Looper  

Entertaining and brain engaging couple of hours [Blu-Ray]

Intelligent sci-fi is a relatively rare beast these days, so it's gratifying to see someone trying - even when it arguably doesn't work on every level. In the case of this movie, we have time travel as the maguffin. Criminal organisations of the future now have access to time travel, and use it to dispose of people they want rid of, sending them back to `loopers' - assassins who are paid by the bars of silver attached to the victims. This arrangement is lucrative for the loopers, but has one drawback - one day they will be asked to `close the loop', when their own future self is sent back for disposal, so that no future police force can identify who is breaking the law outlawing time travel.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the key performer here, more so than Willis - though it's always absurdly satisfying to see our Bruce pick up a machine gun and start wrecking the place.. Willis is Levitt's future self, but when sent back to be killed by his younger self things don't go according to plan, and they both end up on the run, with both converging on the farmhouse of Emily Blunt and her son. At least, that's where things kick off.. this set up is just a starting point for an intriguing set up to an unexpected showdown. Emily Blunt is excellent, and her son played by Pierce Gagnon defies expectation of child actors to play his own unique character believably.

Plaudits to the script then that makes things interesting while avoiding getting too wrapped up in the paradoxes and logic issues with time travel. Thinking hard about it afterwards will likely only give you a headache as the logic starts to unravel, but in the moment it's a satisfying and thoughtful, while still action packed movie.

All in all, a decent cast with some good ideas combined with action create an entertaining and brain engaging couple of hours.