Review of LOOPER

LOOPER

Sci-fi, thriller, Bruce Willis, 2012

In 2074, time travel will be invented, but will immediately be declared illegal. However, organized crime will use it to eliminate their enemies. When they want someone dead, they tie the victim up, put a hood over his head, and send him to a pre-specified place in 2044 where a 'LOOPER' shoots him with a blunderbuss and incinerates the body. The perfect crime. Only one problem; thirty years after 2044 becomes 2074, the looper is now in the era of time travel and is a potential witness to the crimes, and so the looper is then tied up, hooded and sent back in time to be shot by his earlier self.

One looper, JOE, played initially by Joseph Gortdon, is disturbed by the visit of his friend, SETH, who tells Joe he had failed to 'close the loop' by letting his future self escape instead of shooting him. Seth hides, but the looper police, so to speak, know Joe has hidden Seth, and bribe Joe with bars of silver (intrusive symbolism even though they don't say how many pieces of silver) to betray Seth. Then Joe finds himself having to kill his own future self--let's call him older Joe--but, like Seth, younger Joe lets older Joe get away. Unlike Seth, younger Joe flees the country, and we see brief glimpses of his life during the next thirty years as he morphs from Joseph Gortdon into Bruce Willis. Henchmen of the RAINMAKER, the wicked dictator of that era, kidnap older Joe. They plan to tie him up and send him back to 2044 to be shot by younger Joe, but, furious because his wife was killed during the kidnapping, older Joe overpowers the kidnappers and returns to the past where he is able to evade death at the hands of his younger self.

Older Joe has learned the addresses of three children, one of whom will grow up to be the tyrannical Rainmaker (short for Reignmaker), and determines to kill them all the children so as to preemptively prevent Rainmaker's despotic rule. ('Would you kill Hitler as a child?' reasoning.) Younger Joe will do almost anything to stop this murder.  Meanwhile, two other loopers, KID BLUE and JESSE, are trying to kill both of the Joe's and thus close the loop.

Lots of people working at cross purposes.

This movie has a lot going on, and it's exciting.  The plot twists draw you in and make you wonder what will happen next. Bruce Willis is good, but not great, his usual ironic nonchalance becoming a little tiresome.

One major flaw, at least for me, was the repeated blatant violations of the grandfather paradox. The story requires these violations, especially at the end, but personally, I want to scream 'that's ridiculous' and slap the script writer in the face.

It did get my pulse up to a run, so I rate it at ++++. People who don't care about paradoxes will probably do even better.

Review of THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

In 1980, the aircraft carrier USS NIMITZ takes on a civilian observer, WARREN LASKY (Martin Sheen) at the request of Lasky's secretive billionaire boss, a MR. TIDEMAN. The Nimitz captain, MATTHEW YELLAND (Kirk Douglas), isn't happy about this, but Tideman has given a lot of money and support to the Navy, so they go along with foolishness like a 'civilian observer' with unspecified duties.

The Nimitz sets sail from Pearl Harbor on a routine training mission, but encounters a bizarre storm not predicted by any of their instruments. Blue fire engulfs the ship and men collapse in pain from the noise as the ship passes through the storm. On the other side of the turbulence are, to everyone's surprise, clear skies and calm seas. Standard communication frequencies are silent; only on lower AM bands are there any broadcasts--a Jack Benny show, a boxing match with Joe Louis. A reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor shows an intact Battleship ARIZONA, not a sunken monument. Could this be some massive hoax? Is everyone hallucinating? Could it be that the strange storm transported them back in time to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Further reconnaissance shows the Japanese fleet steaming its way towards Pearl. Now what? Should Yelland have the Nimitz attack the fleet? With its technology, it could take on the entire Japanese navy of thirty-eight years earlier, but that navy has not yet committed any hostile act. Moreover, that would change history, and what would happen to the Nimitz crew then...

Most time travel movies ignore the problem of the grandparent paradox, but not this one. The writers have taken it well into account, a major plus in my book.

Kirk Douglas is excellent as the captain, playing the role with a quiet assurance that is totally believable. In spite of the fantastic premise of time travel, most of the movie is believable, so much so, I checked with google to see if some of the characters were actual historical figures. Sadly, they aren't.

Several scenes are obvious ploys to increase tension, for example, when a damaged plane has difficulty landing on the carrier. Will the plane crash?  Will the pilot, a novice, survive? You can guess the outcome, and, in any event, it doesn't affect the main plot-line. Still the episode stimulates adrenalin and demands your intention.

Like so many others, this film has no deep character portrayals, no insightful meanings, not even extraordinary eye candy. The ending, where the identity of the mysterious Mr. Tideman is revealed, is anticlimactic and disappointing. Nevertheless, most of the movie is exciting and draws you in. For working out, it's great.  I give it +++++.  It will get your pulse up to a sprint.