

omg thank you for reminding me this is on here. Almost voted for high fidelity, but Sure Thing all the way.

big-ups for grifters, Say Anything, High Fidelity, Hot Tub Time Machine, Being John Malkovich and Grace Is Gone (if you can handle schmaltz) too. I know I liked grosse pointe blank the one time I saw it when it came out, but all i can remember now is shitty stuff involving minnie driver.

voted grifters just so it gets a vote

yeah the speech where he jumps into the pool is perhaps his single finest performance (xpost)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2uCXOKxfjU

he really is on a short list of people who can talk directly to the camera that i don't then want to shoot

"I know where you live."

"Aw, see, that wasn't a nice thing to say. That wasn't designed to make me feel good."

i know it's a cameo, but i just gotta acknowledge the scene in bob roberts where he's pissed that bob is the musical guest on Not SNL instead of the promised krs-1. I believe that would piss him off.

I liked Grosse Pointe Blank when I saw it - it reminded me of Demme's Something Wild.

Say Anything is his quintessential film; even if Being John Malkovich is better, it's not really "his"

but GPB and HF are fitting spiritual sequels to SA.

Aside from The Ice HArvest, his career has really sucked for a decade.

so you like GPB, Morbs?

yes (for one thing, it was the last time Dan Aykroyd was funny)

HF

High fidelity for me, followed by Better Off Dead.

"WHAT FUCKING 'IAN GUY'?"

nothing in the world could keep me from voting for grosse pointe blank, it has everything you'd want from a movie - ive seen it 20+ times, my favorite movie in the world when i was 13

it was also the last time he really 'brought something to the table' in a movie - now he just sleepwalks through everything - i couldnt get through 2012 because of him

"No meetings!" BLAM

Joan Cusack is terrific. "It was as if everyone had swelled."

Yeah, The Sure Thing is the essence of romantic/angst/comic Cusack.

Con Air was kind of interesting because his character didn't have any personal storyline (that I remember), for a guy whose essence is personal storyline.

Grosse wa great, yea.

I hated Identity, but not because of him...mostly because of the insidious plot and the cheap copout ending.

Also hated Con/Air.

Bullets Over Broadway was fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ScNLt2zNc

benny the freakin jet! mirror in the bathroom! doesnt get any better than this

i ended up with a blanket dislike of all 90's 'indie crime movies' and haven't really gotten over it

fav movie: Malkovich
fav Cusack being Cusack: GPB

but hating on Con Air is like hatin on a retarded child

Jeez there's a lot of love for GPB here, huh? I've never seen it. Guess I should change that.

I love him. There's something so adorable and likeable about him. Idk. He's all time. Haven't decided what to vote for yet though.

Probably Malkovich or Say Anything I think.

gpb or better off dead

i want my two dollars

Wasn't mad about GPB. Too pleased with itself.

GPB is not a crime movie. The assassin shit is a metaphor for the garbage jobs 90% of us have.

dr. morbs i still can't believe you like say anything. it's enough to make me want to give it another chance.

The original title was "Grocer Point Blank"

HS what?! I can't believe YOU DON'T. >:(

This is, quite frankly, shocking and upsetting.

love the convenience store shootout scene in GPB

aw i'm sorry E! it creeps me out tbh.

by the criteria outlined in the op 'identity' best movie on the list 'the thin red line' or maybe 'being john malkovich'

gotta admit tho that:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Con Air
Grosse Pointe Blank

is a p impressive single year run

aw i'm sorry E! it creeps me out tbh.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:07 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Creeps you out? How?!

Midnight in The Garden is surprisingly good.

i don't really even like john cusack anymore but he is super-good in high fidelity.

xp i think it's that cameron crowe yay codependency thing that gets me

Eastwood took a giant crap on the book. The drag queen was the best thing in it. Also: it's when I started to hate Kevin Spacey.

like when john mahoney asks him what he wants to do with his life and he's like, "i want to BE with your DAUGHTER" is that supposed to be cute?

I'm going to have to go w/ GPB, barely eking out the Savage Steve Holland axis of Better Off Dead/One Crazy Summer & just over SA, BJM & HF - so no big surprises there, tho I do have to give a shoutout to TAPEHEADS &, absurd tho the film as a whole is, JC freaking the fuck out over the entire duration of 1408 is also worthy of mention.

It's his delivery: he's sincere yet I hear the self-mockery too.

xpost

Oh jeez HA - it is a sweet movie and loyd is nice and was my pretend boyfriend when I was teenager and he gave her his heart and she gave him a pen and DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND DAMMIT! ;) I haven't seen it in years but never really got a creepy codependency vibe from it but that's interesting and I'll keep that in mind next time I catch it on tv.

like when john mahoney asks him what he wants to do with his life and he's like, "i want to BE with your DAUGHTER" is that supposed to be cute?

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:10 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yes!

well i could be overreacting i think the fact that jerry maguire happened later caused me to view earlier crowe movies suspiciously. though i love singles. also, i hate fun.

I think you may be over thinking that one a little too much.

awwwww

u do not

<3

Jerry Maguire is a horrible movie tho

John Cusack is immune to you guys' psychobabble ;)

Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich

altho I almost gave the sympathy vote to Roadside Prophets, cuz he is awesome in that (also only onscreen for like 2 minutes tho)

never understood the love for Grosse Point Blank tbh. lot of good work from this guy tho, obviously

i have seen so many of these goddamn movies. one of my sisters was obsessed with john cusack growing up and we had to see everything multiple times. this might help account for my feelings about say anything.

like has anyone else seen tapeheads more than once? probably not.

um...

