Endless time Loop

After seeing Looper on opening weekend, I couldn't believe that it didn't get more advertising than it did.  Positively one of the best if not the best sci-fi movie that I've seen since Star Trek in 2009.  Joseph-Gordan Levitt plays a "looper" in the past for a future mob.  Time travel is invented and it quickly becomes illegal due to the fact that it becomes to powerful of an asset.  The mob secretly still has it and uses it to send "hits" back in time to be killed.  Levitt plays the assassin that kills the hit.  The mob sends the person back in the past due the fact that it is utterly impossible to hide a body in the past.  There are cameras everywhere that sees everything and hears everything.   As soon as the hit appears in the past, the looper kills him with a blunderbuss shotgun and the looper collects his pay in silver bars.  If the mob wants to kill the looper and not have them working for the mob anymore for any reason, they "close the loop" by sending the looper's older self back into the past and the looper unknowingly kills himself in the future.  This is what happens to Joseph-Gordan Levitt.  His older self, played by Bruce Willis, actually lives during the assassination and knocks his older self out to escape.  The movie is packed with action and adventure, and the story is absolutely awesome.  Half of the run-time is Bruce Willis's movie showing the 30 years after Levitt kills his loop the 2nd time around.  Yes..I said 2nd time.  After the 1st time and Bruce Willis gets away, he goes back to his apartment to get all of his silver and get out of town, because well...you see...not killing one of your hits is punishable by death.  With that being said, Levitt is in very big trouble.  This concept of what happens to you when you don't kill your hit is shown during the beginning scenes of the movie when Levitt's friend doesn't kill his.  I won't give it away but let's just say that it involves razors and dismemberment.  Anyway...Levitt's character goes back to his apartment only to find 2 men there ready to kill him.  He attempts to get away but winds up falling on top of a car and killing himself.  As soon as he hits the car, the scene cuts back to him standing there with his blunderbuss waiting for the loop to get there.  This time he doesn't miss.  Reason being...Bruce Willis's head is covered this time so Levitt doesn't hesitate.  Now, when your loop is closed, you are giving a golden pay day.  The translation is quite literal in meaning that you get gold bars instead of silver.  The mob fires you and you have 30 years to live your life as you please.  That's exactly what Levitt does.  He lives his life.  He goes to China and eventually gets married.  I wont give anymore away but I can tell you that involves a mother and small child.  Amazing story and flow.

CG and special effects are stunning.  Nothing seems corny and the futuristic scene seems a lot more realistic than "Jetson" style.  The producers went all out in making this movie non-computer animated looking.  Weapons of the future seem very plausible for being so many years in the future.  Music was very well scored and done.  As I said before, story and plot are amazing.  I'm expecting an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.

The one thing that I really liked was the make up that was used to make Bruce Willis and Joseph Levitt resemble eachother.  There were some points in the movie when I wasn't sure that it was Levitt that I was looking at.  It was really cool to look at.  Another close runner up though was the ending.  I'm not saying anything but it was an awesome ending.

Overall the movie was exceptional.  I didn't know what to expect going in to the film but I was happy when I left the theater.  Score of 8.7/10.  B+

Psycho in the basement in the house at the end of the road

First off, I only saw this movie for one thing and one thing only.  Jennifer Lawrence.  As did most other guys who saw this movie.  After The Hunger Games and being the cover story of Rolling Stone magazine, Jennifer LAUNCHED into stardom.  Her first movie after Hunger Games? House at the End of the Street.  When I first saw advertising for this flick, my expectations immediately became extremely low.  Being the person that I am...I don't really enjoy scary movies.  Not because they are too scary for me, but just for the shear fact that they never seem to have any sort of solid story or flow to them..  With that being said, I generally tend to steer clear of new age horror.  House of the End of Street was no different to me.  Unfortunately; however, I was asked to go, and being the nice guy that I am..I didn't say no.  So after forking out 10.25 for this movie, I expect to get my money's worth.  One can only wish right?  That's how I felt with this.  Jennifer should've known better than to pick to do this movie.

