Grosse Pointe Blank Blu-ray Review

Posted July 27th, 2012 by Brandon A. DuHamel

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), French & Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Subtitles Color: White
Region: ABC (Region-Free)
Rating: R
Run Time: 107 Mins.
Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Blu-ray Release Date: August 7, 2012
List Price: $20.00

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Overall

The Film

Video Quality
*
Audio Quality

Supplemental Materials

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All Blu-rayDefinition.com screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

In Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) John Cusack (Serendipity; Being John Malkovich; Say Anything…) plays Martin Blank, a former CIA operative turned professional hitman who must return to his hometown to carry out an assignment and, while he is there, attend his 10-year high school reunion. The return home simultaneously brings with it the danger of people trying to kill him for a botched job and the opportunity to reconnect with his high school sweetheart, Debi (Minnie Driver; TV’s Web Therapy; Conviction; Good Will Hunting) The latter offers Martin the opportunity to reconsider his direction in life and possibly change direction for the better — if he can manage to stay alive and do the right thing.

Cutting, and irony-filled comedy with a lot of heart and soul raises Grosse Pointe Blank above the fray of many other films in the crime-comedy genre. The film is particularly boosted by a rock solid performance from Alan Arkin as Martin’s stressed and fearful psychiatrist and an over the top performance from Dan Akroyd as Martin’s hitman rival. Unfortunately, two throwaway characters, NSA agents on Martin’s trail (Hank Azaria; K. Todd Freeman) interupt the story and its pacing, doing nothing more than adding unnecessary holes to what would have been an otherwise perfect dark comedy.

Video Quality

Grosse Pointe Blank comes to Blu-ray in a “15^th Anniversary Edition” that has a relatively acceptable AVC 1080p transfer from Disney, even if it is a bit uneven, with some rough patches here and there, a little bit of video noise, and looking a bit soft in a lot of its distance shots.

*(Editor’s Note: This article was mistakenly published with the incorrect “Video Quality” rating

of which has now been corrected downward. We apologize for any inconvenience.)

Audio Quality

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack offers a superior experience, conveying the incredibly cool soundtrack with flawless musicality and during the climactic gun battle, really coming alive with hyperactive surround channels that let the bullets fly. I did notice some clipping in dialogue throughout the film, however.

Supplemental Materials

A 15^th anniversary edition, and all they can muster up for the disc is the original theatrical trailer, I n standard definition no less.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

One of John Cusack’s best comedic performances outside of Being John Malkovich, Grosse Pointe Blank is devilishly funny at times, yet it always maintains an amount of humanity, cleverness and wit that keeps it from devolving into total farce. Recommended.