1408 is underrated. Properly creepy.

It used to bug me that Ione Skye was such a void in Say Anything when she's supposed to be this mind-blowing valedictorian genius, but the truth is that if they'd gotten an actress that really came off super-intelligent and challenging (like if Lili Tayor played the part) the movie would have lost a big slice of its fanbase - women who just wanna watch John Cusack be mr. dream supportive boyfriend. Its cult would probably be more like Dogfight's.

lol Dan <3

oh wait, I'm thinking of Airheads

nvrmind

being john malkovich was the biggest overrated piece of shit movie.

ha my sister was telling me they did a years later commentary track for say anything and crowe said incredibly complimentary things to mahoney and cusack about their work, and then any time ione was onscreen he was like, "you're so pretty!"

JOHN CUSACK Y

tbh lots of valedictorians are voids.

the ones that get to join think tanks out of college?

sorry out of HIGH SCHOOL?

Ione Skye is p annoying in that movie tbh.

also, no sure thing on that earlier poll, so this one is very necessary

it's a thinktank for hairdressers.

that's part of the creepiness of the movie to me...it's like john cusack has just invented a person in his mind, which you do when you have an unrequited long-distance crush, but then the movie treats that crush like this exalted thing

yeah if i was lloyd i would have gotten rid of ione

yeah it is weird, but for boys who do that and ladies who (at least think) they'd enjoy the attention (and since Ione is blank its easy to just push her out of the way of his gaze), SA is the UR-movie

I've seen Tapeheads more times than any other Cusack movie - probably more than all the others put together. What can I say? Ninja bitches.

it also helps that the supporting cast is so terrific in Say, so its still pretty watchable once your past the blind crushage stage of life

Plus Eliot Gould and Barbara Streisand's lovechild is in it!

Crowe isn't a good writer of women. Look at Renee Zellweger in JM: she's a composite of several irreconcilable qualities. She's tough, cute, an imbecile, the mother of a horrible whelp, a careerist. It's like Crowe thinks these things that cancel each other out make for a three-dimensional woman.

the mother of a horrible whelp

lol

I'm sorry but he was pretty damn cute in that movie.

I was all like, Where's Gotcha?, because I think of that one with One Crazy Summer and The Sure Thing. But it turns out not to be Cusack, though imagine if they'd dyed his hair blonde and blow-dried it for this.

http://www.porraman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/gotcha-poster.jpg

I'm a sucker for small kids in glasses who say stupid things though so.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/jerry-maguire-kid.jpg

^^^ ugh. Would aim SCUC missile at his face.

I LOVE HIM

*SCUD

http://samanthaiam.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/jerry-maguire-kid-then-and-now.jpg

I didn't see Say Anything until my 30s. Also I am British. Also I'm not nuts about In Your Eyes. Is that why I find it so overrated? It seems like a touchstone for a whole generation of American moviegoers.

http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2008/11/lipnicki110708.jpg

LOOK AT HIM NOW.

I know. Now is another story.

Fire away imo.

CHARTS lighthole

Oh wow! He's in Natty Gann! One of my first elementary school crushes.

yeah i love natty gann tbh

the only actors to get a credit for The Thin Red Line should be Nolte and Koteas tbh

i heard how great say anything was for years, and when i finally saw it i was really underwhelmed. shit, i even like jerry maguire so u know im not that picky

that's part of the creepiness of the movie to me...it's like john cusack has just invented a person in his mind, which you do when you have an unrequited long-distance crush, but then the movie treats that crush like this exalted thing

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:23 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i think this is why i didnt buy into it at all

btw:

lipnicki corrupted

i don't even think he's that cute<---cruisin for an sb, but he was dreamy in natty gann.

ugh that damn kid

I completely forgot about Natty Gann until just now.

for all we know Lipnicki might enjoy SCUC missiles to the face now

the only actors to get a credit for The Thin Red Line should be Nolte and Koteas tbh

― You Post on ILX (Simon H.), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:33 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark

and caviezel

and woody

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=23150886

lol @ lipnicki corrupted

Why does everyone hate that kid! I watched it recently and I'm sorry but he's freakin adorable in the scenes where he first meets Jerry.

caviezel, yes. woody, maybe - he does get a good death.

Found this...
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/images/issue/420/thin-red-line_420.jpg

...when searching for this great Sight and Sound cover:
http://im2.ebidst.com/upload_big/3/9/0/1288296320-9002-0.jpg

Why does everyone hate that kid! I watched it recently and I'm sorry but he's freakin adorable in the scenes where he first meets Jerry.

I know lots of kids like this actually: they and their parents confuse precocity with cloying honesty. It's fucking intolerable.

yeah, Lloyd Dobler is kinda creepy. I've done similarly creepy things, maybe you have too.

i had that issue of S&S! i remember being fascinated by the film grain of that shot

I know a lot of insufferable precocious little brats - I just didn't really get that from him. OK I can't believe I'm having this conversation ;).

I just feel bad because everyone hates him so much.

yeah, Lloyd Dobler is kinda creepy. I've done similarly creepy things, maybe you have too.

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:40 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for sure! it's just that the movie doesn't think he's creepy? or maybe it does and i'm not giving crowe enough credit.

i thought the kid was cute in that movie, he was certainly way less offensive than tom cruise or the line "you complete me" or one million other things about jerry maguire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_UCGyrWz9s&t=51

OK I can't believe I'm having this conversation ;). - lol

The Sure Thing is great, and his character way less terrible than in Say Anything.

