Looper (R)

        A thrilling and mind-bending science fiction film, Looper keeps viewers on their toes with confusing time travel and a plot that is constantly twisting and turning. This film was not only enjoyable but also thought-provoking. A win for co-stars Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt alike, I would recommend Looper to anyone searching for a skillfully made and captivating movie.
         Looper takes place in the year 2044 where time travel has yet to be invented. Howecer, in thirty years it will be and the mob is using this to their advantage. Looper's protagonist, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is a employee of the mob known as a Looper. Whenever the mob wishes to take an enemy out of the picture, they send their victim thirty years into the past where a Looper such as Joe waits to shoot him or her and dispose of the body. Joe is happy with his job's pay until one day his victim is none other than his older self (Bruce Willis).  Now on the run from the mob and searching for his older self, Joe discovers that before he was sent back in time, the older Joe's wife was shot by the mob. Now Joe Senior is on a quest to find the Rainmaker, the head of the mob in the future, as a child and kill him so that his wife never dies. Meanwhile the younger Joe finds the Rainmaker, a child named Cid (Pierce Gagnon) and his mother Sara (Emily Blunt) living on a small farm in the Kansas countryside. Joe realizes that Cid is an extremely powerful telekinetic who can kill if he looses control of his powers. Looper draws to an epic conclusion as the mob, the overwhelmed young Joe, bloodstained older Joe, and the unstable and angry Cid converge at Sara's farm.

Joe holds his younger self hostage

            As a science fiction fan, I enjoyed Looper. Some parts of this film caused the viewer to stop and think which means that the plot was well thought out. Writer and director Rian Johnson handled Looper very well and made sure that it was the best it could be. Throughout the film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis did their best to act as mirrors of one another. They succeeded. I was very impressed with Gordon-Levitt as he had Willis's mannerisms down so that he was a convincing younger version of Bruce Willis. Even the way Gordon-Levitt spoke was identical to Willis's own  articulation. Contributing to this was Gordon-Levitt's makeup artist, Jamie Kelman. Kelman made several small changes to Gordon-Levitt's face such as enlarging his nose and thinning his upper lip in order to make him look like Bruce Willis.
            One of the actors that gave a stunning performance in Looper is Pierce Gagnon who played Cid. As  a telekinetic and a boy genius, Cid is extremely powerful for a ten year old. Gagnon's skillful acting at such a young age blew me away. This acting was so convincing that when Cid was angry, I was genuinely scared of this small child. Having a character such as Cid played by such a talented actor made it difficult for me to decide whether I wanted Cid, Sara, and young Joe or Joe Senior to come out on top.
             Looper won the Austin Film Critics Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Critic's Choice Award for Best Scifi/Horror Movie. Both of these awards were well deserved and writer/director Rian Johnson should be proud of creating such an excellent piece of work. I certainly would recommend Looper to anyone and I rate it a 4 out of 5 stars. Thank you very much for reading.


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G.I. Joe: Retaliation (PG-13)

        A heart-pounding action film, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. The sequel to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Retaliation continues the story of the military unit known as "the Joes". With almost an almost entirely fresh-faced cast and director, this film promises to be a different approach to the G.I. Joe franchise. Overall, Retaliation is an action movie that takes place on a huge scale. In the end, there were some elements of this film that I enjoyed and others that I just didn't understand.

