Customer Reviews

Looper [Blu-ray]

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With a story centred around time travel and hitmen, a cast headed by Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and very strong support from the likes of Emily Blunt, Looper has been getting a lot of press. Most of it, I thought, was very justified.

In the future, crime syndicates are so big they own the very best technologies, including time travel. When they want someone disappeared they literally do that, sending them back in time to be executed by a Looper - a contract hitman who asks no questions and takes payment in the gold and silver strapped to his victim. Joe is one such Looper, and then the hit that appears before him, is himself from the future, and he's on a mission.

From start to finish Looper enthralls. Notably for a film about time travel it doesn't dally with any of the dogma that has weighed down other movies. Looper pays time travel its due respect and gets on with the story. It looks very well made but doesn't appear to be big budget, with scant glimpses of future cityscapes. Rather it focuses on the characters and story, giving us two polished performances from Willis and Gordon-Levitt, with a stand-out from Emily Blunt that anchors the other two. My overriding sense throughout was of a captivating and visually compelling story as we first figured what the old Joe's mission was and then weighed its worth. It has been one of the most difficult stories for me to summarise because so much of what it's about is wrapped around the end.

Unfortunately the end, despite it's impact, gave up on the chance to resonate beyond the credits. Instead it moralised about our future being dependent on what we do now, with a slight of hand thrown in that invoked M. Night Shyamalan. I have no problem with moralising at all, if it fits the story. However, it's only at the end we realise key elements of the story have been stepped around to make it all pay dividends. It didn't so much leave a bad taste but a knot of disappointment that remains, having been so enthralled throughout.

Looper is a movie well worth your time. It is imaginative filmmaking at its best despite a finale that wasn't quite the sum of all it's parts.

I hope you find this helpful.

I have to admit that I knew absolutely nothing about Rian Johnson's time-travel thriller before I saw an intriguing trailer some weeks ago, but I'm glad I didn't, because Looper is a very original sci-fi packed full of genuine surprises. While there is undoubtedly something of `Terminator 2' and even a little of `Witness' about Looper, more importantly, it brings plenty of new ideas of its own to the table and executes them smartly and memorably.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a narcotics-addicted `looper' - an assassin of the present day (2044) whose victims are beamed back to them for execution from 30 years in the future, when time travel is possible but the disposal of a body has become virtually impossible. The looper business is mercenary; they are rewarded generously for their kills with large amount of `silver' which they invariably spend on fast-living, but the punishments dished out for mistakes are severe. Each assassin knows that the day may come when the target kneeling before him will be his future self, a way of tying up loose ends known as `closing the loop'. When the young Joe comes suddenly face to face with his future self (Bruce Willis), he hesitates long enough to be knocked out by his target, who has a very different idea to being summarily executed in a cornfield, and has a mission of his own to fulfill. And that's as much of the plot as I feel I can divulge, at the risk of spoiling some of those surprises.

The 2044 of Looper is a grimy one, grittily realistic and believable rather than far-out futuristic; think `Children of Men'. The majority of the action takes place in the dishevelled, seedy city or the surrounding dust-blown landscape and is intelligently and realistically paced. There are some outstanding set-pieces, which again I cannot spoil by describing - trust me when I say that there are a few moments of really inventive and memorable film-making, the kind of images that stick in the mind and make the difference between a great film and a good film. Inevitably, there is also plenty of philosophising on how changing the events of the present day might alter the future. But where a lesser screenplay would confuse the issue, in Looper it is never allowed to become over-blown, pretentious or silly. Joe's excellent narration helps here, filling in the gaps neatly between scenes.

Where the quality of Looper really shines through is with its engaging multi-dimensional characters and a script that is smart, witty and full of humanity. The two leads excel in their respective roles: Gordon-Levitt, here sporting a prosthetic nose and doing a remarkable impression of a young Bruce Willis, has become very much the thinking man's hero. Willis, as always, commands huge screen presence and is just as effortlessly cool as he ever was.

Thirty years from now, this will be regarded as a classic.

If you don't think about any potential plot holes caused by the science of time travel too much (as Bruce Willis, playing Old Joe, recommends during the movie) you will probably enjoy Looper as much as I did.