2012 and 1408 are shit. He should not make movies named after numbers. I'm worried he's going to keep turning into Nicolas Cage as time progresses, making shitty action movies and bad career choices that negate all the cool and awesome shit.

shitty action movies and bad career choices have made nic cage 100x cooler & more intersting imo

Man I need to watch Say Anything again after this but I'm afraid it'll be awful and my child/teen memories of LD as dreamy and wonderful will all be squashed. Maybe I'm better off not watching it again tbh.

sometimes 'creepy' is necessary!

after GPB and High Fidelity it looked like Cusack was doing more producing/writing and finding ways to make very typical 'Cusack projects' that were both good and totally in his wheelhouse -- but since then he's had a pretty weird mixed bag of roles, finally getting a little too old for rom coms or maybe just mostly doing really lousy ones, lot of ill-advised genre flicks. War Inc. was the last thing he had a heavy role in writing/producing and that was just kind of a misfire of a broad political satire, very ill-fitting.

sometimes 'creepy' is necessary!

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:57 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

can you say more about this?

I think Cuze got thrown for a loop when best-friend-since-forever Jeremy Piven made a leap from second banana.

I dunno, is Lloyd's behavior really that bad? He hesitates approaching the girl bcz she's not in his league but nevertheless stays obsessed -- who can't relate to that?

Always like the 'soul classics' comp bit w/ the kid (a ubiquitous late-night ad of the era).

i don't think lloyd's behavior is that bad but i guess i just find the romantic swooniness with which his relationship with a cipher is treated kind of off-putting.

How old where you when you first saw it HS? Have you always felt this way?

lol sorry - it's just really interesting to me because I'm trying to remember details now and it's been too long.

i first saw it as a kid at one million slumber parties. i don't think i felt this way explicitly, but i just didn't like it as much as i felt like i was supposed to. "i want to be with your daughter" always bugged me and also...i don't know something about the whole lloyd is obsessed with this girl and she needs a way to get away from her dad unequal affections thing depressed me, too. although i guess that's fairly realistic. but yeah, i think i started explicitly thinking of it as creepy only after seeing jerry maguire and doing some retroactive cameron crowe criticism.

kept wishing the movie was about lili taylor

I wd like to do "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" a la Mahoney at karaoke

john mahoney is so great in this movie tbf

cameron crowe is really nasty stuff. fast times exempted, maybe

i've never seen SA tbh

he scored nancy wilson so i hope he's not a supercreep irl

I mean I think I can sort of see where you're coming from even though I never felt that myself. It's probably been 10 years since I've seen it though so I'd be interested to see what I think of it in light of this discussion. "i want to be with your daughter" - I still think that parts def just sweet though. ;)

I wd like to do "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" a la Mahoney at karaoke

― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:15 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

I think of him singing along every time I hear that song.

IS HE NOT GOING TO GET A JOB OR AN IDENTITY OR WHAT THE FUCK

man ive never seen 'say anything'... wish this thread cld start being abt what a nutso movie 'identity' is tbh

x-post He doesn't know yet who he is or what he wants to do with his life but he's sure that he wants her in it - sometimes stuff happens and people feel that way and that's OK!

It's OK though HS. You don't have to like it.

haha i'm sorry

i think years of suppressing my issues with that movie and nodding politely about how much everyone loves it have taken a toll

haha lamp OTM, "Identity" is an extended WTF

IS HE NOT GOING TO GET A JOB OR AN IDENTITY OR WHAT THE FUCK

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:17 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

he's a kickboxer who loves the clash!

i know and he doesn't want to process anything bought or sold i know

hahahahaha

this is tough but my favorite ~movie~ out of these is grifters, hands down, tho it's not his best performance by any means

being john malkovich is a really strong contender for my vote, too

gbp is plenty of fun but the scene where he's holding some random baby and has an *epiphany* 80s soundtrack moment somehow just fucks up the whole movie for me

the grifter is v v good, but it's all about anjelica huston, so yeah it feels like not the right vote for this poll

that's about the best you can get out of a 19-year-old

xxp

We have a tendency to reduce behavior these days to psychobabble. I had a discussion the other day in class about "stalking." Apparently it's "stalking" to follow a girl when you both leave class, catch up, and ask for her phone number. The girl who complained said he had "issues."

you know i always htought the baby scene in gpb was hokey and it took me out of the movie, but then i saw it as an adult and it made me bawl, so

identity = best worst twist ending EVAH

gbp is plenty of fun but the scene where he's holding some random baby and has an *epiphany* 80s soundtrack moment somehow just fucks up the whole movie for me

well it does help that the baby is ugly.

are you accusing me of psychobabble, alfred? because i can live with that.

don't have a problem with lloyd in say anything, he's a teenager. if ione skye weren't drained of everything but her complexion and john mahoney didn't bug his eyes out psychotically while howling "I MAKE THEIR LIVES BETTER" i might be more into it.

identity = best worst twist ending EVAH

OTM^infinity

it might be just my affection for "Let My Love Open The Door" but i like that scene

say anything's dad is a crook ending bothered me more than the cusack. voting malkovich, watched it a few days ago actually.

I have never seen "Say Anything" but the soundtrack has the only Replacements song I really love on it

identity is unspeakably bad

say anything is pretty dumb

cameron crowe is horrible, essentially a war criminal

will never be able to disassociate cusack from terrible faux-nostalgia for his 80s movies on the part of various get up kids-loving high school friends of mine

grifters and grosse point blank are pretty good though

cusack as edgar allen poe:

http://screencrave.frsucrave.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/john-cusack-as-edgar-allan-poe-full-15-11-10-kc.jpg

it's just that the movie doesn't think he's creepy? or maybe it does and i'm not giving crowe enough credit.