Roadblock in action

        Retaliation opens with the Joes sent on a mission to Pakistan to retrieve a nuclear bomb. The assault on the warehouse goes smoothly and the Joe unit is bivouaced and waiting for further orders when they are attacked by their own air support. The only surviving Joes, Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) are now outlaws of their own nation with nothing to lose. Vengeful over the death of his best friend and commanding officer, Roadblock vows to find the person responsible for the massacre and bring them to justice. After much investigation with the help of another undercover Joe by the name of Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Roadblock and his team uncover that the attack was ordered by the terrorist Zartan (Arnold Vosloo, Johnathan Pryce), cleverly disguised as the president. Zartan is working with the Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) who's goal is none other than world domination.
           My main issue with Retaliation is its originality, or rather, lack thereof. The basic story was one that has been done many times over. In fact, it reminded me a bit of the first Mission Impossible film except on a much larger scale. Another aspect of this film that wasn't very original was the villain, Cobra Commander. Allow me to digress a moment here. I absolutely love a good villain, in fact, they are often my favorite character in a story (i.e. the Joker, the Master, Darth Vader, Jim Moriarty, etc.). However, Cobra Commander was simply disappointing. He was, more or less, a reinvented Darth Vader in that he required a face mask to not only keep him alive but also to hide his disfigured face. He even had a deep menacing voice!
           Another problem I had with Retaliation was the "Joe" military unit themselves. Some of the members such as Roadblock and Flint were your stereotypical military commando. However Snake Eyes and the character Jinx (Elodie Yung) were ninjas. It was as if the Joes were split up between modern military and ninjas. I found this confusing and, in the end, pointless. However, this may just be a part of the G.I. Joe franchise that I simply am not aware of.
           Even though I have the aforementioned complaints about Retaliation, there were certain aspects that I did enjoy. One of these is the retired General Joe Colton played by none other then the unflappable Bruce Willis. Willis's dry humor and trigger-happy tendencies made Retaliation an action movie that was fun to watch. Another part of this film that was made well were the battle scenes. These scenes were filmed on an epic scale to match that of the movie itself. Advanced weapons and vehicles added to the grandeur. One such scene was when Snake Eyes and Jinx are battling enemy ninjas while swinging between Himalayan peaks.
          Although not the best action movie I have seen, G.I. Joe: Retaliation was certainly entertaining and filled with scenes that are sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Overall, I rate Retaliation a 3 out of 5 stars. As always, thank you all for reading and keep a look out for my next review: Looper.


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Life of Pi (PG)

        An epic story of unlikely survival at sea, Life of Pi blew me away with breathtaking cinematography and  an intense script. Based on the novel by Yann Martel, Life of Pi paints not only a picture of a boy's will to survive but also of a young man learning who he is. Director Ang Lee gives us a stunningly moving piece of work that you will want to watch over and over again.
        Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) is a spiritual boy living on his family's zoo in Ponticherry, India. He has just met the girl of his dreams when his father (Adil Hussain) tells him that he plans to sell his zoo and move to Canada. Crushed, Pi, his family, and the zoo animals (to be sold in North America) board a Japanese freighter headed to Canada. Halfway through their voyage, the ship hits a vicious storm leaving Pi adrift on a life boat with a zebra, a hyena, a orangutan named Orange Juice, and a magnificent Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Slowly the zebra, hyena, and the orangutan die until only only Pi and Richard Parker are left on the life boat. What happens next is a endearing tale of survival and unlikely friendship between man and beast.

Pi approaches Richard Parker while at sea

        I was very impressed with Suraj Sharma as young Pi. Most of his scenes were spent alone with a CGI tiger on a lifeboat. As such, Sharma didn't have many other actors to play off. Even so, Sharma gave a stunning performance as Pi. He made the character believable and, more importantly, someone you grow to care about. As Pi faces terrible odds surviving terrible odds adrift on the Pacific Ocean, Sharma shows us how a boy of that age really would react to difficult scenarios. All in all, an excellent performance.
         One cannot discuss Life of Pi without speaking of its amazing cinematography. Cinematographer Claudio Miranda made sure that the life boat that was Pi and Richard Parker's home for several months was not only realistic but also seemed like it was being tossed about on the ocean. This cinematography was so excellent that in some places my breath was taken away. For example, in one scene Pi and Richard Parker's lifeboat is becalmed at sunset. The Pacific waters act like a mirror reflecting the orange-yellow sky and clouds, a breathtaking vista.
         Of course, Life of Pi's special effects were just as awesome as its cinematography. For course the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker was entirely CGI. Also many of the amazing things that happened to Pi as he was at sea would not have been possible without the visual effects prowess of Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, and Donald Elliot. One of the best displays of these wonderful visual effects is when a humpback whale erupts from the ocean amid luminescent jellyfish. If I hadn't known better I would have thought that the whale was real. Another breathtaking visual effects experience was the thousands of meerkats on an island that Pi ran aground on.
          Life of Pi won four Academy Awards, all of which were certainly well-deserved. Director Ang Lee won Best Director, his second Academy Award. Claudio Miranda won Best Cinematography while the team of Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, and Donald Elliot won Best Visual Effects. Life of Pi also won Best Original Score which was written by Mychael Danna. This film was also nominated for Best Picture but was beaten by Argo. I truly enjoyed Life of Pi and would rate it a 4.5 out of 5. Thank you for reading!


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