There are a lot of actors whose work I love that I will follow to terrible movies or television shows, but only a very few of the most special could have dragged me to see ‘1408.’ (King’s short story is such an experience, though, that one was pretty much doomed to fall short.) Thankfully, not only did that one have Samuel L. Jackson, but the lead was John Cusack, an actor who has a long history of being the bright spot in films that aren’t that good. ‘Identity’? Cusack holds it together. ‘Road to Wellville’? Only worth it for John. ‘Tapeheads’? Actually, that thing is pretty solid all the way around, but it’s still a lot of fun to see Cusack in action. In fact, the more difficult proposition would be in choosing which Cusack is the BEST Cusack, leading to today’s High Fidelity query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has a really difficult choice when I have to choose between ‘Say Anything…’ and ‘Gross Pointe Blank’, asking: Which John Cusack vehicle makes for the VERY BEST Cusack?
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Considering this question, I realized I have seen very few John Cusack movies – like, less than 5.
Of those I have seen, I’m picking Con-Air, even though it was more of a Nick Cage vehicle than a Cusack one.
I’m terrible with actors and directors, at least everyone newer than 80’s. Con Air may be the only one I know.
Random Van Halen music video in the middle aside, my money is on “Better Off Dead”. I will say that I’ve found my brain stuck thinking about High Fidelity a lot over the years, but I sort of hated his character in that one.
Bullets Over Broadway, where I found him more watchable in the Woody Allen role than I EVER found Woody Allen to be.
I can’t explain it, but Gross Pointe Blank is the one for me. His expression when he finds out that his childhood home was bulldozed for a convenient store…it’s just perfect. Plus you have Dan Akroyd playing an even nuttier hitman, which is worth the price of admission.