Looper

2 July 2018

Looper 2012

• Director: Rian Johnson
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Bruce Willis, Jeff Daniels
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt – The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, 500 Days of Summer, The Miracle at St Ana, The Lookout, Brick, Third Rock from the Sun, 10 Things I Hate about You
• Emily Blunt – The Girl on the Train, The Huntsman Winter’s War, Into the Woods, Edge of Tomorrow, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Young Victoria, Sunshine Cleaning, Daniel in Real Life, The Jane Austen Book Club, Gideon’s Daughter, My Summer of Love
• Bruce Willis – Moonrise Kingdom, Friends, Breakfast of Champions, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, Twelve Monkeys, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard, Billy Bathgate, In Country
• Jeff Daniels – Good Night and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale, The Hours, Pleasantville, Speed, Terms of Endearment, Ragtime
• Why? Emily Blunt and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And my cousins TA and LB recommend it highly
• Seen: 29 June 2018      

       Kansas. The year 2044. Time travel has been invented but outlawed. Assassins called loopers tale advantage of that.

       This bodes for confusion. There was a panel discussion on time travel at Fantastika 2018, the Swedish sci-fi/fantasy convention, last weekend but I was busy doing my Shakespeare and Merlin stuff so I missed it. It might have helped here.

       It’s a sordid world with gangsters and mobs and strip clubs. When the loopers have fulfilled their purposes, they are sent back – or is it forward? – to kill their younger – or is it older? – selves.

       Never mind. I’ll go with the flow. Like Shakespeare, it’s not necessary to understand everything. I’ll get the most important stuff.

       Joe (Gordon-Levitt), a looper, gets into trouble and is confronted by his future self (Willis). Shakespeare, it is not. What it is, is another violent macho action thriller. Half an hour in I’m bored and annoyed with the sexist stereotypes.

       Finally, an hour in, Emily Blunt enters the picture. Will that help?

       Some, but this cast deserves a better film. Sorry, cousins TA and LB, we agree on a lot of films but not this one. But because the concept is somewhat interesting, the acting is good, and it has a couple of moments when I care, it gets

2 * of 5 (Hal thought it worked in the end and gave it 3 1/4)