LOOPER Review: Die Hard with a Time Traveler

Do you miss Bruce Willis cursing, bleeding, and shooting at random villains throughout a movie? Well, that sums up the original Die Hard trilogy, actually. The 4th installment, Live Free or Die Hard, doesn’t count because, first, it was a PG-13 (Parental Guidance, minimum age of 13) summer popcorn flick, which means no curse, no intense violence, and no red blood, for the sake of younger audiences, which also means more money. Secondly, read the previous sentence again. Die Hard series, by all means, are R-Rated (Restricted, minimum age of 17) action movie franchise. Turning it into a softcore of violence and mild language is totally unacceptable for the die hard fans, no pun intended.

And while Willis’ Old Joe character in Looper, the latest action sci-fi from director Rian Johnson, is nothing like John McClane at all, we get a glimpse of young Bruce Willis from those 80-90s films, and in Joseph Gordon Levitt, who plays the younger version of Willis’ character. Wait, what? Does Levitt’s appearance really resemble young Bruce Willis?

In the not so far future, time machine, or time traveling is still a yet-to-come invention. But in the not so far future of the said future, a secret organization has already taking advantage of the secretly developed time machine. It’s quite confusing, indeed. But that’s the basic premise of Looper. Joe (Levitt) is a member of the previously mentioned organization. His job is very simple: kill every person sent by his employer from the future. Joe is not alone. He works with other guys who share the same job description. They are called Loopers. Everything was fine for Joe and his life, until one day, the person he has to kill is no other than his older self (Willis). Shocked and speechless, young Joe gets knocked out by old Joe, who then escapes. Now, young Joe must track and kill old Joe, while being chased by the organization because of his failure.

Looper is obviously not for everyone, even for time traveler fans. Its core is not mainly about time machine, or heavy weight, full of blood action sequences (there’s plenty of them, though. It’s an R-Rated after all). It’s more of psychological drama, wrapped with sci-fi theme. Towards the end of the movie, some people will be emotionally affected by young Joe’s narration. And although Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face is nowhere near young Bruce Willis’, the make up team does a decent job, if not awkward.

All in all, Looper is a must see movie. For Bruce Willis fans, it can be an alternative choice to watch the nostalgic Yippie Kay Yea Motherf*ck*r man goes berserk and slaughtering bad guys. Just like old times.