Looper (4½ Stars)

This film has a premise that's ridiculously illogical, but it succeeds because of the story written on top of the premise and the excellent acting. Any film with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has to be good, doesn't it? They both play the same character, which stretches credibility. I'll explain the reason below.

The film takes place in Kansas in 2044. I would have preferred them to say "the near future" than name a year, but I'll let it go. In the future (i.e. some time after 2044) time travel has been invented, but it's been outlawed. That's understandable. If everyone could travel into the past to change events there would be chaos. A criminal gang in the year 2074 is using time travel discreetly for its own advantage. It's difficult to cover up murder in the future, so if they want to kill someone they send someone into the past, bound and hooded, to be executed by a waiting hitman on arrival. The payment for the execution is made in silver bars strapped to the victim's back.

Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of the hired killers, called Loopers. The reason for the name is that at the end of a person's contract he has to kill his future self. The payment is in gold bars, after which he can do whatever he wants for the next 30 years. At this point he'll be captured and sent back into the past to be executed. That's the loop.

That's a tidy system, until Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) arrives from the future. He's spent years training, so he manages to avoid being shot. He goes on the run, and young Joe is sentenced to death for not doing his job. Young Joe goes on the run as well, and eventually the two Joes find one another.

Old Joe wants to work together with young Joe to kill the future gang leader while he's still a child. It's not certain who he is, so he's going to kill all the children on a small list. (Does that remind you of "Terminator"?) Young Joe disagrees with killing children, so he goes to war with his older self. They're fighting against one another, not together as suggested by the poster.

By being in the past, everything old Joe does changes time, including changing his own memories. This puts young Joe at a disadvantage. Whenever young Joe goes somewhere to search for his older self, old Joe immediately remembers it and hides somewhere else.

Maybe you can already see what the problems with the premise are. I'll name a few points. You might be able to think of others.

It's said that the problem in the future (2074) is disposing of bodies. Why not kill the person and send his corpse into the past? That would eliminate the need for a hitman in the past. All that would be necessary is an undertaker. Alternatively, the corpse could be sent back into a cage with wild animals waiting for food.

Why should the hitmen be expected to kill themselves? Someone else could be given the job, making it less personal.

In fact, why shouldn't a hitman from the future be sent back to perform the executions? That would be much tidier.

Success Rate:  + 3.9

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