Home > Action Adventure > Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Rian Johnson Do ‘Looper’ Justice: Movie Review

28 September, 2012 at 4:55 pm

Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Rian Johnson Do ‘Looper’ Justice: Movie Review

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rian Johnson’s Looper proves that once is not enough for these two to work together. Intelligent, fast action and some great depth make this a great fall movie to enjoy plus it’s that rarity you’ll want to watch more than once.

It’s always great when a film like Looper that serves up amazingly promising trailers delivers even more than what you’re anticipating. Rian Johnson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt paired up for the perfect film, and all those early comments focusing on Levitt’s younger Bruce Willis transformation are easily forgotten once you settle into the film. When he first appears, most people will have to adjust to Levitt’s definitely different look, but it’s not so drastic that you focus solely on that.

For me, Looper is easily one of the best films of the year, and Johnson proves that all the promise of Brick and The Brothers Blood wasn’t a fluke. He loves complicated material, and he shows his mastery of such a complex time travel story with a lot of intelligence and emotion. It has the Memento and Inception quality of offering a very profound film that will get audiences excited and talking long after they leave the theater. It will also get many butts back in the theater for another look. The fact that it’s the first sci-fi film to open the Toronto International Film Festival in 37 years speaks volumes about the quality of this film.

The premise of the film is time travel which is made illegal so naturally the criminal organizations are all over it. A Looper is a paid assassin who travels back in time to kill off whomever in a different timeline. The interesting aspect is that if you go back in time and kill someone was it actually a murder since it didn’t really happen in your lifetime? Naturally, a Looper retires with their blood money, but also with the knowledge that eventually someone will come back to kill them thus, ‘closing their loop’. One of the many great scenes is when Willis and Levitt are in a diner discussing the absurd situation they’re in. It’ reminds you of that interview question about what would you tell your younger self now. Well here’s a great scene dedicated to that!

Looper is that rare film that gets better and better the more it unfolds. The story is simple with a lot of complexities without going over most peoples heads. This will be that experience film we all love to see, and it’s done absolutely brilliantly.

Gordon-Levitt more than proved himself a quality actor in Mysterious Skin, and he’s been able to traipse back and forth between indie films he loves and big blockbusters that have established him as quite the hot Hollywood property. Studios have been gambling with Tom Hardy, but he’s not been able to have front a major film without a supporting cast. Levitt, on the other hand, proves that he’s just as big a star supporting a cast as he is on his own, and Looper easily proves that.

Best Movies Ever Rating: A+

Looper is just an amazing jawdropping complex film that will engage audiences long after the final credits have rolled. Joseph Gordon-Levitt more than proves himself as a hot Hollywood actor who can work with the best as the star or in an ensemble.

Looper Movie Synopsis

In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented – but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a “looper” – a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) – is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good… until the day the mob decides to “close the loop,” sending back Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination.

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Bruce Willis, Piper Perabo, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Release Date: September 28, 2012