When I first saw a preview for Looper, I figured it might be a fun popcorn movie if I was bored. Bruce Wllis and time travel had me interested, but I didn't expect much. As the release closed in, and some people saw it early at Fantastic Fest, great reviews started appearing. I ended up seeing it shortly after release, during my road trip.

And it's now in the running for me for one of the best movies I've seen this year. One of the big aspects I liked is that the trailers I saw hinted at the setting, but ultimately didn't give away much of the movie.

I'm curious about other people's thoughts on it. Make sure to use spoiler tags when needed, since the movie is still pretty new.

I may go see it again in the theater, due to a downloadable directors commentary track. Would be interesting to hear this alongside the movie while its still in general release. For those interested, it's available here: http://loopermovie.tumblr.com/post/32950683762/our-in-theater-commentary-track-is-up-i-recorded.
Only download and listen with a second viewing of the movie. It's not intended for the first viewing. And could be a rather smart ploy to raise ticket revenue...

Oh, and modern CGI is just getting weird at times. The new Tron featured younger Jeff Bridges, and now Looper tried to make Joseph Gordon-Levitt look like a younger Bruce Willis. I guess Hollywood actors can stop worrying about aging now.

No spoilers because I haven't seen it yet... But, did you find the facial alterations to Levitt distracting throughout the movie? It's a little distracting in the trailer. Not sure why they didn't just go with, umm, his normal face.

Levitt has been one of my favorite actors for a while.

Thanks for the thumbs up. This has been the only movie I’ve been interested in seeing in quite some time.

“Seven Monkeys” was OK too.

"The Internets" have never heard of Seven Monkeys, what is it?

I believe that's meant to have been "12 Monkeys".

Maybe 5 monkeys escaped from the set of "12 monkeys"?

I thought that too, but 12 Monkeys (1995) is getting close to 20 years old now...

[dead pan voice]
Seven Monkeys is the heavily censored version of 12 Monkeys.
[/dead pan voice]

No, it's the unaired Seven Samurai monkey-ed movie.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA7i9XoeOu4 )

Not really distracting but definitely noticeable and took me a little while to get past it.

Me I guess I don't really know what Levitt is supposed to look like. But even with the manipulations, I didn't think he looked all that much like Willis.

I'm also in the "why did they do that?" camp. We swallow bigger look-alike mis-matches in the movies and on TV all the time. Siblings who don't look alike, parents who don't look at all like their kids, etc. If we're going to suspend disbelief that there's time travel (spoilers! ), I think we can suspend the disbelief that JGL will ever look like Bruce Willis.


He's been my absolute favorite for years now. I will see anything he's in and he's almost always phenomenal. Mysterious Skin is one of those movies that I will never watch again, but it really got to me and I'm glad I watched it.

Brick was also excellent, but I'm going to have to watch it again to catch everything...

Yea, I guess only seven of the monkeys were memorable.

Beside a full dozen monkeys are way too many monkeys.

And technically there were lots of animals in the movie, and it seemed like there weren't even 12 members in Brad Pitt's little gang. I wonder where the name of their organization came from...

Good point. He was insane so…..

On a way totally unrelated thought. Man I hate monkeys. They're all little assholes. I guess I would be too if I had to be in a zoo 24/7, even not locked up.

When I was in Singapore, we took a hike through Sentosa Island. The monkeys there were awesome. They would sit patiently watching people eat, then when the folks threw their trash away, the monkeys would jump on top of the trash, push the swinging lid open, and hang upside down inside to grab a can of soda. When they were done drinking the drops out, they threw the soda on the ground instead of back in the trash. I guess they were assholes.

Mess-up our habitat hu!

Well maybe we should burn down their rainforests and make way for some nice mellow cows to graze. Oh wait, we are doing that.

Good thing they don’t get smart and rise up against us. But that would make a good movie though. Oh, damn, all the good ideas are taken.