I can't think of any evidence in the cameron crowe oeuvre that he thinks this is anything other than the definition of romance.

they're all very "and i saw her standing there"

Love is when you give a girl your garage door opener and she accepts.

i am going to shut up about this one day but i just want to repeat, it's not so much that lloyd is a creep--i have been that creep, especially when i was a teenager--it's that cameron crowe seems to think all that stuff is really romantic and what life is all about and that being romantically linked to another person is a goddamn vocation and all of that really bugs me.

xp da croupier said it much more succinctly

xp i like almost famous! the girl leaves in almost famous.

and the boy gets a job.

say anything annoys me because it seems like its supposed to be about lloyd dobler growing up? ("be a man not a guy"?) but he never really does

Love is when you give a girl your garage door opener and she accepts.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:34 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark

i think the reason i can deal with singles is because campbell scott is foxier than any other crowe hero. also 90s fashion.

Crowe also thinks that if you seduce a girl with the right song - preferably by a white guitar guy – she'll lead you into her secret garden.

and the boy gets a job.
--my Sonicare toothbrush (difficult listening hour)

yeah but that job is to be cameron crowe

romantically linked to another person is a goddamn vocation

Yes that's annoying. On the other hand I do sort of believe that life is all about love and which is probably why I buy into a lot of sappy shit that you'd probably find intolerable.

Crowe also thinks that if you seduce a girl with the right song - preferably by a white guitar guy – she'll lead you into her secret garden.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 5:36 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark

well i mean cliched and boring and low-level offensive sure but untrue no

sure life is about love but not necessarily courtship

i like almost all the sappy shit in the world that is unconnected to cameron crowe--i cried when john cusack holds the baby in grosse point blank!

I've never seen grosse point blank! It's going to make me cry! Shit.

x-post - Alfred - yes, true.

I don't even know what i'm talking about anymore anyway. OK, brb. Gonna get a haircut.

Which you probably didn't need to know. sorry.

holy crap i hate almost famous!! ranks just behind punch drunk love in my 'so shitty on its face i don't understand how anyone gets any enjoyment out of it' pantheon

kind of far afield from the thread tho, sry

yes almost famous is horrible

jason lee and noah taylor are in it, too, and i love them! cameron crowe ruins everything.

almost famous suffers from not having frances mcdormand onscreen every single second but besides that i think it's a totally fine piece of cheese with a lot of good performances and also it has fairuza balk running full-speed into a wall.

is there a froth at the mouth about war criminal cameron crowe thread or do i need to start it?

the guy is not grown up at 19, no one is.

will never be able to disassociate cusack from terrible faux-nostalgia for his 80s movies on the part of various get up kids-loving high school friends of mine

― ☂ (max), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:32 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

hahhhh, otm

cameron crowe is horrible, essentially a war criminal

i kinda liked 'elizabethtown'

how can someone misremember their own life so thoroughly, and ask us to go along with it? gtfo... it's not like his irl was dull anyway! so bizarre. just, like, txt msg goldie hawn's daugher obsessively with one hand and make a good move with the other thx

the only entirely hatable CC movie I've seen is "Jerry Maguire"

i will post in the cameron crowe war criminal thread in praise of the guy who plays ben fong-torres, and his shirts

What pissed me off about Elizabethtown was Ornaldo BOOMPS' floppy hair. Was the movie set in 1992? Why the fuck were his bangs so long?

There's a 'cameron crowe is gross' thread on ILF but this rather cusacky ILE non-starter seems applicable enough

TS: Nick Hornby vs. Cameron Crowe

orlando bloom's alleged occupation in elizabethtown is why it's okay that the kid in almost famous grows up to be cameron crowe

lol i guess i have already posted on the Cameron Crowe is gross thread

gross point crowe

anyway 'identity' is just a movie that u have to admire for its brash stupidity, the way it runs through a half dozen different explanations for its stupid story before landing on the absolute worst one, its like a shitty 90s pc game brought to life, the way the 'characters' are developed through the items they start w/ in their inventory also the dialogue that is just stage directions.

identity is easily the movie on this list i haven't seen i'm most interested in

though i like how his career starts floundering around the time he made a movie named "floundering"

bullets/con air fans may disagree

I was gonna say, I don't think his career ever actually floundered despite his best attempts

yea i usually don't trust "so bad it's hilarious" recommendations anymore but there is a strong case being made for identity itt

I would never sell it as "so bad it's hilarious", but it IS hilarious in a bunch of unintentional ways

i like bullets over broadway. city hall (which i saw because of my cusack-obsessed sister) is so boring.

identity would be even more disappointing if you go in looking for lols than if you're looking for a genuine thriller/suspense flick

bullets over broadway is also very wonderful, but dianne wiest & chaz p. own that flick throroughly, cusack is ok but not very interesting

yeah otm

i'll admit not everyone would call "doing high profile if inconsequential roles in high-profile films" floundering.

but is the Woody stand-in ever interesting? He just has to not be Kenneth Branagh.

