HE LIVES!
Catch These John Cusack Movies Before The World Ends
TOO BAD I THINK 2012 IS CRAPTASTIC PLASTIC, because John Cusack may personally be my favorite actor. I'll see pretty much any movie as long as he's in it.
In a way, I have a bit of a man-crush on him. It was one of the few reasons I was willing to even watch 2012. I said to myself, as I read about the absurd story, "Hey, If John Cusack's in it -- it can't be that bad."
I was wrong; it can and it was.
So I've taken it upon myself, as punishment for putting my brain through that three hour pile of awful, to educate the world.
Cusack has made so many great movies over the years and it's time people start acknowledging them. It is my hope that by pointing out these movies -- people will no longer give their money to such an awful disaster of a movie.
Grosse Point Blank
The Plot: Cusack plays a neurotic hit-man who decides to return to his home town for the first time since he disappeared back in high school to join the military. His objective: attend his high school reunion and complete one last hit before he retires. While there he meets up with an old flame, played by the adorable Minnie Driver. As he rediscovers his roots a rival hit-man, played by Dan Aykroyd, tries to bump Cusack out of the picture for not joining his "hit-man union," and to steal Cusack’s kill. Hilarity and action ensue.
Why It’s Better than 2012: While the action scenes in GPB might be on the same scale as 2012, they stand out more for one specific reason: they are entertaining. One of 2012’s main faults is that it trades in entertainment value for large scale computer generated disaster scenes. The tension in 2012 comes from wondering how a character will die, rather than whether a character die. It's a problem most horror movies hit.
GPB on the other hand offers fantastic action scenes, especially the final fire-fight between Cusack and Aykroyd , where Cusack proceeds to let all of his feelings about Driver spill out as he pumps bullets into two dozen or so hit-men.
High Fildelity
The Plot: Cusack is the elitist owner of a record store which he runs with his co-workers, one of which is played by Jack Black before he was huge (and that isn’t a fat joke).
The story is told as a confessional about Cusack's run in with love after being dumped by the woman of his dreams. He goes through his top five heartbreaks and then proceeds to track the women down in order to find out just what exactly happened to make them break up with him. Tim Robbins makes an appearance as the yuppie douchebag that steals Cusack’s girl.
Why It’s Better than 2012: For one, Cusack plays a perpetual sad-sack. As you watch him constantly make poor decisions and shit up his life, it makes the viewer feel better about themselves by comparison. Plus it has a little something I like to call "acting" you see, when you have actors in a movie they generally are required to…act. Not the case with 2012 as most of the Oscar-worthy cast takes a back seat to a CGI world blowing up.
Say Anything
The Plot: One of Cameron Crowe’s top three movies, the other being Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.
Cusack plays a lazy high school senior with little ambition in life other than to be with a beautiful Diana, played by Ione Skye. He goes to all sorts of leaps and bounds to be with her despite the pressure of her parents, friends and what society would think of the couple.
The movie is also responsible for the iconic scene of Cusack standing outside of Skye’s home holding a boombox playing In Your Eyesa by Peter Gabriel.
Why It’s Better than 2012: The amazing story, the chemistry between characters, the fact that it actually has character development (something often missing now-a-days), but mostly because it's a damn good movie and more worth your time than 2012 will ever be.
Marc Sakol understands the kindness in strangers, which is why he abandons hope of actually getting to know people. He spends his time falling head first into video games, watching every movie ever made and writing for his blog, Sarcasm Not Included.
