My Best and Worst Movies of 2012

Here are my top 10 Best and Worst Movies for 2012.

Top 10 Best movies of 2012

10. [Rec]3 Genesis
9. Dredd 3D
8. Seeking Justice
7. Looper
6. We Need to Talk About Kevin
5. Argo
4. Chronicle
3. Sinister
2. The Cabin in the Woods
1. Django Unchained

Top 10 Worst movies of 2012

10. Dark Shadows
9. Silent Hill Revelations 3D
8. The Woman in Black
7. Resident Evil Retribution
6. Wrath of the Titans
5. Total Recall
4. The Raven
3. Red Tails
2. Chernobyl Diaries
1. The Devil Inside

Django Unchained- review

With a touch of exploitation, a hint of buddy comedy, and throwback to a spaghetti westerns story, writer/director Quentin Tarantino gives audiences a unique look into the Pre-Civil War days of the American South.  The acting is great for the most part and the story is epic and intricate.  While being a great movie, it is not without its faults.

Django, played by Jamie Foxx, is a slave that has recently been set free by a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz.  They become partners and fast friends over the course of their work.  When Django finds the whereabouts of his wife at the plantation of a sadistic, yet charming, Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, he has to come up with a clever ploy to rescue her.

With Oscar winners of this caliber you would expect nothing less than great acting, and Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx do not disappoint.  They play off each other incredibly well and their friendship adds a very believable chemistry.  Leonardo DiCaprio shows a great deal of skill in being both incredibly smooth and at the same time chaotic and terrifying.  While many others gave notable performances, those three actors stole the show with their talent going above and beyond. 

The biggest question for this movie is why did Quentin Tarantino decide to cameo?  His choice to use a bad Australian accent was also baffling.  Samuel L. Jackson would have been an interesting character if he didn’t speak modern blaxploitation slang instead of the Pre-Civil war era speech.  These sorts of changes are a bit jarring and it took me out of the movie with the change in tone.  There is no reason for it and the bizarre desire to do so only puzzles me more.

The story is long and intricate.  It weaves like a Kurosawa movie however there are times when it could have been trimmed for time and other scenes that are just humor for humors sake or training montages that could have been shortened.  Either way, much of the time was skimmed by a text crawl mid movie.  The movie could have used another trip through the editing room just to keep it taut and interesting.

Despite the flaws, Django Unchained is still a very great film.  The acting is top notch and the story is a lot of fun albeit long.  I highly recommend it if you are a fan of Tarantino’s other work or you are fan of the action or western genre.  It is good to see such a great pool of talent working together to make something so interesting and original. 

 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey- review

Peter Jackson brings us back to Middle Earth in the tale that preceded the hit Lord of the Rings trilogy.  This time, the single book has been broken into three separate films.  It’s a good movie with decent visuals.  It is however, filled with padding that could’ve either been edited into two movies or at the very least given another round through the editor’s booth.

Bilbo Baggins reminisces to Frodo about his adventures with Gandalf and the company of dwarves.  As he is remembering he turns into a younger version of himself, played by Martin Freeman. Bilbo recalls being hired as a burglar by Gandalf, played by Sir Ian McKellan, to help a group of dwarves reclaim their homeland from the dragon Smaug. He faces many challenges and goes out of his comfort-zone for this great adventure.

Martin Freeman does a fine job as Bilbo. It’s great to see many of the old characters again. Andy Serkis as Gollum is great and the CGI on him has improved sharply. The problem is that the new characters are fairly forgettable at this point. Even after lots and lots of padding, the dwarves are easy to forget.  

The length of this movie causes a major problem. The long hours of The Lord of the Rings movies worked because the threat of Sauron was so immense. In The Hobbit, the threat is localized to the characters themselves and is harder to identify with- a dragon that stole the gold of the dwarves. It’s not nearly as epic.  The simple fact is that The Lord of the Rings trilogy raised the bar really high and it’s going to take a lot to get to that level again.

If you are a fan of the book you will enjoy this movie.  If you enjoyed The Lord of the Rings movies you will most likely find this one to be the weakest of the series.  The series still might get better. The dragon Smaug was barely shown, leaving me to really anticipate The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I have a feeling there is a lot more action yet to come.  At the very least see it as a matinee.

