Looper

Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom, Brick) is the writer and director of this sci-fi film. Like his other projects, this has original if slightly off-kilter thinking in its story. It is not a regular sci-fi movie. There are some crazy ideas going on here. Time travel is not enough. There is also telekinesis, post collapse apocalypse, mob killings, and pre-planned suicide for hire (yeah figure that one out). Does it all make logical sense? I can't tell. But it sure was fun trying to follow it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as the young Bruce Willis. Emily Blunt is refreshingly new. Also staring is Paul Dano and Piper Perabo.

When one deals with time travel as the process has not been discovered everything written or filmed about is always speculative. For instance the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Time Cop shows something quite different when we meet our future and past selves as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis do here in Looper.

Instead of the forces of law and latent fascism getting control of time travel in Time Cop, Looper has organized crime doing it and eliminating problems that Robert DeNiro in Casino remarked are usually swallowed up by the Nevada desert. Levitt is a Looper one who travels ahead to the future, specifically trained as an assassin and then goes back to his present origin and as targets come through a time portal, they get eliminated. Then at some point, the future selves are eliminated and the present selves just go on with normal lives as we define normal.

Bruce Willis is Levitt's future self only he doesn't like the idea of elimination. And the big boss Jeff Daniels doesn't like how Levitt screwed up the elimination of Willis. The chase is on.

Another question answered by Laurence Olivier in The Boys From Brazil said that we should not eliminate a cloned Hitler. Here a telekinesis gene has entered our gene pool and someone in the distant future has been harnessing its full potential to battle organized crime. That's an even bigger mission that the Levitt/Willis problem.

Looper is a nice and original take on time travel with an outstanding cast giving some standout performances. Note particularly Emily Blunt as the mother of young Pierce Gagnon who has powers and abilities far beyond those of other mortal beings. And young Gagnon is something to see as well.

Looper is definitely worth the price of admission.

"This time travel crap just fries your brain like an egg." (Abe)

Not since Children of Men (2006) and Source Code (2011) have I been as jazzed up as I am now about Rian Johnson's Looper. Here's sci-fi that will happily fry your brain as you figure out the implications of changing the future by altering the present. Also throw in thoughts about Christopher Nolan's Memento and Inception to get the flavor of Looper.

But as Sinatra sings, "Regrets I've had a few, but then too few to really mention," this film challenges you to think of the implications of reversing those regrets or keeping the future the same because you kind of like the way things went.

Joseph Gordon Levitt's Joe is a "looper," an assassin who goes into the past to murder someone needed to be absent in the future, 2072. The Mob, headed by a very relaxed and dangerous Jeff Daniels as Abe, determines to eliminate all loopers, and Joe is next on the list to kill himself by flashing back. Yes, it's existentially a difficult task, and therein lies the drama of this satisfying sci-fi.

With less CGI and few glitzy machines (in fact most of the vehicles look shabby 2012 and the loopers' weapon is a sawed-off Steampunk shot gun—how's that for past and future?), this thriller relies to an effective degree on the excellent cast to relay the challenges inherent in altering any past.

Because it's an intelligent tale, the overall theme of responsibility for our actions (the existential part) flows quietly from the action, be it as simple as running from the bad guys to the complexity of deciding on the sacrifices willing to be made to alter the future.

A leitmotiv of this film is that no one is immune from the effects of the past, Sinatra notwithstanding in his apparent satisfaction with how things turned out. For Looper, cult status is its future.

"Looper" by Rian Johnson is an impressive film with an original story. Centers in the future where assassins known as "Loopers" kill targets who are transported from the past by the mob. Joe, a skilled assassin discovers he has to kill his older self sent from the past and unveils a plot that will effect his life of both his and his older self. The movie is great and relies on the term of "cat and mouse" game between all characters. Joseph Gordon Leavitt is a great actor and portrays perfectly every role of his. As the main character he does a good job. Bruce Willis is amazing yet again, his performance reminded me of his role in "12 Monkeys": a traveler from time who is a skilled assassin and needs to stop a plot from happening. Emily Blunt is as always, Emily Blunt. I mean there's nothing wrong with her performance but her character is annoying and reminded me of her role in "Sicario". The film in general is good and has it's moments but I wouldn't watch it again or recommend it immediately after seeing the movie.

Looper is an exciting and mentally stimulating science fiction movie that goes above and beyond in the realm of creativity. Original and thought provoking in its execution, this is a movie about time travel with a future that is gritty, plausible, and fantastic to absorb.

Taking its cues from hard hitting gangster movies, the story follows Joe, a young man living in 2044 America that is crippled with economic collapse. He works for the mafia as a "looper". This is a job that requires some explanation. You see, 30 years from 2044, time travel will be invented. It is highly illegal, but is used by the mob to dump bodies, because it is impossible to do so in the future-future. Loopers get set times and places where they wait for their victims to appear, bound, gagged, and with a mask over their head. Sometimes a looper ends up killing himself from the future. This begins happening quite often, and rumor has it that a man named the Rain Maker is ordering the killings of all loopers. Joe does not seem to think much of this until his future self arrives, without a mask on. His future self escapes, looking for the child who will one day become the Rain Maker. Young Joe finds a woman and her young, troubled boy who are one of the people on Old Joe's map. He decides to wait there to confront his older self, to try and make things right with the mob.

The movie twists and turns in unexpected ways that create a true feeling of suspense. Rian Johnson takes major influences from the likes of Martin Scorsese to craft a cold and calculating crime film. However, Johnson makes a movie that is so original and eclectic that it is obvious this is the work of a man who knows how to tell a story. There is plenty of action, but it never becomes more important than the story or the characters. Johnson also wrote the script, and he brings humanity to all of the players involved. The introduction of alternate timelines is only the beginning of the insane subplots that pop up, and all fit nicely together. The gritty and subdued style invokes a noir aspect that only serves to enhance the movie.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays young Joe. He is fantastic as the cool, calm, and collected gunman. His face is altered with makeup to make him look more like old Joe, played by Bruce Willis. Levitt even speaks like the action star. Willis is really great in a subdued and complicated performance, although it would have been nice for his character to have had a more expanded role; he seems to fall into the role of the antagonist too quickly. Emily Blunt plays the hardened and self reliant mother of the boy old Joe is hunting. Blunt's character is used well and she gives an excellent performance.

Looper is a bizarre movie, and that is a very good thing. Exciting, thoughtful, and at times disturbing, this film is mesmerizing to watch. It's not often that an action film is even half as good as this one, and rarely are movies so much fun to watch.

thatguythatlikesmovies.blogspot.com