I dunno, "Identity" fails to be the dread-filled suspense story it wants to be but I still found it thoroughly entertaining (and the ending, in all of its stupidity, was both funny and unsettling)

is floundering about deep sea fishing

2nd thought, i think cusack is really the weak link in the BoB cast

the broadbent & tilly scenes are hugely lol, tracey ullman is even ok

tilly is great

tilly is always great. i don't know if that's true but as far as i can tell.

identity would be even more disappointing if you go in looking for lols than if you're looking for a genuine thriller/suspense flick

yeah its not camp or w/e its more frustrating bad than lol bad but its really entertaining too idk maybe you have to really like 90s pc games to 'get it'

(alfred: celebrity's not good or interesting or anything but i love woody's grisly possession of branagh.)

and yeah i want to see identity now, because i played all the way to the end of phantasmagoria.

tilly is great

wanted her to die from the first scene

oh dr. morbs

she's obv the Mia Farrow stand-in

but is the Woody stand-in ever interesting? He just has to not be Kenneth Branagh.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:55 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark

branagh's one of my favorite stand-ins because of how reptilian he was

but Woody's a crustacean!

you speak shellfish

man midnight is a pretty enjoyable piece of fluff with some good character roles but again cusack is a total cipher writer stand-in there too

i remember enjoying wellville too but it's been years since I saw it, can't even remember cusack in it

GPB is so terrible I can't understand why anyone would like it, and people kept making me watch it when it came out. In fact, I've never seen a film with John Cusack in it that wouldn't have been better had he not been in it. (I feel the same about his sister, but that's another thread)

jaymc also hates joan cusack iirc /jaymc

u mad about gpb

say anything or grosse point blank... agree with morbs re malkovich, idk why, it's not like he's bad in it

wtf how can anyone hate joan cusack do we need a thread about her too

that's why i remember jaymc hating her; it seems so crazy to me!

will never be able to disassociate cusack from terrible faux-nostalgia for his 80s movies on the part of various get up kids-loving high school friends of mine

― ☂ (max), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:32 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

lot of truth in this. 'better off dead' is a terrible film.

I LOLd at that quote too becasue it's totally OTM but you're wrong about BOD. Very wrong.

grifters

i don't usually like to bring nationality into things but if anything's appeal is innately American it might be a movie with an animated cheeseburger singing Van Halen

yeah i was going to say

i feel like get-up kids-loving kids would prefer say anything anyway

and say anything fans rep for the sure thing, oddly enough

ha

i feel like get-up kids-loving kids would prefer say anything anyway

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 4:21 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

say anything was definitely a much bigger 'thing'

had to go with my gut and vote grifters, he dies pretty well & gruesomely so that wins my vote in the end

nice spoiler :)

yeah sorry everybody

john cusack dies

I know I've seen The Grifters, but remember absolutely nothing about it.

xpost Better Off Dead is a terrible film. Watched it a few weeks ago. What might with rose-tinted specs seem edgy and unusual is in fact amateurish and incompetent. Terrible script, terrible direction, terrible acting.

i don't usually like to bring nationality into things but if anything's appeal is innately American it might be a movie with an animated cheeseburger singing Van Halen

― cr?m margera (some dude), Wednesday, June 22, 2011 4:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

^ real talk

hmm, somehow I completely blew past Say Anything in this poll. I still voted high Fidelity, but Say Anything would have to take second for me to be consistent with the other poll where I voted for it over Better Off Dead.

btw people who say Grosse Pointe Blank is horrible, pls introduce yerself in the video store so I can thumb my nose at you!

Anjelica Huston says 'Los AnGeles' w/ a hard G in The Grifters, as I intend to from now on

Anjelica Huston says 'Los AnGeles' w/ a hard G in The Grifters, as I intend to from now on

The Sure Thing is the quintessential Cusack. Quirky, funny, but relatable romantic hero that gets wet in the rain.
Lacks embarrassing elements of Say Anything, HIgh Fidelity.
Still, best cameo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdrGyy-m7BY

Will anyone -- anyone at all -- defend Pushing Tin? One of the few Billy Bob Thornton starring vehicles!

I didn't hate the 5 or 10 minutes of it I've actually seen.

Voted Bullets.

Better Off Dead

btw people who say Grosse Pointe Blank is horrible, pls introduce yerself in the video store so I can thumb my nose at you!

It's got Minnie Driver in it, ffs!

haha "video store"

ya that was hard typing w/ a straight face I admit

I didn't hate Pushing Tin. But it was overbalanced by Cusack and Thornton cock-waving at each other, when there was an interesting and funny little film in there somewhere. Have fond memories of seeing it on holiday in an old fashioned picture house in Port Townsend, Wa, in summer 99.

Better Off Dead

Have fond memories of seeing it on holiday in an old fashioned picture house in Port Townsend, Wa, in summer 99.

i have been to this theatre i think! it's nice.

I remember nothing about Pushing Tin except the bit where BBT gets blown over by an aeroplane at the end. It is kind of hard to care about cock-waving air traffic controllers though, even cock-waving ATCs with hott wives.

Pushing Tin was just fine, thanks, compared to the sandbox-male shit from Apatowco.

"few" Thornton vehicles? The guy was a movie star there for a little while.

lol when you enjoy a meal do you tell the waiter that it's better than anything that asshole judd apatow ever did?

Grifters is pretty great. 1408 is better than the boilerplate it's made out to be. His role in Thin Red Line is actually pretty substantial and powerful.

"The Sure Thing" had the biggest influence on me at the time; it was the film in which I learned that taking off your bra and flashing people from a car is a good way to get over your inhibitions.