Red Dawn (2012)-review

Red Dawn is the remake of the 1984 film of the same name.  The film received a lot of press during development when it changed the villains from the Chinese to the North Koreans in order to maintain access to China’s box office.  The film still contains much of the same mood concept of the original, though it lacks some of the spirit.  On its own it’s not a bad movie.

Jed Eckhert, played by Chris Hemsworth, is visiting his family after a tour of duty with the Marines. His brother Matt, played by Josh Peck, is bummed after losing a football game and will spend a majority of the film being mopey and annoying.   They wake one morning to find North Korean paratroopers landing and taking over the city of Spokane, Washington.  They gather a few other people and head for the woods where they start a resistance group called the Wolverines- named after their high school mascot.   Will these young people be able to thwart the North Korean menace?

The acting is okay for the most part.  Chris Hemsworth gives a good performance as usual.  In addition, Jeffrey Dean Morgan gives a decent performance in a relatively small role.  Josh Peck as Matt, is one of the biggest let downs in this movie.  He is an absurdly written character that truly is in need of a beating. It’s the smug look he has on his face every time he delivers a line that makes him deserving of a sharp slap to his gob. 

It’s difficult to talk about this movie without talking about how it compares with the original.  I thought the CGI paratroopers looked ridiculous and lacked any threat for a modern attack.  It was also odd that after just one montage, the high school kids were relatively good and confident at using firearms, making explosives with C4, and even using RPGs.  In the original the kids were good at their attacks but it was clear that they were amateurs.  Not that that the original was a great movie; the movie had more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese.  I just felt it was a noticeable difference.

For the most part the movie is entertaining.  Though not nearly on the same level as the original, it at least showed it wanted to belong in the same mood and attempt some of the same themes. If you are in the mood for a movie that gives a new take on the old theme then give it a rental or catch it during a matinee.  

The Walking Dead- video game review

The Walking Dead has been a huge hit since the television show on AMC.  Based on the hit comic by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead faces a zombie apocalypse scenario with realism and a unique sense of humanism that is rare for this medium.  Telltale Games has clearly worked well to make a game that looks like the comic come to life in an episodic adventure.

You play as Lee Everett, a criminal on his way to prison at the time of the big zombie attack.   The game play is point and click and the dialog works very much like a “chose your own adventure” novel.  The great thing is that the game remembers your decisions so that in each episode events will change and sometimes the dialogue will alter depending on your choices.  There are a few really interesting plot twists that make it almost gripping to watch at times. 

It is a well-written script and the characters are interesting and for the most part likable.  While there are a few people that you don’t mind seeing zombies turn into lunch, it still allows a certain level of character development so you care if these people survive the episodes.  The game will also tell you how other players who have played the game made their decisions at the end of the episodes. You will also come across characters from the comics that are very well known such as Glenn and Hershel.

If you are a fan of The Walking Dead comics or the television show you will enjoy the game.  It’s fairly easy to get into and not too difficult to play.  This is the sort of game that you play for the love of the source material not so much for the challenge.  If you are looking for something to get you through those dry spells when the season is not doing anything, consider playing The Walking Dead video game.  

Dredd 3D-review

The 2012 movie Dredd 3D is based on the British comic Judge Dredd.  The story was brought once to the screen in 1995.  This time with great characters, great effects, and a mood that is very self-aware. Dredd 3D also utilized its gimmick of 3D and made for an amazing action packed siege movie.

Judge Dredd, played by Karl Urban, is training his new rookie judge, played Olivia Thiriby.  While investigating a murder in a huge tenement building, they find that a criminal named Ma-Ma, played by Lena Headey, is running a drug empire inside and wants them dead.  They become locked inside the building as the criminals go on an all-out attack on the Judges. 

The effects are really cool.  They use a lot of slow motion effects with a new fictional drug that slow the down brain.  With the 3D effects it looks really cool though.  There are many really amazing, violent gunshots and that are shown in gory detail. 

The mood is dark and fun.  There is humor weaved within the story that really makes the story seem self-aware of being a fun action movie.  It keeps a sharp pace and keeps the action moving from the beginning to the end. The script is decent and is very original for an action movie. 

Karl Urban is great as Judge Dredd.  He brings a great face to an otherwise faceless character.  His rookie character, Olivia Thiriby, plays a great psychic, mutant with a backstory that doesn’t take over the storyline.  Lena Headey is a chilling and very believable villain.  As a whole, the cast did a great job bringing life to this explosive movie.

