REVIEW: LOOPER

4/5

Back To The Looper.

118 Minutes. Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis & Emily Blunt. Writer & Director: Rian Johnson.

Ever since Joseph Gordon-Levitt made his way from the '3rd Rock From The Sun' the baby faced star has always been ahead oh his time, from '10 Things I Hate About You' to spending '500 Days Of Summer' with a 'New Girl' the young talent has made mainstream hit after independent hit. Still over the last few years the 'Inception' of his legendary legacy has begun. Right now along with 'Dark Knight Rises' co-star Tom Hardy this is his year. The rising star has had a 'Premium Rush' of movies and 'Batman's' trusty sidekick doesn't look to give up soon. Now the boy wonder looks to continue writing his future with Sci-Fi smash 'Looper'.

A shotgun time travel affair that opened the Toronto Film Festival to a blunderbuss of five star reviews and critical acclaim thanks to Joe's irregular performance, capturing a young Bruce Willis in all his essence. Gordon-Levitt has it all done and down from the altered features to the eyes, walk and talk...the string vest also makes an appearance in a Josh Brolin/Tommy Lee Jones, 'Men In Black 3' chameleon portrayal. Levitt's incredible performance-which is one part Willis influence with an equal measure of his own inspiration-could result in an award 'Looper' scooper next year.

Still why is Joesph playing a young Bruce you ask. Well 'Looper' is a film and concept based on special assassins whose targets are zapped back from the future to be zapped and killed by hitmen who can carry out the killing and leave their victims permanently in the past. It's a strange idea but one that works and one that Phillip K. Dick would be proud of. Still what would happen if your old self was sent back from the future to be killed by your own hand? That's the question facing out protagonist here as Joe Levitt and Bruce Willis play the same Looper, young and old.

Don't go round in circles trying to get the idea of messing with time travel right in your head-"wait a minute if he does that, wouldn't that?"-just take the old saying of 'what goes around, comes around' to heart. Besides all will be explained in a tense, terrific, head-to-head diner scene which is only a few coffee's away from cooling down De Niro and Pacino's in 'Heat'. It's this interplay between the old and young lead that makes this film and as Willis refuses to 'Die Hard' we get to see this legend do what he does best in what will end up another underrated gem in this somewhat undervalued actors classic catalogue. With amazing action and dominating drama this is the hit man's next 'Twelve Monkeys'.

A killer cast featuring an American accented Emily Blunt and a bearded Jeff Daniels along with many more gives this film more substance. There's style to boot too, from the clothes to the weapons of choice. Rian Johnson's wonderfully wrote and decadent directed vision of the future is so well sought out it could even send 'Total Recall' back to the eighties. Mixing a high-rising future of a sublime, superior Singapore with the corn maize of Kansas gives this film textural parallels that mirror the tone of this reflective story. Science Fiction fans that dream of electric sheep will really be woken up by this one. Bringing it back to the future this is something to be learned about ourselves and the world from this one. It all comes around to an incredible end that will start you thinking. With all it's hidden silver linings, this hired gun shoots for gold. TIM DAVID HARVEY.