I watched my roommate's copy of "High Fidelity" last night in honor of this thread--what a coincidence that every time Cusack's character has a romantic setback there is a huge rainstorm. Also, I forgot Tim Robbins was in that film and what a great job he did with his role. But, what was up with the boring blonde girlfriend? Did they expend all their money on the male stars?

i think that's about how the girlfriend character was underwritten in the book and then in the movie

i was never sure whether the actor was also boring or it was just the role

they gambled on a really hot Danish actress being better for the biggest female role than someone who sounds halfway natural speaking English

i feel like they could have found a really hot woman who sounds halfway natural speaking English

obviously, yeah

from imdb:

Close friends with actor Jeremy Piven. They have done 10 movies together: One Crazy Summer (1986), Elvis Stories (1989), Say Anything... (1989), The Player (1992), Floundering (1994), The Grifters (1990), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Serendipity (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003).

Sister Joan Cusack appeared in 10 of his movies:Class (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), Broadcast News (1987), Say Anything... (1989), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Cradle Will Rock (1999), High Fidelity (2000), Martian Child (2007) and War, Inc. (2008).

He and his good friend Tim Robbins made 6 movies together: Bob Roberts (1992), Cradle Will Rock (1999), High Fidelity (2000), The Player (1992), The Sure Thing (1985) and Tapeheads (1988)

Sadly, there isn't one movie with robbins, pivens and both cusacks.

being friends with tim robbins much better than being friends with jeremy piven

wait the cusacks were not in broadcast news

were they?

teeny tiny roles

would hang back at susan and joan's table while the dudes are off on the other side of the room loudly talking and gesturing

wait, cusack is def not in bob roberts, is he? how could i have missed that? i know jack black is but

John's the guy on the fake SNL that pulls a "Nora Dunn" because Bob is guesting on the show.

I don't think piven and robbins have done a film together without john, probably cuz tim and john have more of a "did you read this article?" relationship and john and jeremy have more of a "beaver patrol" thing

haha robbins as the NPR angel on his left shoulder and piven as the tequila-toting devil on his right

ooooh riight, i remember now

wait the cusacks were not in broadcast news

― horseshoe, Thursday, June 23, 2011 10:59 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

were they?

― horseshoe, Thursday, June 23, 2011 10:59 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

teeny tiny roles

― da croupier, Thursday, June 23, 2011 10:59 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

joan cusack has a big role in broadcast news! and the best line! "except for socially, youre my role model"

Great notion for a three-man screenplay, right there. Cusack's character has to decide whether to go to the Robbins fundraiser or play drums with Piven at a bar in Malibu.

John Cusack has basically an extra role in BN, seen from the back, cuz he showed up one day

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

yes!

no!

seriously don't get why anyone likes that movie

genuinely stunned say anything only garnered 5 votes, more stunned america's sweethearts garnered 2.

neither Cusack nor Aykroyd remotely sells being an assassin/gangster, and it isn't played broadly enough for laffs so it's very headscratching to me

so you didn't believe the five-minute opening scene in which he executes somebody? Cusack's coldness "sold" the part.

he's an assassin... with a secretary

I mean come on

so you're saying yr problem with the movie was you found it far fetched?

far fetched is fine with comedies that are aware of their far-fetchedness, but like I said this one plays it too straight. like you are actually supposed to be worried about Aykroyd coming to kill him and the climactic scene is an old-fashioned shoot out wtf

don't agree with it winning, but fu if you dont' like Grosse Point Blank. it's hilarious.

can't believe the film had funny bits and suspenseful bits too

c'mon man are you telling me you didn't laugh at the scene where Cusack orders a 'nada omelette'...

I haven't seen it in 10 years but I don't remember ever laughing at this, no.

would like to see george armitage make more casual/violent movies

can't believe the film had funny bits and suspenseful bits too

lol sure overall tone and execution don't matter amirite

or Cusack asking if there would be meetings if he joined up with Ackroyd, then goes "NO MEETINGS" and starts shooting at him...pure classic.

dude Cusack's pen stabbing is hardcore fuiud

like the assassin stuff just seems completely unnecessary, it adds nothing and makes no sense, why include it. the story arc about the reunion is perfectly serviceable without it.

xp

uhm...it plays pretty central to the story?

"hay guyz could we have Lord of the Rings without the ring pls"

would much rather watch 'a hitman goes to his hs reunion' movie over 'some dude goes to his hs reunion' movie, glad to have had the option

half the humor is him trying to conceal his 'assassin' status from his friends.......

"humor"

Yes, cause most of us laughed, you see...because humor is funny

am i the only person who thinks cusack's kinda the weakpoint of malkovich?

half the humor is him trying to conceal his 'assassin' status from his friends.......

see this would be funny if his assassin schtick was remotely credible, but it isn't. he is essentially the same guy in assassin mode as he is with his friends (nervous, high-strung, etc), rendering any comedy that's supposed to arise from this juxtaposition flat

I think you are taking the movie too seriously

it's a romantic comedy ffs

am i the only person who thinks cusack's kinda the weakpoint of malkovich?

Nope. While I know he's playing the straight man I want more lines that aren't at his expense.

"assassin" is his job, he treats it like most of us treat punching the time card at a mundane job. he doesn't even really enjoy it that much.

Joan Cusack's asides in GPB are worth the price of admission ("It was as if everyone had swelled").

Also: John making fun of her outfit ("Sgt. Pepper").

shakey you should see america's sweethearts, it addresses alot of the problems you have w/ gpb

2 votes for 2012... really?

Yeah exactly, the assasin thing is played casually like its a job he's weary of like anyone else would be, as he re-assesses his life completely hence the reunion thing.