I totally recommend this movie.  Dredd 3D is a wildly fun action movie and is a blast to watch.  If you are looking for something different and something that is full of fast-paced action, you will enjoy this movie.  Hopefully this movie will find its audience soon.  It is the sort of movie we really need to see released more often.

[REC]3: Genesis-review

The [REC] series is an interesting one.  These Spanish movies really took POV films to another level.  [REC]3: Genesis takes things too a bit new level and in a different direction.  The movie takes a bold approach to the look of the demonic infection showing us new characters, and wild new gory effects. 

Koldo, played by Diego Martin, and Clara, played by Leticia Dolera, are celebrating their wedding day.  They have a wonderful ceremony and a great reception but what they don’t know is that they have an infected guest.  When the guest finally goes nuts and starts biting others, chaos ensues.  Can Koldo and Clara reunite and escape the horrors of their strange demonic zombie wedding?

The acting is not bad. Leticia Dolera and Diego Martin bring good characters to the screen. You want them to succeed and get through this horrible ordeal.  The side characters are even memorable and interesting; even as comic relief.  There is a lot of charm around the characters and you hope that they will make it.  The fact that this is a parallel story to the rest of the series only adds to the fun.

The movie switches from POV to normal third person view which is different for the [REC] series.  The practical effects are a welcome change of pace compared to most of the other horror movies that are coming out these days. Adding to the mythos of the story by showing that the demons see themselves as monsters in mirrors and can be thwarted by holy areas and objects were clever changes.

If you are a fan of the series you will enjoy this.  If you are not familiar with the series you can still enjoy this movie.  The characters are at fun and interesting and the knowing the story from the first two movies is not needed to understand what is happening. [REC]3: Genesis is a good movie and a great series that is completely worth seeing.

Skyfall-review

Daniel Craig has brought a welcome sense of realism into the James Bond franchise that was missing in a great number of his films.  I still believe that Casino Royale has one the best chase scenes I’ve ever seen on film.  Skyfall, takes a roundabout approach to bring Bond back to the days of Moneypenny and Q.  It is clever in its nostalgia factor and in its casting choices. Still, it suffers a flaw that no Bond movie should.

James Bond, played again by Daniel Craig is supposedly killed in in the line of duty attempting to get a hard drive that contains all the MI6 NATO personnel.  Bond was only wounded and spends his days drinking with a small scorpion on his hand, which I guess is a drinking game in some countries that can’t afford ping-pong balls.  After returning to active duty he discovers that it was Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem, who aims to kill agents in order to get to M as revenge. The biggest questions of course are who is this guy and will he succeed in his mad schemes?

Daniel Craig is still great as Bond. He is still able to straddle the line between hard cold killer and smooth operator, which is fun to watch.  The real fun of this movie comes from Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva which is like watching a mix of Heath Ledger’s Joker mixed with Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men.  It is evil genius at its best and it’s at least some what original in its insanity and motivation.

The movie brings a nostalgic factor back into the movie that was missing in the others.  With the return of characters like Moneypenny and Q, the Aston Martin, and a big booming Bond score the movie has a feeling of old-school Bond.  I am not sure what the future will hold for the series but it’s certainly going to be interesting to see where they take it from here. 

The only thing that makes this movie at all hard to watch is the run time.  At 143 minutes there are a lot of scenes that felt like filler and that is no good during a Bond movie.  If they would have cut just a few of the scenes or trimmed others it could have been much easier to sit through.   The movie itself is still very fun and worth seeing.  I look forward to more of the series and hope it will grow toward this dark, realistic Bond.  

Silent Hill Revelation 3D-Review

Silent Hill Revelations 3D is the sequel to the 2006 movie Silent Hill, based on the popular video game of the same title.  Silent Hill Revelation 3D shows a lot of inspired new creatures and clever visuals.  The problem is that it is bogged down in lame characters and a weak script.

A teenage Sharon, from the first movie, played by Adelaide Clemens, is in a new school in a new town.  Her father, played by Sean Bean, are on the run and trying to hide from a cult in the ghost town of Silent Hill attempting to bring Sharon back into the town.  What is their purpose? 

The acting for this movie has gone downhill.  Sean Bean doesn’t even try. Half the time he seems to be looking like he has been contracted into doing this movie and he is dying to get back to Game of Thrones.  Adelaide Clemens does an okay job and is cute as a button since she is a spitting image of a young Michelle Williams.  The charm of this movie comes from the bit parts of Carrie-Anne Moss and Malcolm McDowell in small, yet colorful, parts that show them having fun with over-the-top roles.