It is set in the near future. Further into the future again Time Travel has been invented and is used by criminals there to send people they want to "dispose of" back in time to be summarily executed by "Loopers". Our "hero" is Joe, a Looper played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. They are well paid for this work but know that is highly likely that they themselves, if they live long enough will be tracked down by their former employers and sent back in time to be killed by their younger selves before they know who their latest victim is, hence closing the "loop".

Suffice it to say, Joseph Gordon Levitt changes into Bruce Willis as the years go by and is sent back in time. I'm not giving much away by revealing that this particular loop closure doesn't go as planned. Both versions of Joe go on the run from the criminals that wanted him dead. Along the way they cross paths with single mother, Sara and her rather peculiar son, Cid. They have an interesting part to play in the plot also.

The movie is a satisfying mix of action, sci-fi and even a bit of romance.

This is the most authentic take on a film set in the future I've ever seen. Gritty and disciplined in it's depiction of a very believable future world.

I really can't understand the bad reviews - I thought the huge paradoxes and blatant errors normally found in Hollywood time-travel films we carefully avoided.

As for tension it was delivered in spades. Released at the same time, this was shadowed by the hype of James bond and was by far the better film of 2012.

Enduring a time travel movie (much like time-travel itself, it would seem) is a risky business. Even with the automatic willing-suspension-of-disbelief that must accompany such endeavours you always worry that the writers will suffer a celluloid-aneurysm and mess up the 'time stream' so badly that half way thorugh things no longer make any sense at all or are so confused that you just don't what's happening anymore. (think 'Heroes'; or the plot transitions between Terminators "1"/2/3*). That this movie pretty much avoids this - and thus allows you to pretty much disengage your higher faculties and enjoy the ride says a lot about it.

Looper is set a few decades in a future US. A US that is a slightly dystopic, grungy and Ridley-lite noir of casual violence and antique MX-5's. 'Loopers' are the central protagonists who bump off people sent back from the future (an even more remote future where time travel exists) because they have pissed off someone important (killing people in the future, unlike Time Travel being just too tricky to contemplate and accomplish, it would seem). The essential element in all this is that in order to 'close the loop' the Far-off-future-Mr.Big then has the looper in 'his time' sent back to be Terminated by his younger self.

Confused? Basically imagine you are a twentysomething Looper and your future sixty-something persona is sent back in time to be bumped off by you. Would you do it? You will ofcourse be handsomely rewarded for this slightly unusual act of suicide (hang on; or is it murder, or euthanasia....or some totally new crime?) but then, can you look into your own desperate eyes and pull the trigger?

This is the conumdrum that faces Joseph Gordon Levitt when he comes face to face with himself; 'himself' being played by an older but uncannily similar Bruce Willis. The only problem is that Bruce Willis doesn't want to go quietly into the night as he has unfinished business of his own - he wants to change the past so the future doesn't happen- but is changing the past in JGL's best interests or not? And if Bruce is allowed to live; there may be murderous consequences for the Looper who hasn't lived up to his job.

Wihtout going into plot specifics this becomes all a little Terminatorish; well, Terminatorish with a dash of Back To The Future (complete with vanishing limb parts- but just not in a family photo).

The twists are not too ridiculously complicated to make you sit in the dark and try to work out what has just happened and the movie has great pace and panache. It is violent, especially as some of the scenes involve children (even if much of it is left to the imagination) and there's quite a lot of casual swearing and some artistically sanctioned nudity. ( I mention this as its the sort of movie your average 10 year old would want to find in his Xmas stockings.) But it's all fit for purpose and not overly gratuitous.

The acting is good, no great, including the non-lead roles. Piper Perabo is back in from the cold - well I haven't seen her in anything decent since Coyote Ugly (did I just say Coyote Ugly was decent? I guess I did!) while Emily Blunt not only lives up to her surname as a Blunt talking Farm Girl but for my money has one of the all-time classic scenes where, when in need of a "booty-call" she literally magics up her prince from a frog.

Ofcourse there are a few plot holes, but hell, who cares...this is a rollercoaster ride and the gaps in the tracks only make it scarier don't they?

