Looper
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt
Director: Rian Johnson
Rating: 4.5/5
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been the hardest working actor in Hollywood in 2012 with a host of great movies already under his belt.
But he has reunited with director Rian Johnson and teamed up with Bruce Willis to deliver one of the best movies of the year so far in the form of Looper.
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 (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 (Willis) for assassination.
Looper is sleek and fast paced and is one of the smartest movies of 2012 as director Rian Johnson masterfully blends sci-fi with hard hitting action.
Johnson has directed as well as written Looper and he has well and truly cemented himself as a talent to keep an eye on.
He is a director where the story takes centre stage and while he has all of the action going on around him Johnson never loses sight of the story that he is trying to tell.
He juggles the past and the future as well as two versions of the same man who have different experiences and ideals and he manages to keep all of these plates spinning and keeps the audience focused.
Looper is a movie that keeps you engaged from start to finish and Johnson dares the audience to guess where he is going to take the characters and the story next.
Levitt and Willis deliver two great performances as Joe; one man who is let to live his life and the other who has had everything taken from him.
Levitt has clearly studied Willis as he prepared for the movie and he is an excellent younger version.
While Willis delivers a very tortured performance as a man who has lost everything and is trying to convince his younger self of the pain that is coming his way if the past is not changed.
The movie has been compared to the likes of The Matrix and Inception but Looper is a movie that has an identity of its own - not to mention it is nothing like these two movies at all.
Looper is an action packed thrill a minute movie that never lets the audience pause for breath or give some thought as to what has just happened.
Johnson really does show off his writing and directing qualities with this movie as in lesser experienced hand this could have descended into chaos.
If there is one movie that you see this autumn then make sure it is Looper - it is not surprising that some are talking about it as a possible Best Picture Oscar nominee.
Looper is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Bruce Willis Joseph Gordon-Levitt