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Looper (Rian Johnson, 2012)

A killer tries to track down his older self from the future.

This one is really an enjoyable sci-fi. It is safe to say, that all time-travel based stories need to set up a premise that the audience has to be willing to go along with. This film used simple voice-over technique and surprising imagery to describe the situation the protagonist is (caught) in.

What I really liked about this film is that they've tried to avoid cliched situations. And many small, carefully designed details show that - the introduction of the 'bad guys', the way the 'forward'flashes explain the story, bold use of typo if necessary, the extremely late introduction of the woman in the story, etc.

There are two or three moments that didn't quite fit in - Bruce Willis' slaughtering the baddies and the love scene seemed a bit stapled on to the whole - but thankfully these were really short. The boy was quite an amazing cast, you can really feel the anger and desperation boiling inside him. I felt uneasy, every time his face was on the screen. Levitt put on some special make-up to make him look more like Bruce Willis, but that wouldn't have been necessary - his acting is convincing enough.

Overall entertaining and surprisingly smart at the same time. My favorite dialogue (p'phrased):
"I'm going to France." - "No, you're going to China" - "France!" - "I'm from the future. You're going to China"



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