The visuals are fascinating. They return the undead nurses and add a bizarre mannequin spider creature.  Most of the scenes in Silent Hill Revelation 3D looks to be nightmare fuel.  Conceptually it is really well done.  The script is laughable. The dialogue is awkward and there are a lot of expository statements that would be better shown than said.

As a whole Silent Hill Revelation 3D is not a very good movie.  In the hands of a better writer this could have worked out.  If they really wanted to fix this concept maybe they should have just started with a new, bold set of characters who we can care about for a change.  I’d give this movie a miss unless you are a big fan of the series or a fan of the videogames.

Paranormal Activity 4-review

The Paranormal Activity series is one of the few I know that seems to get more intricate and better with each movie that comes out.  While the first was so subtle and creepy it has expanded it’s own mythos to involve so much more than a demonic entity causing chaos.  It now involves covens, cults, and new gimmicks in each new movie. 

The movie begins by showing the ending to Paranormal Activity 2.  We are then introduced to Alex, played by Kathryn Newton, a young teenage girl who is big on taping aspects of her life.  She also enjoys the joys of Skype.  Alex and her boyfriend come across a boy named Robbie who lives across the street.  When his mother is put in the hospital he is asked to stay with Alex and her family.  Many odd things start occurring around Robbie.  The main question is why?

The story is decent.  It certainly follows the main concept of the Paranormal Activity universe.  There are a few plot holes and many questions from the past movies left unanswered but considering that, it is still a good movie that is at least trying to bring something new to the table. You can sometimes give it a benefit of the doubt.   This movie shows just how expansive this coven really is. 

I thought of using computers to show the audience the footage was a clever idea.  It worked well with the rest of the story so it moved the narrative along smoothly.  There is a thematic element of “the boy who cried wolf” which is really hard to work in an age where you can literally get footage of just about anything from anything be it a camera, computer or cellphone.  Still, the movie pulls off this feat and it works out well.   The ending felt a bit rushed which is a shame because it really is an interesting movie and I want to know more.

Paranormal Activity 4 is worth seeing if you are a fan of the rest of the series.  It brings some new plots twists that were not expected. While not terrifying, it does build on the other movies well.  If anything, it makes me wonder where it’s going to go from here.  It’s at the very least worth a matinee or a rental.  

Resident Evil 6- video game review

Resident Evil 6 is the sixth installment of a survival-horror franchise that has done it’s time.  In this game instead of following a single storyline there are three separate campaigns and then a fourth that you unlock by finishing the previous three.  They all intertwine in different ways and it is in that way the makers of this game were trying something new.  The style of each campaign is a bit different each time as well.  For instance- In the Leon campaign  it’s more the standard Resident Evil game from the past, with Chris it’s more shooting and action,  with Jake it’s running away from creatures and situations, and in the Ada campaign it’s puzzles.

I was not a fan of the different campaigns.  My personal opinion is that one really decent and well-run story is so much better than four intersecting ones that just glance at one another and don’t let you care about the characters.  The intersections also mean that you are going to be fighting the same boss fights twice with multiple characters.  It comes off as really lazy on the part of the game designers.  They really needed to attempt to add some more variety to the monsters.  Every campaign faces a creature with the stamina of Jason Voorhees that you will face countless times and in several forms.  It gets so redundant fighting them again and again. 

The game play is okay for the most part. The AI for the partners has improved a lot more from the last game.  A welcome change I was happy to see that maybe twice I had to take care of my partner in a fight.  Navigating the new version of the inventory was a challenge at first but I got used to it.  The worst part by far is the constant use of “monkey-see monkey-do” commands. Since Resident Evil 4 for some reason these commands keep popping on the screen and expecting you to hit the button at just the right time or die.  It brings to mind games like Dragon’s Lair where the game gets frustrating incredibly fast unless you memorize the button actions.  As if that wasn’t frustrating enough the game added several death races against the clock sections where a single second off your game will lead to the character’s dying in an overly long cut scene.

I understood that Resident Evil 4 changed the series to be more action based.  The sequel added a teammate element.  The problem is that the Resident Evil universe has really played out its story.  Capcom should wrap it and Silent Hill up and start a franchise that is bold and different.  There are other really amazing games that have proven that survival-horror can still be an amazing genre of game.  The two Dead Space games still blow me away and they seem to have borrowed a lot of the feel directly from Resident Evil.  This game is superfluous.  It really ads nothing to the universe other than the side note that Jake is Albert Wesker’s kid and that is not even a shocking Darth Vader-style reveal since Jake is a new character himself. Nothing new is brought to the table. 