Also, a fucktonne of hilarious dialogue, how anyone cant find it funny I do not know. Fuck even Piven is bearable in this film.

"TEN -- YEARS!"

the Piven-Cusack exchange about their old friend who works at Pizza Hut ("Let's not go there").

(We often yell out "TEN .... YEARS! TEN YEARS!" for no reason at my place.)

LOL xpost

the convenience store blowing up is pretty boss too.

"man Caddyshack was a terrible movie, Chevy Chase wasn't a credible golfer..."

and EVERY SCENE with Alan Arkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2uCXOKxfjU&feature=related

"You ok?"
"Course I'm not ok! I'm hurt... I'm pissed... and I gotta find a new job!"

Haha yeah the psych scenes.
"Sure I'll give it a shot"
"NO! Don't shoot anything"

hahahaha yes.

"Martin it's a terrible dream, it's a depressing dream. It's got no brain, got no blood...got no aenima!"

If only Cusack had done Killing Zoe...

"assassin" is his job, he treats it like most of us treat punching the time card at a mundane job

just conceptually this makes no sense to me

its like the premise of Cars. does not compute

"Design division wants me dead over a leaky sun-roof? You want to kill me for that?"
"It's not ME! Why does everybody think it's personal?"

Assassins get paid money.

for the job.

"man Caddyshack was a terrible movie, Chevy Chase wasn't a credible golfer..."

nah he is totally believable. tons of golfers are like that. (lol Bill Murray)

liked gross pointe blank a lot, though it's been a while. it's got good jokes & likeable characters, the soundtrack is enjoyable, the basic idea is absurdly funny, and the romantic angle works pretty well. can see why it was such a big hit.

personally, i was bothered by the film's failure to take john cusack's character seriously (a weird thing to fault a comedy for, i know). like it sets up this awesome black comedy situation, but then doesn't have the balls to follow it through. i think i'd have enjoyed it twice as much if it didn't try at the last minute sidestep the fact that the main character is a monster ― delusional, violent, dead inside and entirely amoral.

if his job is so boring and mundane why does he feel compelled to conceal it from his friends

It wasn't a hit actually, but I saw it in everyone's dorm on VHS for the next few years. Everyone who saw it started a John Cusack tribute band.

BECAUSE ASSASSIN ISN'T EXACTLY A PROFESSION THAT ENDEARS PEOPLE TO YOU

(xpost)

no need to yell

i think i'd have enjoyed it twice as much if it didn't try at the last minute sidestep the fact that the main character is a monster ― delusional, violent, dead inside and entirely amoral.

It did come through! We owe a lot to The Grifters for showing how Cusack's romantic side had a cold mean one too.

and the reason the job of assassin does not endear you to people is because.... it's violent/illegal/morally suspect/dangerous/highly unusual... ie, things that are the opposite of boring and mundane

Grifters is a way better movie

guess it was one of those slow-build hits, like video sales and rentals forever, successful soundtrack & dorm poster, etc.

the ending of the Grifters is fucked UP

xp

xxpost things that are the opposite of boring/mundane to OTHER people. not necessarily someone who's been doing it for over a decade and has grown tired of it.

Maybe it's a stretch, but Cusack's character is one of the few believable sociopaths I've seen in recent years. He's bullshitting with Piven in the car, flirting with Driver, chatting up her old man, but he kills people in a professional manner. Maybe this tension bothers Shakey.

I mean someone who finds the high-tension violence of killing people boring is, as contenderizer points out, basically a monster. but cusack is not portrayed as a monster. he's just a loveable guy! who wants to go to his reunion! WTF
xp

he doesn't want to go to his reunion! he's only in town because he's supposed to whack somebody in town the same week!

He's a very BOTHERED guy also, or did you miss that?

(who happens to be Minnie Driver's dad) xpost

grifters is a way better movie. fewer laughs, though.

though i didn't vote, my favorite cusack would probably be a toss-up between grifters, being john malkovitch and better off dead. gross pointe blank in at #4.

I mean someone who finds the high-tension violence of killing people boring is, as contenderizer points out, basically a monster. but cusack is not portrayed as a monster. he's just a loveable guy!

No he's not.

bothered and lovable are not mutually exclusive. in fact combining the two is Cusack's whole schtick

xp

he's feelin uneasy, man

his face in the scene where Minnie Driver is interviewing him in the radio station...very blank, no emotion.

I never said they were, but thats also what makes it good! xpost

Also, I voted for it because it is FUNNY. Sod the believability.

nah Trayce he's convinced me (throws away DVD)

Cusack's character is one of the few believable sociopaths I've seen in recent years

have you heard of this little movie American Psycho. Which is also funnier than GPB

they show him kill a bunch of people in fairly brutal ways so i guess i'm just not seeing how you didn't get the cold-blooded killer part

I just dont over-think movies ever like this, tbh. But this is why I'd never read ILFilm in a jillion years.

have you heard of this little movie American Psycho. Which is also funnier than GPB

No it's not, but I thought the novel was an execrable thing (which the movie improved).

"Design division wants me dead over a leaky sun-roof? You want to kill me for that?"
"It's not ME! Why does everybody think it's personal?"

^^^this is not cold blooded. It's silly, but not silly enough

xxpost not to mention that his character arguably didn't even kill anybody

The problem is that being an assassin in a mid-90s is not the opposite of boring and mundane.

I have a friend who will kill me for saying this but... why would I bother reading a Brett Easton Ellis novel

it's not cold blooded cuz that's MINNIE DRIVER'S DAD, who he doesn't kill.