((* T1-T3 are individually classic movies ofcourse- my criticism refers to the plot transitions between the movies.))

There's something intriguing about the idea of going back to the past and being able to change how things are now.

In reality and we cannot change past events for the simple fact that they have already happened. The bell cannot be unrung. We can though go back in time and change the way we think and feel about past events now.

In the era 2040-2070 time travel has been invented and outlawed because of criminal abuses. Nevertheless the outlaws continue to use time travel to take care of business employing time traveling hitmen who go back thirty years, wait in a field for their time traveling victim and then complete the mission and dispose of the body in a particular way where the body is totally undetectable. It's the perfect crime. No muss. No fuss. No detection.

Joseph Gordon Levitt plays one such hit man, Joe aged about 25. These hitmen are referred to as loopers, and someone is now closing out the loops killing the hitmen, a matters of some concern for the loopers.

Sam is required to kill one such looper who turns out to be the older version of himself played by Bruce Willis which as you might appreciate proves to be something of a dilemma for our usually decisisive hitman. And hesitation can be fatal.

You may wonder why someone would hire a hitman to kill himself? That is why you need to watch the movie. Joseph Gordon Levitt gives a brilliant performance playing Bruce Willis, has the facial expressions and distinctive crinkling of the eyebrows that are a particular part of Willis style down pat even the delivery. I was consistently engaged and intrigued by Levitt's performance.

How the story develops surpassed my expectations. We have a mysterious person called the Rainmaker, who no one knows orchestrating the hits for reasons yet unknown. We have the consistently wonderful Emily Blunt playing the mother of a child back in the past where the time travelers go and will they solve the mystery of who the Rainmaker is before they become history?

We have innocent and not so innocent children who may hold the key to the mystery and the motive. This time travel veteran was somewhat reluctant to see this movie because he thought he had seen them all. Yet he enjoyed it, and it showed a few welcome twists he had not seen before and he liked that that the outcome was not predictable.

If you're like me and like time travel movies I think you will love this movie. I hope you found this helpful.

I watched this film in the cinema and I have to say, this is fast becoming my number one favourite movie. They give you a brilliant window into a character's life. The character is a 'looper', an hired gun who kills people from the future, so that their bodies cannot be traced. The only problem is his last target... is himself.

Needless to say, the future HIM runs off and so begins the chase of the century. Lovitt is fantastic as young Joe and Bruce Willis is absolutely astounding as old Joe. This film is like a perfect blend of Back To The Future, Fallout, Pulp Fiction and The Matrix. It's a fantastic sci-fi movie and definitely a must see!

While not on the same level as his breakout neo-noir, Brick, Rian Johnson gave the world 2012's best science fiction film in Looper. Avoiding the elephant in the room that was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's make-up, Looper managed to split itself into two tonally disparate and equally interesting halves. While more of a doppelgänger film than outright time-traveller, Looper morphed from high tension action thriller into something far more sedate and character driven in the second half. It also boats the most shocking character motivation for a character this year, with Bruce Willis. Whether it's the most inventive and down-right terrifying conceptual torture scene of the year, the performances of Levitt and Willis, Looper confidently continued the theme of recent years with sci-fi films that could be both crowd pleasing without intelligence being lost in the process.

In a world where no one can be illegally killed and time travel exists the mob is sending back targets to be disposed of by Loopers. This is until the Loopers have to dispose of their future selves.

Enjoyed this one, we had all-out gun battles that Bruce does very well, we had slow ploddy bits giving time for character development, story and plot and an interesting story to boot - a nice mix of everything.

The whole story is based around time travel, but it didn't linger on this too long. In fact we are given so little in terms of how the time travel works that the film avoids backing itself into corners. This is a good thing at it triggers much Frankie and Bennys Sticky Pasta and pepperoni pizza debating.

We see enough of the future world to hint at how things have developed, but also how some things are identical. The gap between rich and poor has widened and how the cost-of-life has decreased.

All the characters held their own, even the kid put in a good performance. Child actors can either go one of two ways, from Sixth Sense to Wesley Crusher.

There are plenty of nods to other films such as Terminator, 12 Monkeys, Source Code and Primer. In fact at one point it started to get very Terminator-ish and I expected a scared Sarah Connor to make an appearance.

