Showing posts with label Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Show all posts

Thursday, January 31, 2013

LOOPER (2012)

2074.  The mafia can no longer go around killing people because of "Tagging techniques, whatnot." This makes it nearly impossible to dispose of a body, so instead they send the living victim back in time 30 years to a pre-specified location where a paid assassin a.k.a. "Looper" immediately shoots them.  Why they just don't "zap" the victim back in time to someplace deadly and horrible like the bottom of the ocean or the Earth's core or 10,000 feet in the air or a Will Smith movie marathon?  I have no idea.  Maybe it has something to do with the location of the machine.

Anyway, one day when the main character's future-self shows up in his "Loop" he fails to kill him(self).  This puts into motion all kinds of shenanigans including running around, shooting guns and yelling.  There's also a kid with psychic powers.  For a single watch LOOPER is mildly entertaining, but by the time it was over...I was definitely ready for it to be over.  Funky looking guns, distracting effects on Gordon-Levitt's face, lens flares, futuristic cars that don't look very futuristic, weak story, boring action scenes.

Based on the trailer, I was really excited about this movie, but I just couldn't get into it.  The movie I saw in my head (before I actually watched it) was way better than the one that showed up on my TV.
Notice how these guys are dressed like the guy on the wanted poster and the little action figure below? Kinda like in TIME BANDITS.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

PREMIUM RUSH (2012)

Bike messenger Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn't believe in brakes (kinda like Sid Haig from PIT STOP) or newfangled bicycle technology like gears or lightweight frames.  He's like the Amish of bicycle technology.  Instead, he just pedals his ass off and uses backwards pedal movement to avoid cars.  One day Joseph is called to deliver an envelope to Chinatown, but before he can get even two feet a crooked cop comes along and starts hassling him.  Joe takes off and the cop chases him all over town.  That's pretty much the whole story.

Not surprisingly, PREMIUM RUSH isn't great cinema or anything deep.  It's just mindless entertainment with a bunch of flashy images, chase scenes, video game/music video styling and hip references that'll mean nothing in a few years, but...it is entertaining and that's all that matters.  Did I like it?  Yes.  Will I ever watch it again?  No.

Good for a one time watch.

Monday, December 5, 2011

MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2004)

Sadly, I've never read the novel this film is based on, but I can't see how it can be anything short of a masterpiece because this film is a masterpiece.

Opening with the slow-motion shot of Fruit Loops falling on the face of a smiling boy, we're next introduced to Brian, a teenager who recounts how as a small boy he lost several hours of his life due to being kidnapped by aliens at a baseball game and was then found later bleeding in a closet of his house. Now as a teenager he's fascinated by aliens. Next is Neil, he's the same age as Brian but a world apart as far as personalities go. He tells us how, at age 8, he used to jack off watching his mother with her various boyfriends and lust over the men in her Playboy magazines. Then he met Coach. Coach was the handsome coach of the boy's baseball team and he had a mustache that was so manly and awesome that it could tame an army of a thousand purring kittens. At first sight, Neil was in love with him. Soon after he allowed himself to be seduced by Coach. Then came Brian.

From the very beginning of the film you know what happened, but the script and the acting by everybody (especially by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Chase Ellison) is so strong that even after multiple viewings I still find myself almost hypnotized by the screen. Neil is now a male prostitute and secure in his homosexuality and molestation as a child. He even has pictures and recordings of the events. Brian though is living in a complete dream world and he's broken. He cannot function in reality. Obsessing endlessly over aliens, he thinks more and more about the events leading up to the abduction when he suddenly remembers there was another boy there, but he can't remember who he was. He decides to find out this boy was.

MYSTERIOUS SKIN isn't for everybody's tastes. It's vile at moments and perverse, but how can it not be with such a sickening subject matter? In fact, I wish it had gone even further. That aside, everything about this film is fantastic. The script, the acting, the tone, pace, cinematography, direction. Even days after my latest viewing I still find myself thinking about it and how brilliantly the story was told. MYSTERIOUS SKIN could almost be compared to RASHOMON in it's differing accounts of a shared event. Honestly, I cannot recommend it enough.

Double feature it with SHAME.