Cusack's about as believable as an assassin as Woody Allen

agree w shakey in that the film tries to cuddle up to cusack, ultimately emphasizes his charm over his murderous sociopathy. does so in a way that allows it to function as a romantic comedy, but i wanted something a bit more dark & nihilist at the end, something more in keeping with cusack's character.

GPB is sort of like heathers, if at the end of heathers, snatchy and pump up the volume had gone off happily ever after.

xpost you wear a crown of challops

lol @ snatchy and pump up the volume

The ending of GPB is a disappointment. The only way it could have ended satisfactorily was if he'd murdered Driver's dad and she'd said "YAY!" and fucked him on Dan Ackroyd's corpse.

lol

"wait, you go down a tunnel and become john malkovich for 15 minutes? just conceptually this makes no sense to me."

John Malkovich was a very unconvincing John Malkovich

all this discussion of GPB is centered on cusack's sad sack assassin character. i think one of the reasons that it's so easy to accept both martin's sociopathic amorality AND the happily ever after ending he's granted is that cusack is basically just playing "john cusack in a weird role." we're accustomed to seeing him play the loserish but basically decent suitor, and that's pretty much what he gives us here, washed down with a bunch of "insane psycho killer" joeks.

another way to look at the movie, though, is to think of it as a romance, as something that occurs between two characters, male and female. i liked and related to minnie driver's debi a good deal more than cusack's martin (a joke of a character that quickly becomes repellent if taken seriously). she deserved better than this emotionally impoverished crazyman who's almost certainly going to get her hurt or killed in short order.

the fact that the movie shrugs all this off at the end bugged me. didn't make me hate it, i still count it one of my favorite cusack movies, maybe one of my favorite 90s pop comedies. i remember having reservations, that's all. should probably see it again...

The key phrase right there is "pop comedy". it really isnt worth being taken to task for not being "convincing" or "silly ENOUGH" or whatever.

well, all art works for us or it doesn't, this way or that. pop comedies shouldn't be exempt from critical analysis just cuz they're, you know, just pop comedies.

2 votes for 2012... really?

thought it was a Rush poll sry

wow I actually thought SA was a shoo-in for first. wow @ grifters love.

So did I, but the rules were to vote for best use of Cusackness, perhaps that skewed it.

Cusacker Blues

wow, i'd better watch 'grosse point blank' again. i remember it being pretty funny but i can't remember much about it other than wishing it had someone other than minnie driver -- most unwatchable actress ever.

he doesn't want to go to his reunion! he's only in town because he's supposed to whack somebody in town the same week!

Maybe obvious, but I always figured this happened on purpose - Joan C's character deliberately messed with his jobs to force him to Grosse Pointe and thus have to go to the reunion as well. This bears out when you see Grocer getting pissed cos the job's been pulled out from under him (when he spits out his pen and goes "alternate vendor? WHAT fucking alternate vendor?" I lol).

Thus, Grocer is pissed at him stealing his job so he goes after him... the CIA guys are after him for stealing their "we don't assasinate people, we do our jobs" angle, and hilarity of crossed purposes ensue.

Speaking of which, Hank Azaria's role in this film is totes underrated. I love that guy.

speaking of which, america's sweethearts is great

minnie driver is an absolute delight, idk what happened to her career

*cautiously waves sarcasm meter around*

I feel sorry for Grace Is Gone.

_dying_ at shakey in this thread

i know right! i've been speechless

"its like the premise of Cars. does not compute"

theyre cars... who are alive.

*shakes head* nahhhhh. no way!

but american psycho... that's some convincing depiction of a psychopath right there (and it's funny too)

hahahahaha max

a psychopath who is superficially charming...? couldn't be!

so youre telling me these guys... dress up as women... to escape from the mob?

does. not. compute.

nuns on the run?

agree with contenderizer tho about the end, which is the whole reason why the

~let my love open the door~
*holds baby*
this changes everything epiphany

scene just derails the movie for me

good morning!

well, I guess it could be a thing for ppl who want to have babies

who says "good morning" 17 minutes before noon? completely unconvincing, I don't buy it.

time travel

babies solve nothing.

unless you need a cheap source of baby meat

"cheap"

$60k/lb

and that's for a fresh, white baby!

man swift really didnt factor in inflation

Babies, fyi, solve pension crises iirc

still GPB.

"are you alright?"

"No, I'm NOT all right! I'm hurt, I'm pissed... I gotta find a new job!"

"You must have done some naughty shit there, Bart! There's a contract out on your life. I should know, I was hired to kill you. But I'm not going to do it. It's either because I'm in love with your daughter, or I have a newfound respect for life."

"That punk is either in love with that guy's daughter, or he has a newfound respect for life!"

I used to have such a thing for John Cusack. But in my opinion GPB is where he started coasting. I'd have said High Fidelity, but upon looking at his filmography, there's not a lot of there there.

Love & Mercy is probably my favorite of his since Grosse Point Blank

it’s not for everyone but i just love his portrayal of wilson, i like how he stops short of doing an impression but somehow still physically carrying and/or suggesting all of the turmoil

that was a good'un, yes, and I saw it during the throes of my BB obsession

Yeah he was good in that movie.

Anyone seen Grand Piano? I found it in a list of underrated thrillers and saw it had Cusack and Elijah Wood and was written by Damien Chazelle - surprised I'd never heard of it, with those names. It's a decent enough high-concept thriller but Cusack doesn't make much of an impression. Elijah commits much better to the ridiculous concept

lol love you in this thread, Shakey