A worthy watch. It's certainly has promoted a great deal of discussion, so in that sense it's serves its purpose very well as a great bit of cinema.

*** Rants *** Spoilers *** Questions *** Rants *** Spoilers *** Questions ***

There is little point questioning the time travel mechanics. Since we have nothing to compare against in the real world, script writers are free to make their own rules and abuse them as they see fit. However, there are some bits that don't make much sense...

Why bother with the Loopers? Why not zap someone back into the furnace or a volcano? Job done, no messy shooting yourself or anyone else? Yes, without this we wouldn't have a story to tell, but still...

Why does the kid believe his mum is not his mum, assuming the story we hear from his mum is true?

I'm assuming we are dealing with multiple timelines here instead of one big timeloop, as that seems to fit the best. In the original timeline what makes the kid into the Rainmaker? We assume in that timeline Bruce didn't kill mom, because he did this later.

What happens in the timeline where Bruce DOES kill mom? So the kid becomes the Rainmaker but we still have Bruce and young Bruce existing at the same time. Does young Bruce then meet his wife and become old Bruce? Does old Bruce become older Bruce? If so, does older Bruce not track down the kid before he becomes the Rainmaker?

Why do the Loopers need to be sent back and killed? There was some explanation on this, but can't remember the reason. Can't they pay them off and they just live out their days?

Did Abe create the events to NOT turn the kid into the Rainmaker? So... young Bruce was learning French and wanted to go to France. Abe suggested he go to China instead, which he clearly did. In China Bruce met his wife who then gets killed. Thus giving Bruce the motivation to zap himself back to hunt down the young Rainmaker. Then young Bruce makes sure the mom doesn't get shot by the whole self-sacrifice thing. No dead mom, therefore no Rainmaker.

After the mess that was Surrogates I was apprenhensive about seeing Bruce Willis in a film about the future. In Surrogates Bruce played a burnt-out cop in the future where people use avatars to go about their daily lives; the film was an utter mess with a stupid ending. In Looper Bruce gives the burnt-out cop thing a break and stretches himself as a burnt-out time traveller. O.K. I know I am being hard on Bruce but lets face it he is burnt out in most films hes in seriously think about it in; hes always world weary- Die Hard 3; The Sixth Sense; 16 Blocks; 12 Monkeys; Pulp Fiction; his entire back cataloge of films minus of course Armaggedon where Harry is the number one oil driller in the Milky Way Galaxy. Lets move on shall we.

Looper is set in Kansas in 2044, in 30 years time travel will be invented e.t.c. let's not talk about the plot (see item description). Written and directed by Rian Johnson the very talented man behind [...] and starring Joseph Gordon Levitt Looper is one of the best time travel films ever made just don't think about the logic of the whole thing. The film is not set in a post-apocalyptic future, well not 2044 anyway, it's more of what will probably will happen to America based on common sense. The USA is in decay and China has risen so the currency of choice is the Yuan although most transactions occur using silver and gold.

The genius of the film is that most of the action takes place on a farm in Kansas so the film doesn't get lost showing us every single city on Earth. The plot is one of those twisty turny plots where you have to stay sitted or you'll miss key points. Stuff is mentioned at the start that will be more important at the end but you don't pay attention because its just part of the narration. Utterly brilliant because I thought I had the film figured but real suprises happen.

On the performances JGL in no way looks like Bruce Willis and the make-up is annoying but it does not ruin the film. No attempt is made to copy the others mannerisms but lets face it the 2 characters are different people (in the sense of the film). 30 years passes and well he loses his hair, not gracefully I must add half on the side falls off and Bruce keeps the style. The two men are different people; one is young and an idiot-a dislikeable one at that while the other is old and pretty darn evil but you understand why both are the way they are.

A mind-blowing film with some brilliantly executed action sequences. The rest of the cast have little to do, Jeff Daniels is great as evil Abe. Cid the kid deserves special mention becuase he puts in an incredible performance for someone of his age.

Some argue that the middle sags after the mind blowing start but I never found it to be anyless than amazing the whole way through. A must see classic.