The general plot line of House was a mother and daughter move into a rural house that sits inside a national park.  The house is extremely cheap due to the fact that  several years earlier,  there was a double murder involving a mentally disturbed girl.  The mother and daughter go to a cookout as part of a "welcome to the neighboorhood" party, and they learn gossip of the house at the end of the street where the murders took place.  They say that the house is abandoned, but of course, knowing horror movies, it isn't.  It turns out the son of the family is living at the house.  I won't give any more away...but this movie is a ride of twists and turns.  As the movie progresses, the viewer starts to realize that the mother plays a larger role then one might expect.

Overall this movie was mediocre at best.  Acting was sub=par with the exception of the son of the murdered family.  He does exceptionally well.  No special effects.  Actually...the place where this movie shines is the lighting.  It is wonderful throughout the movie.  Not just natural lighting either.  Soundtrack was typical.  The end of the movie did have a good twist to it of all things, but it didn't really effect my overall enjoyment.  A lot more boring than suspenseful.   It failed to make me jump once.  Overall grade of an F.  4.5/10

Hardy is Lawless

Fresh off of Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy has released another awesome movie that proves once again that he is the most bad ass actor at the time that can play any role.  Also fresh off Dark Knight Rises, Gary Oldman takes on the role of mob boss Floyd Banner and proves as well that he can play any role.

The story of Lawless follows the famous Bondurant brothers of the 1930's; moonshine bootleggers out of Franklin County, Virginia during the prohibition era.  At first Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy), and Howard Bondurant (Jason Clarke) produce and distribute the White Lightning around their own state of Virginia and the business is booming.  Cops don't mess with them as long as they get a jar and people always anticipate them coming.  They distributed to white and black folk.  It didn't matter what skin tone they were, just as long as they got their money.  As I said, their business was booming.  This of course ended when the detective from up north by the name of Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) comes in and tries to tell the Bondurant brothers that they have to start giving profits to up state authorities.  Forrest Bondurant, the muscle and spokesman for the family, kindly denies the offer by basically telling rakes to fuck himself.  Obviously Rakes doesn't like this and tells Forrest to tread lightly.  For the next 70 minutes of the 2 hour movie, a war breaks out between Rakes and the Bondurant family.  I'm not going to say because that would give away the entire movie.  I will say this though; for those of you with a weak stomach, I recommend steering away from this movie.  Or at go in knowing it's going to get graphic.  The blood and gore effects are tremendously accurate, which makes it a bit nauseating at times.

The story of Lawless  is solid.  Considering that it's based off a true story, I would hope that it follows pretty well.  I, unfortunately, do not know much about the Bondurant story, so I'm not going to say whether the history is accurate.

As far as acting goes, the characters could not have been cast any better.  Gary Oldman knows about being an evil mob dealer from movies like Book of Eli, so his role is perfect.  Guy Pearce playing rakes was also a top notch performance.  Honestly; however, the two the really stole the show were Shia and Hardy.  I have never been a huge fan of LaBeouf's acting but his role in Lawless was absolutely incredible.  His sarcastic and childish attitude fits perfectly as the youngest brother.  Hardy's performance was Forrest was just as well acted as Labeouf's "Jack".  Being the older brother that sticks up for the younger brothers and also being the muscle of the group, the brother has to be an all around hard ass, and well...Tom Hardy fits the description.  Bane shows that potential obviously.  Anyway....Hardy's grittiness in Lawless can not be played any better by anyone else.

I really enjoyed watching this film.  The music/soundtrack is fantastic and the plot flowed like a river.  Editing and Cinematography is well done.  Lighting is done with precision to emphasize parts of the movie such as the church scene and most of the night scenes in the bar.  The gore of the movie was kind of a set back for me but it doesn't effect my overall liking of the movie.  It was just a bit....excessive for me at points.  Maybe not to other viewers but it was for me, but again....it doesn't effect my grade for it.  I really enjoyed it overall.  a solid 7.5/10