Looper
Directed by: Rian Johnson
Written by: Rian Johnson
Starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels
FilmDistrict | TriStar Pictures
Rated | 118 Minutes
Release Date: September 28, 2012

There year is 2044. Time travel has not yet been invented, but thirty years from now it will have been. When underground criminal syndicates in the future need someone gone, they zap ’em back to Loopers like Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who do the necessaries.

In 2074, it’s impossible to properly dispose of a body — too many high-tech gadgets like global positioning implants — so those ever-resourceful criminals illegally transport their targets back in time so Loopers can erase them from the future.

Looper, written and directed by Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom), is a science-fiction film noir that seamlessly blends futuristic elements with the world we already know. Old, beat-up gas guzzlers have been retrofitted with solar panels and electric batteries while the rich drive sporty, state-of-the-art speeder bikes. The designer drugs of the future are taken with an eye dropper, and Loopers like Joe are paid in bricks of silver for blasting bound-and-gagged future dwellers with their blunderbusses: short, large caliber boomsticks that obliterate targets at close range.

Last Sunday millions of people around the world where stunned when the news broke that Tony Scott, big time Hollywood director and younger brother of Ridley Scott, had committed suicide for reasons yet to be explained. You can read Empress Eve’s wonderful obituary of the late filmmaker here. Although Scott’s movies were never granted the often unfettered adulation critics and cinéastes willingly gave his brother, he was responsible for some of the coolest and most popular modern Hollywood action films. After scoring two back-to-back blockbusters with Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II, Scott started to make the more interesting movies that would come to define his later years as a director. Some of them were smash hits, but rarely scaled the heights as his earlier career-making successes, and several of them were box office flops that later found new life on home video and cable.

Submitted for your approval are the five films I believe in my heart of hearts to be the essentials of Tony Scott’s unusual but beloved and rewarding filmography. If your knowledge of the man’s work doesn’t extend beyond his ability to make Tom Cruise look good in the cockpit of a fighter jet and the front seat of a battered stock car then you might find this list worth a read.

The Expendables 2
Directed by Simon West
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis
Lionsgate Entertainment
Rated R | 103 Minutes
Release Date: August 17, 2012

“I now pronounce you man and knife.”

Simon West (The Mechanic) takes over directing duties for Sylvester Stallone with The Expendables 2, the sequel to Stallone’s 2010 bullet-blasted action flick.

Written by Richard Menk (The Mechanic, 16 Blocks) and Stallone, The Expendables 2 features an all-star lineup of ’80s and ’90s action stars and their new school successors.

Led by Barney Ross (Stallone), The Expendables consist of blades specialist Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), martial artist Yin Yang (Jet Li), weapons specialist Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), demolitions expert Toll Road (Randy Couture), and snipers Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) and Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth), the new guy.

Earlier this year at WonderCon, I was lucky to cover director Rian Johnson‘s panel for Looper, as I had already been a huge fan of his previous work (Brick & The Brothers Bloom). At that time, little had been known about the project and Johnson introduced the intriguing time-travel concept, as well as the amazing makeup work that would transform actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt into a younger version of Bruce Willis. So what updates have transpired on the film since March, now that its release is imminent?

Moderator Ralph Garman (of Kevin Smith’s SModcast Podcast Network) began the San Diego Comic-Con panel by introducing director Johnson, and actors Emily Blunt and Gordon-Levitt. Willis was unavailable, as he’s shooting A Good Day to Die Hard in Europe.

Here’s the thing… I like Wes Anderson, I really do. I think he’s an extremely talented, quirky fellow who makes entertaining, gorgeous cinematic experiences. Unfortunately, I have this sneaking suspicion that instead of being the next Scorsese or Coppola, Anderson could easily become the next Tim Burton – or the hipster, Instagram version of Zack Snyder.

I know, I know – blasphemy, right? Before you set fire to your vintage collection of Kinks records and hurl Criterion Collection DVDs of Rushmore and Bottle Rocket at my face, understand that I enjoy Anderson’s entire filmography (including that brilliant American Express commercial). All I’m saying is, the guy has been constantly criticized for putting style over substance and maybe it’s time we all admit that there’s some truth to that.

I loved Moonrise Kingdom. I think it’s one of the best films of the year – but, at the same time, I experienced a bit of deja vu – like I had seen this movie before. And then I realized I had. I saw it in 2009 when it was called The Fantastic Mr. Fox and before that when it was called The Darjeeling Limited, and so on and so forth.