Friday, September 28, 2012

Movie review - "Looper" (2012) ****1/2

Very clever, entertaining science fiction thriller that would have been even better with excellent actors - like say Ryan Gosling, de Niro or Sean Penn. Okay maybe that's harsh - Joseph Gordon Levitt and Brue Willis are strong actors it's just these roles are so great (hit men who are tormented by love, angst, drugs, the past, revenge, etc) I feel they aren't really given justice, even with Levitt's make up work.

Emily Blunt shines in a part that is better than the typical girl role (that part is taken by the admittedly sexy Piper Perabo who is a stripper single mother); the kid who plays Blunt's kid is brilliantly creepy; top turns by Royal Dano but not Jeff Daniels who keeps popping up in parts that require real strength. I know Daniels is a good actor but sometimes that's not enough. There are two coincidences which jarred for me - the involvement of Piper and an appearance at the end by a semi villain.

That's all the gripes out of the way. Now for praise: superbly done, combining emotion with imagination, good action sequences, a very believable depiction of the future (grimy, class riddled, drug affected, in thrall to China). Really excellent movie.

1 comment:

Dan O. said...

Good review Bob. The plot makes perfect sense even if it may seem a bit confusing at first, and the suspense draws you in but something just did not mix so well in the end. I didn’t really care all that much for the characters and that’s sort of why the pay-off didn’t do much for me.