Resident Evil is okay.  It has become a neutered form of the survival-horror it once was.  There are sections of this game where you fly a crashing plane and have a car chase. That is not the mood I have at all with a Resident Evil game.  That is a mood I have with an Uncharted game.  If you are a fan of the series it’s probably going to disappoint you in its lack of growth.  If you are looking to start playing the survival-horror genre I’d look elsewhere because this is certainly not that genre anymore and you can find a lot better.

Sinister-review

I love it when a movie surprises me as much as Sinister does.  The movie is genuine and chilling in its presentation.  It uses creepy super 8 films of families dying to create a horrifying atmosphere.  The acting is good and the scares are truly worthwhile in this awesome movie.

Ellison Oswalt, played by Ethan Hawke, moves into a new house with his family.  He is a true crime novelist and he is there to investigate the murder of a family that happened in that house.  While in the attic, he discovers a box of super 8 “snuff” films of families in different house being murdered in different ways.  He notices a familiar creature in each of the films. 

The movie was really spooky.  I am not one that is easy scared but the limited use of the Buguul character was smart and the use of the really spooky super 8 footage was really wonderful.  There are aspects that are just not scary, such as seeing ghost children.  Still, the use of camera work and shadows are really well done and I couldn’t help but be affected by it.   

The acting is really well done.  Ethan Hawke brings a very believable character to the screen. We can really imagine seeing these horrible films and still being drawn into the mystery to keep watching again and again.  His wife, played by Juliet Rylance, also brings a worthwhile character to the table.  You can see her anger and frustration with her husband and there is an air of subtleness in their performance that works well together.

This movie is really fantastic.  The real fear it brings comes from the subtle atmosphere. The ending throws any aspects of predictably out the window.  Sinister would make a great companion film with the likes of Insidious.  It’s a clever movie that is completely worth seeing this holiday season.  

A Trip to the Island of Misfit Holiday Movies.

Let me take you on a cinematic journey through the Yuletide holiday.  While a normal journey would cross into familiar territory of the many iterations of “A Christmas Carol,” “White Christmas,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” this journey will skip those in favor of darker lands.  Past the comedies like “A Christmas Story” and out of the realm of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and even  “Bad Santa,” we enter the obscure holiday films.  I am talking about the films brought out during the holidays that have just enough “yule” to tide us through the holiday.

Let’s start with the Christmas classic, “Die Hard.”  I know it’s a stretch but it all takes place during the attack of Nakatomi Plaza during a work related Christmas party.  One of the employees’ estranged husband happens to be none other than NYPD Officer John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, who caused nothing but trouble for the would be robbers during their Christmas heist.  The whole time there are elements of the holidays splattered through this movie in clever ways.  From the carols on the radio to the way John dresses up one of the men he kills in a Santa suit.

“Die Hard 2: Die Harder” takes place one year to the day after the events at Nakatomi Plaza.  This time he is in an airport as it gets hijacked.  He quips and kicks some ass all in the hopes of getting reunited with his wife.  It’s not nearly swimming in the spirit of Christmas as the first but as it’s supposed to take place one year to the day, I count it.  McClane is one unlucky dude on the holidays; not as if he has not paid that misfortune forward quite a bit over the years.

If you want to find more oddly obfuscated holiday pictures then look to Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns.” It’s a dark movie and seems to go way more over the top than the 1989 film that it proceeded. Nearly the entire film takes place during Christmas events in Gotham City. There are holiday parties, tree lighting ceremonies, mistletoe, and penguins with missiles on their backs.   It even ends with the age-old line “Peace on earth good will towards men…and women.” If you have wee children you may prefer an alternative Burton film. Grab a copy of the movie that is Tim Burton’s answer to the Halloween movie and Christmas movie, “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” There you can see stop motion animation at some of its most amazing.  It is one of those movies that really does well for both holidays and the characters have a childlike delight as one who is new to the holiday of Christmas.   

