Looper

Looper (2012)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Pierce Gagnon, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo and Garret Dillahunt

Today is a bittersweet day for me, this is the end of the blog-a-thon and it is my 32nd birthday. It's weird. The blog-a-thon overall has been a good experience. I crossed off a couple of movies that I should have seen. I wanted to end this blog-a-thon by watching the latest film from Rian Johnson, Looper. The movie asks some interesting questions, but it feels like a cheap shot.

In 2034, the whole is different place even thought it looks same as 2012. Time travel has been banned so underground crime families used the technology from 2074 to send victims back to the past to be wiped out of existence by Loopers. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is one of the best Loopers out there until his best friend, Seth (Dano) tells him that the latest victim was supposed to be him from the future. He tells Joe that a person called The Rainmaker are killing all of the Loopers from the future. It was not until Joe comes face to face with himself from future (Willis) that they need to stop The Rainmaker in the present.

I was eagerly anticipating this movie, because the trailers looked so cool. I was following this movie when Rian Johnson did an episode of the /Filmcast about preparing to write this movie. He sought inspirations from another time traveling movie, Primer. I got that vibe from this movie. I enjoyed the movie overall, but I thought the themes were thrown by the wayside at the end of the film.

I understand that Johnson wanted to have a movie that ask the question to the viewer, "If you could go back a change something from the past to affect the future, would you?" I get that. People ask themselves that question since time began. It feels that Johnson made the message overly complicated when it didn't need to be.

There are some questions that I have with the movie that I hope the ten of you reading this will help with. Why were the Loopers paid in silver bricks? What was up with those eye drops? I didn't understand the telekinesis angle. Somebody help me here.

My Rating

Die Hard

Die Hard (1988)

Directed by John McTiernan

Written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza

Based on the novel, "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp

Currently #105 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, Bonnie Bedelia, James Shigeta, William Atherton and Paul Gleason

All right people, do not hate me. This is the first time that I saw Die Hard. I know! I know. Bad film geek. I will give myself 100 lashings. I have only seen Live Free or Die Hard, which is an okay but I thought that villain of the film was lame. Anyway, back to the film. Everybody has been praising this film for being fucking awesome. Well, guess what? IT'S FUCKING AWESOME!

It's Christmas time when New York City cop John McClane (Willis) arrives to LA to be with his kids for the holiday. Coming from the airport he is whisked off in a limo to the Nakatomi Plaza building. His wife, Holly (Bedelia) is there having a Christmas party with her boss, Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi (Shigeta) and coworkers. John tries to get back in the good graces with Holly when Hans Gruber (Rickman) and his thugs burst into the building wanting to get into vault.

The thing about this movie is that McClane gets a whole bunch of shit thrown at him at once and manages to survive it all. It's not a spoiler. There have been three films after this. McClane is resourceful character that doesn't go guns blazing to the German terrorists. That's one thing that was refreshing. The bad guys were not Russian, French, Mexican; they were German. Nice touch. There is something about McClane that is an everyman that audiences can get behind and root to victory. McClane delivers his lines that have been etched in the movie lexicon and I was happy.

Alan Rickman's villain character,  Hans Gruber is not the typical terrorist. He is very methodical and never lost his cool. I thought it was hilarious the way the crew was assembled like they came from Sprockets. They were like some came from loafing on the couch all day and some were like they came from Nerds R Us.

The one aspect of this film I did not like was the FBI agents Johnson and Johnson (Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush). I thought they were deplorable human beings that got their comeuppance.

My Rating