In the 1990s, crime films found their voice. No, really, this lot really wouldn’t shut up.

From Pulp Fiction’s knowing, poppy chit-chat, to the wordplay running rampant in The Usual Suspects, never had shoot-em-ups gabbed so much.

Until 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank, that is. A riotous ensemble in which even its title was stuffed with multiple meanings, Blank had verbal diahorrea and then some. We loved it.

TF towers voted it the 21st greatest comedy of all time, while Blank earned itself high profile fans like Clint Eastwood and, naturally, Quentin Tarantino.

“Johnny worked with [Eastwood] on Midnight And In The Garden Of Good And Evil,” remembers director George Armitage. “He said Clint loved the fight scene, but the scene where Blank and the baby exchange close-ups was so cute, he was on the floor with that!”

“We picked up this script by a guy named Tom Jankiewicz in treatment form,” recalls Cusack, chatting to us exclusively 13 years after his reluctant assassin attended a high school reunion.

“The three of us, my producing partner [Steve Pink] and my writing partner [DV Vincennes] sat around with two Macintosh PowerBooks trying to outdo each other.”

Let's see how they did...

Next: All In The Writing