Speaking of great special effects, I want to take a moment to remember a real holiday misfit, “Gremlins.”  A teenage boy gets a small creature called a Mogwai as a Christmas gift.  This creature comes with very specific rules: don’t leave it in bright lights, don’t get it wet, and don’t feed it after midnight.  After a mistake and basically breaking every single one of the rules the Mogwai has multiplied and has created its evil counterpart, Gremlins which promptly take over the town in short order.  The movie is fun and creepy and was a marvel of special effects for 1984.  It also has a great speech by Phoebe Cates about what happened to her father one fateful Christmas Day.

Maybe action and monsters are not your style. You might rather watch a movie about the raving drug crazed late nineties.  The movie “Go” might be your style- written as three intertwining plots about people on Christmas Eve in Los Angeles.  One story involves the buying and selling of a drug, another character is on an adventure to Las Vegas and the other is caught in the middle of a police sting operation.  It’s a comedy of errors and I don’t know if it has aged well from the nineties.  Still, at its bare bones it’s a fun movie with a very colorful nineties attitude. At the very least it’s good for a cynical laugh.  

The movie “Rocky” takes place during the holidays.  From Thanksgiving when Pauly throws the turkey into the alley, until the New Years Eve boxing match between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed.  The holiday aspect of the films never overshadows this underdog story.  It’s a feel good movie that is good year round and the rest of the series is a lot of fun as well.  Rocky is a sweet story at its very core about his relationships with Adrian, Pauly, Micky and the other cast.  They are his family of sorts, which is what the holidays are all about.  They believe in him and he goes the distance with the help, love and support of those closest to him.

The movie “Lethal Weapon” takes place during Christmas.  The entire opening even opens to Jingle Bell Rock.  The action of this film is fairly intense and there are a lot of themes of family and suicide, which, as we know, rise in number during the holiday. It is not for those who aren’t craving a good old-fashioned buddy cop movie.   Still, if you are in the mood for this type of movie in the vein of “Die Hard” look no further.

There are several horror films that are considered Christmas movies.  The ones that are actually worth seeing are few and far between.  For the old school horror fan there is “Black Christmas”.  A mad man is killing girls in a sorority house on Christmas.  It’s a creepy movie that actually precedes “Halloween” as a holiday slasher movie.  That is as basic as it needs to be.  What can I say about the remake? Avoid it if you can.  Like “My Bloody Valentine” this movie is pretty much an in-name only remake.  

If you are more into the tongue-in-cheek style of horror there is “Santa’s Slay” starring the wrestler Goldberg as Santa.  In this movie he is the son of the devil and is murdering people who are naughty. There are cameos and silly jokes and violence a go-go.  It’s a stupid movie.  There are buffalos, curling, and strippers.  I’m actually surprised it hasn’t become a holiday cult staple. 

Lets not forget the other good movies that you can use as a holiday movie excuse.  The events of the amazing movie “Brazil” start during Christmas.”  Yet another Terry Gilliam movie “12 Monkeys,” takes place at Christmas.   The beginning of “Cast Away” starts with a Christmas dinner that gets cut short.   You literally can make this excuse with a plethora of movies that use the holidays as a background.  All it takes is a bit of imagination when it comes to what you want to watch. 

If you are sick of the standard fair of cliché movies every holiday then take time to remember that you can always be very open minded with what is considered a Christmas classic.  When a channel decides to do a 24-hour marathon of a single movie you can offer another suggestion from that island of misfit movies and enjoy something different and maybe even share it with someone else.

Looper-review

“Looper” is the latest sci-fi action that takes a gritty look at time travel.  Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play the same character respectively with an astounding makeup job on Gordon-Levitt to make him look like a younger Willis. It’s a clever movie with a lot going for it.

Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a hit man in the year 2044.  In the future, the mafia makes arrangements to get people and send them into the past to be killed.  One day he gets the assignment to kill his older self, played by Bruce Willis.  When his older self escapes he goes out to kill his future self.

The action is good.  The acting is really decent.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt does and amazing job impersonating Bruce Willis.  The characters are really well developed. Everyone shows a lot of motivation for all of their actions, which is really a cool draw to this movie.   Emily Blunt plays a very decent mother character as well.

The story is a wee complex as many sci-fi movies are.  It’s still very interesting and shows a lot of care and is very character driven.  There are a few slow parts that are very dialogue heavy but are not out of place for the mood of the film.  It’s a really good movie. 

It’s a really fun concept.  “Looper” has a vision of the future that is oddly believable and interesting.  If you are a sci-fi fan it’s a must see.  It’s a movie that takes chances and gives you some a very bold new story.