Looper: les tueurs du temps

When one deals with time travel as the process has not been discovered everything written or filmed about is always speculative. For instance the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Time Cop shows something quite different when we meet our future and past selves as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis do here in Looper.

Instead of the forces of law and latent fascism getting control of time travel in Time Cop, Looper has organized crime doing it and eliminating problems that Robert DeNiro in Casino remarked are usually swallowed up by the Nevada desert. Levitt is a Looper one who travels ahead to the future, specifically trained as an assassin and then goes back to his present origin and as targets come through a time portal, they get eliminated. Then at some point, the future selves are eliminated and the present selves just go on with normal lives as we define normal.

Bruce Willis is Levitt's future self only he doesn't like the idea of elimination. And the big boss Jeff Daniels doesn't like how Levitt screwed up the elimination of Willis. The chase is on.

Another question answered by Laurence Olivier in The Boys From Brazil said that we should not eliminate a cloned Hitler. Here a telekinesis gene has entered our gene pool and someone in the distant future has been harnessing its full potential to battle organized crime. That's an even bigger mission that the Levitt/Willis problem.

Looper is a nice and original take on time travel with an outstanding cast giving some standout performances. Note particularly Emily Blunt as the mother of young Pierce Gagnon who has powers and abilities far beyond those of other mortal beings. And young Gagnon is something to see as well.

Looper is definitely worth the price of admission.

i always approach a film especially when it is classified as scifi with liberal suspension of disbelief. because it is only through that that i was able to appreciate such scifi gems as Stargate and Fifth Element and many other that were otherwise written off by these so-called critics.

Looper is one of those films that should be appreciated by its message more than its genre. it uses the science fiction medium, complete with action stunts and wonders, as an apt and well-sculpted vehicle to a very beautiful message of self-sacrifice and positive reinforcement parenthood. the film goes to extra length to make the story plausible and solid and the actors, including the 'rainmaker' child, did a marvelous job of pulling it off.

i've always believed that the soul of any film, even as i appreciate great plot twists and great special fx and great acting and direction (yeah, i said great too many times!), is the message and/or portrait it intends to get across. Looper made a kill for it.

Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom, Brick) is the writer and director of this sci-fi film. Like his other projects, this has original if slightly off-kilter thinking in its story. It is not a regular sci-fi movie. There are some crazy ideas going on here. Time travel is not enough. There is also telekinesis, post collapse apocalypse, mob killings, and pre-planned suicide for hire (yeah figure that one out). Does it all make logical sense? I can't tell. But it sure was fun trying to follow it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as the young Bruce Willis. Emily Blunt is refreshingly new. Also staring is Paul Dano and Piper Perabo.

Sci-fi films often strive for originality. Contrary to what many spiteful internet fan boys claim, Hollywood is not afraid of new ideas, It just doesn't come up with them that frequently. But every so often amidst the failed attempts at being the next matrix or blade runner, there's an inception or a district 9 that makes you believe in the movie industry's commitment to quality once more. With Looper Rian Johnson manages to do something very few films ever do. It makes us think, feel and sit on the edge of our seat often all at once. The premise is not that mind boggling. Whereas other intelligent sci-fi's have convoluted plots that we try to decipher amongst the spectacle Looper sets us up with a basic idea, but an idea that deepens and grows more dimensions than the trailers suggest. To give away too much would be a crime, so its best to go in knowing the basics. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Joe, a specialised assassin known as a Looper. These Loopers are hired for the not too taxing job of assassinating people sent from the future all tied up with a bag over their heads. They then receive payment in the form of "silver" attached to the targets back. The looper then disposes of a body that technically doesn't exist and so wont be looked for. However with the job comes a specific requirement. A looper will also have to retire himself by assassinating their future selves this is called "closing the loop". And this is where the core of our story begins, but crucially it is not the real focus of the story as it moves on. As you'll know from the trailers Joe is tasked with killing his future self (Bruce Willis) and when he fails to do so is on the run from the criminals who hired him to do so in the first place. Where the story goes from there is unexpected and in places rather dark. There are many smart little details in Johnsons phenomenal script, that really flesh out the world he has created for his film. The characters use their own lexicon and slang, they have their own type of future drugs (taken through eye drops), and some of the details regarding the time travel are inspired. Again to say too much would do the film a great disservice but its clear Johnson has an eye for both ideas and spectacle. The camera moves in such an organic involving way, each frame is so precisely positioned you know if you got the chance you wouldn't change a thing. Techinically the film cannot be faulted. The look is warm and believable, stylistically there are moments that will stay with you long after you've left the cinema (a moving and thrilling ride through 30 years in particular is very cleverly interwoven into the story structure) and the soundtrack fits exquisitely. The characters are all sympathetic and deep with multiple dimensions. Even when one character goes to do something unspeakable mid way through the film, its believable through the brilliant direction of Johnson. The cast are all superb, especially Gordon Levitt who plays a complicated character and evolves him masterfully with the aid of a screenplay that puts character in the foreground and lets the action merely be the cherry on top. Thats not to say that the action is anything less than outstanding. Looper proves that action can still be thrilling with just a few men and some guns but at the same time provides us with some fantastical comic book fantasy spectacle with a dash of surprisingly brutal violence. As the film powers towards an awe inspiring and heartbreaking conclusion we begin to realise just how involved we've become. It actually matters to us what becomes of Joe and how this stylish, smart tale will end. Perhaps its down to a great cast giving it there all. Perhaps its down to great technical wizardry, but most likely its down to the vision of Rian Johnson, who does that rare thing of proving, Hollywood can take risks.

"This time travel crap just fries your brain like an egg." (Abe)

Not since Children of Men (2006) and Source Code (2011) have I been as jazzed up as I am now about Rian Johnson's Looper. Here's sci-fi that will happily fry your brain as you figure out the implications of changing the future by altering the present. Also throw in thoughts about Christopher Nolan's Memento and Inception to get the flavor of Looper.

But as Sinatra sings, "Regrets I've had a few, but then too few to really mention," this film challenges you to think of the implications of reversing those regrets or keeping the future the same because you kind of like the way things went.

Joseph Gordon Levitt's Joe is a "looper," an assassin who goes into the past to murder someone needed to be absent in the future, 2072. The Mob, headed by a very relaxed and dangerous Jeff Daniels as Abe, determines to eliminate all loopers, and Joe is next on the list to kill himself by flashing back. Yes, it's existentially a difficult task, and therein lies the drama of this satisfying sci-fi.

With less CGI and few glitzy machines (in fact most of the vehicles look shabby 2012 and the loopers' weapon is a sawed-off Steampunk shot gun—how's that for past and future?), this thriller relies to an effective degree on the excellent cast to relay the challenges inherent in altering any past.

Because it's an intelligent tale, the overall theme of responsibility for our actions (the existential part) flows quietly from the action, be it as simple as running from the bad guys to the complexity of deciding on the sacrifices willing to be made to alter the future.

A leitmotiv of this film is that no one is immune from the effects of the past, Sinatra notwithstanding in his apparent satisfaction with how things turned out. For Looper, cult status is its future.