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Alec Strachan on Graham Mabury's top award A worthy recipient indeed.. Well done Graham, your blood is worth bottling.. Al more
Mick on Your suburb, your voice Colin Barnett, cut every thing to the bone for the average and needy. But large increases for your cronies and the wealthy. ... more
Dellas on Government staff pay rises Never thought Dixie Marshall would/could be bought to become nothing more than a cash cow.I thought a lot of her as a woman ... more
wayne bishop on Butt out yeah right increase the prices more to pay the govt. debt so the govt. can waste and blow away more money and the govt. ... more
Kevin Boyle on Would you vote for this guy? Go Clive, you got my vote, its about time that someone stands and says it for what it is !!!!we work to hard to be treated ... more
Mei-Lee Morris on Asbestos awareness walk Hey Guys!! Well done!! Keep up the good work!!! Looking forward to seeing you all tonight!!! more
Johnny on Foreign aid delay If bob carr stopped wasting millions on traveling around the world they might be able to pay the foreign aid !! Do they ... more
Dellas on We'll sign NDIS on our terms Western Australia. The richest, yet most draconian State in the country.Colin Barnett, Helen Morton and Troy, ... more
sherley dionne on Engelbert Humperdinck engelbert,you are (TU EST D,UN AUTRE MONDE)GENTLEMEN,CHARISME EXTRAORDINAIRE,GREAT TALENT,BEAUTÃ? DIVINE ,LOVE YOUR ... more
Kylie Welsh on We'll sign NDIS on our terms NDIS - I am a mother of an 8 yr old boy who was born with Spastic Quadraplegia Cerebral Palsy. He is non verbal, fed through ... more
steve thornton on We'll sign NDIS on our terms In Victoria the state government signed up and then raised my disabled sons rent by 27% the next day. more
Dellas on Horse racing has a problem When one looks at it in a cold logical light, horses really have no place in the modern world, do they?Except for greedy, ... more
Johnny on Power price rise 'dishonest' Just one question where is all the money from the mining boom ??? more
Johnny on Broken promises unacceptable Lets have a recall election that might keep the mongrels honest !! more
Peter on Broken promises unacceptable Good article the only error is that Larry calls it a stadium, where in actual fact it should be called "Colin's Colosseum" more
Luc Del Casale on More boats To those that are refering to the Malaysian solution, if you actually read the policy that sends 800 illegals for 4000 ... more
Johnny on Power price rise 'dishonest' Barnett should stand down he is not fit to run this state he is like Gillard over spent cant manage the money wants to build ... more
jacques v on Referendum on local council Since local govt are not recognized in the Australian constitution, why has the states included local govt in their ... more
Alastair on More marriages, more money Everyone regardless of race, colour, gender etc is entitled to the same rights regardless of who they are, otherewise this ... more
Rusty of Fremantle on Referendum on local council The Gillard Governments rationalisation of a fair and equitable carve-up to WA as witnessed in the NBN, NDIS and GST, would ... more

Movie Review: Looper

Posted by: Shannon Harvey | 4 October, 2012 - 7:25 AM

This is one of the big ones of 2012. It comes with trippy time-travel themes, a great cast and it’s getting great reviews. It’s from Rian Johnson, the rising star director behind Brick and the Brothers Bloom. And it’s one of those “what if” sci-fi films that asks some pretty big questions.

But if time travel movies tend to fry your noodle, then I hope you’ve got your thinking caps on.

What if…in 2044…time travel does not yet exist? What if mobsters in the future are using it to send targets back to 2044 to be shot dead by assassins called Loopers? It’s the perfect murder. It literally erases people from existence.

Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one such Looper who enjoys the spoils of his work.

As with all Loopers, they must killer their future self to close the loop and keep thing neat and tidy for the mob. But when Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back for termination, he escapes and goes on the run. Not good. Young Joe’s mob boss (Jeff Daniels) sets various gun-toting goons onto both of them.

Old Joe is searching for a boy who will grow up to be the nastiest of mobsters known as The Rainmaker. Young Joe finds the boy first, on a remote farm sheltered by his fiercely protective mother (Emily Blunt).

Does he saves the boy, save himself, or change the future?

These kinds of time-travel conundrums really tests your mettle. As Jeff Daniels’ calmly scary mob boss says, all this time travel stuff can “fry your brain like an egg”.

It may fry your noggin trying to figure out all those time loops! Yet I have some BIG problems with the narrative and the internal logic in Looper. Why would young Joe want to kill old Joe? He’d be killing HIMSELF! How do the old and young versions of the same Joe exist in the same time? Is that possible? Where’s Einstein when you need him!

But while Looper’s narrative is only just plausible, it’s great fun trying to figure it all out. And it’s more about the choices we make, the path that puts us on, and what if — given the choice — we could change our past?

Above all, Looper is a gritty, gripping and thoroughly entertaining mind-bender set in a near-future dystopia. If you like the dirty future dystopias in 12 Monkeys and Children of Men, or the time travel conundrums of The Time Machine, The Terminator or Source Code, then you’ll enjoy Looper too. Johnson gets the look of the future just right, with its mix old-world clothes, cars and farms and new-world drugs, hover-bikes and telekinesis. And he gets a great performance from Blunt, who is almost unrecogniseable with her blonde hair and Southern accent.

Time travel is a hard nut to crack on film — and while they haven’t quite cracked it here — Looper is a provocative and highly original look into one possible future. What if?

Score: 7 out of 10