An exciting, engrossing, action-packed futuristic thriller, Looper revolves around the challenging consequences of time-travel. By 2044, time-travel has been achieved but also outlawed, meaning the good guys can't do it but the bad guys can—and do. So, if a crime syndicate wants to get rid of someone, they zap him 30 years into the past, where a “looper” (hired killer) armed with a blunderbuss (sawed-off shotgun) essentially takes out the gangland garbage. Zipping around a decaying, derelict-littered metropolis in a shiny red Miata, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a hotshot hit man who makes a mistake when he hides a desperate colleague (Paul Dano) in his apartment. All too soon, Joe realizes that his own loop is going to be closed, and his future self (embodied by Bruce Willis) is targeted for assassination by their mobster boss (Jeff Daniels). As the plot unfolds, older Joe escapes and embarks on his own mission to identify and kill the youngster who will grow up to be a mysteriously omnipotent villain known as the Rainmaker, thereby irrevocably altering the future. Meanwhile, younger Joe befriends tough, enigmatic Sara (Emily Blunt) who lives in an isolated farmhouse where she is fiercely protective of her son (Pierce Gagnon), an angry 10-year-old with terrifying telekinetic powers. Writer-director Rian Johnson makes the tantalizingly twisting and confusing timeline as clear as possible, serving up multidimensional characters whose motivations propel the plot, while using only a modicum of digital technology. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Rian Johnson and costars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, a featurette on the score (16 min.), deleted scenes with optional commentary (14 min.), Johnson's 1996 film school short “Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!” (9 min.), a production featurette (8 min.), trailers, and a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a winning sci-fi thriller.] (S. Granger)
Looper
Sony, 119 min., R, DVD: $30.99, Blu-ray: $35.99, Dec. 31 Volume 28, Issue 1
Looper
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