Movies: Looper

So this review is long time in the making.

I went to go see Looper a few weeks back with JJ and his friend. I really wanted to see it, but I didn’t make any active plans to gather people to actually go see it. Luckily JJ asked if I wanted to join, so I did.

The film follows around “Joe” who is a looper, which is a specialized assassin that contracted by the future mob. In the future, where time travel is possible and pretty much banned right away (butterfly effect and stuff like that), it is near impossible to kill and dispose of a body.

So what the future mob does is: they grab the hit, throw a bag over their head, executioner style, send him back in time (even though it’s illegal, but it’s the mob, what do they care?) to a specific location where a looper will be waiting. Once the hit appears, the looper simply kills the hit and disposes of the body.

Once the future mob is finished with a looper, they “close the loop” by finding the looper’s future self, grab him and send him back to the past where the past looper eliminates himself. Closing the loop leaves the looper with a handsome amount to retire with so they can get on with their lives and do whatever they want.

But for Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) here, future Joe (Bruce Willis) is a little too crafty for that. So crafty that future Joe manages to escape, which is bad news for past Joe.

I’m so bad at describing and explaining things, Looper is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever have to explain. But that’s done with.

Looper has such a great, great, great story. Explaining it is more difficult than actually understanding the movie when you watch it. There probably hasn't been a good time travel movie since Back to the Future. But what probably gets me the most is that this is a unique story line. Not a remake, which seems to be every movie this year.

Without giving too much away, the way they utilize certain time travelling elements with the movie is pretty damn unique. The movie does take a turn that you do not expect at all. All of a sudden it becomes a whole different movie, which I definitely did not anticipate. But it takes a good turn. Like a right turn into a Tim Hortons drive thru with nobody in line. A good turn.

But that being said, after the movie, JJ noticed a handful of loop holes that could probably be debated until the end of time. Like the ending of Inception. But it’s one of those things I really can’t say because it’d take away from the movie. Which is sort of a bummer, because I’d like to tell you more but I just can’t!



Should you go see it? Absolutely. It’s a smart movie but not overwhelmingly confusing, it's not like an episode of Lost. Although my feeble attempt at explaining it doesn't help. So just go watch it, then you'll get it.

Case and Point
Looper is: metaphoric.