Post by spjw on Oct 5, 2012 17:16:20 GMT -5
I've never written out a movie recommendation before so I'm not sure exactly how to do it, but I'm giving it a shot!
"Looper"
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt
Directed by: Rian Johnson
I just saw "Looper" last night and it was very well done. It takes place just a little ahead in the future. Time travel has been invented, but it immediately becomes illegal (the film doesn't explain why, but I'm not complaining too much about that).
The movie revolves around an increase in organized crime, and they tend to kill off people in as secret a way as possible. However, there is a very advanced piece of tracking technology that has been created, so if a body goes missing, it is never too hard to find and/or recover a body. As an "answer" to this problem, the mafia uses time travel as a way to transport their "mark" back thirty years, to be killed by a looper (hired by the mafia). It is at that time where the looper disposes the body.
A looper is given a contract that they need to fulfill, and when their contract ends, there is one last thing they need to do before they can be considered "retired." The looper's future self is sent back to be killed by his younger self. Doing this is called "closing the loop." If the younger self does not kill the older self during the "closing the loop" phase of his contract, the mafia will track and hunt that looper down and kill him.
With that background out of the way, before I go on, I will just point out: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Young Joe and Bruce Willis plays Old Joe.
Basically, what ends up happening is Old Joe is sent back 30 years to be killed by Young Joe. But Old Joe knew exactly what was going on, and after taking care of some business escapes from being killed. So the mafia starts chasing down both Old and Young Joe. However, Old Joe and Young Joe don't see eye to eye. At first, Old Joe was trying to get Young Joe out of a hard spot when he failed to kill Old Joe, but eventually the two realized they had different life philosophies and ended up on different sides of the table. Old Joe wanted to change his past so his future didn't turn out the way it did. But Young Joe kept arguing that it's his life (Young Joe's life), and just because Old Joe did one thing or another doesn't mean Young Joe would do the same things.
Another important piece to all of this is a character called the Rainmaker. The Rainmaker is out to close all loops, and to not spoil anything, The Rainmaker does something to Old Joe, and so Old Joe travels back in time to kill the Rainmaker as a child to prevent this thing from happening in the future. Throughout the movie, both Young and Old Joe are being chased by the mafia, while at the same time Old Joe is trying to find and kill the Rainmaker, and Young Joe is both trying to stop Old Joe from doing that, as well as kill him so the mafia would stop chasing him. One other thing I will quickly mention, that is incorporated in the movie, is telekinesis. I won't say anything beyond the fact that it does play a role in the movie.
___________________________
*The entire idea behind this movie was completely original. It was no remake, no reboot, so it immediately earned a plus in my book. *The music was very well done, done by Nathan Johnson (I have not heard of him but maybe someone here has?).
*I personally felt the movie had a really feel good action element to it. It wasn't over the top, it wasn't weak, it was just right; it was very comfortable and I enjoyed it (if that makes sense)
*Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been a guy I've been keeping my eyes on since watching "Inception." He put on a great performance in this movie. I think he has a really good career going for him, and I think he has a very promising future.
*Bruce Willis, as always, was just one bad dude. That's all I'll say on that so not to give anything away.
*The kid that plays the child version of the Rainmaker was fantastic. I have no idea how old that kid is but he was absolutely fantastic. His name is Pierce Gagnon and he is definitely in the single digits somewhere.
*The cinematography was great. There were some great camera shots.
________________________
Overall, this was a very good movie in my opinion. I really enjoyed it, and I think it's always hard to make a good, original sci-fi/action movie, and Rian Johnson was able to do that. I really recommend it to you. It was very original and it succeeded at trying something new which is very hard to do today.
"Looper"
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt
Directed by: Rian Johnson
I just saw "Looper" last night and it was very well done. It takes place just a little ahead in the future. Time travel has been invented, but it immediately becomes illegal (the film doesn't explain why, but I'm not complaining too much about that).
The movie revolves around an increase in organized crime, and they tend to kill off people in as secret a way as possible. However, there is a very advanced piece of tracking technology that has been created, so if a body goes missing, it is never too hard to find and/or recover a body. As an "answer" to this problem, the mafia uses time travel as a way to transport their "mark" back thirty years, to be killed by a looper (hired by the mafia). It is at that time where the looper disposes the body.
A looper is given a contract that they need to fulfill, and when their contract ends, there is one last thing they need to do before they can be considered "retired." The looper's future self is sent back to be killed by his younger self. Doing this is called "closing the loop." If the younger self does not kill the older self during the "closing the loop" phase of his contract, the mafia will track and hunt that looper down and kill him.
With that background out of the way, before I go on, I will just point out: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Young Joe and Bruce Willis plays Old Joe.
Basically, what ends up happening is Old Joe is sent back 30 years to be killed by Young Joe. But Old Joe knew exactly what was going on, and after taking care of some business escapes from being killed. So the mafia starts chasing down both Old and Young Joe. However, Old Joe and Young Joe don't see eye to eye. At first, Old Joe was trying to get Young Joe out of a hard spot when he failed to kill Old Joe, but eventually the two realized they had different life philosophies and ended up on different sides of the table. Old Joe wanted to change his past so his future didn't turn out the way it did. But Young Joe kept arguing that it's his life (Young Joe's life), and just because Old Joe did one thing or another doesn't mean Young Joe would do the same things.
Another important piece to all of this is a character called the Rainmaker. The Rainmaker is out to close all loops, and to not spoil anything, The Rainmaker does something to Old Joe, and so Old Joe travels back in time to kill the Rainmaker as a child to prevent this thing from happening in the future. Throughout the movie, both Young and Old Joe are being chased by the mafia, while at the same time Old Joe is trying to find and kill the Rainmaker, and Young Joe is both trying to stop Old Joe from doing that, as well as kill him so the mafia would stop chasing him. One other thing I will quickly mention, that is incorporated in the movie, is telekinesis. I won't say anything beyond the fact that it does play a role in the movie.
___________________________
*The entire idea behind this movie was completely original. It was no remake, no reboot, so it immediately earned a plus in my book. *The music was very well done, done by Nathan Johnson (I have not heard of him but maybe someone here has?).
*I personally felt the movie had a really feel good action element to it. It wasn't over the top, it wasn't weak, it was just right; it was very comfortable and I enjoyed it (if that makes sense)
*Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been a guy I've been keeping my eyes on since watching "Inception." He put on a great performance in this movie. I think he has a really good career going for him, and I think he has a very promising future.
*Bruce Willis, as always, was just one bad dude. That's all I'll say on that so not to give anything away.
*The kid that plays the child version of the Rainmaker was fantastic. I have no idea how old that kid is but he was absolutely fantastic. His name is Pierce Gagnon and he is definitely in the single digits somewhere.
*The cinematography was great. There were some great camera shots.
________________________
Overall, this was a very good movie in my opinion. I really enjoyed it, and I think it's always hard to make a good, original sci-fi/action movie, and Rian Johnson was able to do that. I really recommend it to you. It was very original and it succeeded at trying something new which is very hard to do today.
