Where you wonder if you've been loopy to watch it

Rating: 4/10 (8 November 2013)

This is billed as Action/Crime/Sci-fi. I can accept the first two; the third is incorrect. This story is pure fantasy set to a time in the near future, 2044, where society is inhabited by loopers – hired killers sent back from 2074 to eliminate those sent back to the past – the period in which the story plays out.
If you can accept the idiocy of that premise, then by all means see it. If not, then I'd give this one a wide miss – despite the presence of Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the main roles of Old Joe and Joe, respectively. As I watched, I wondered again what some do for money.
The plot is filled with many of the usual violent scenes so prevalent in other crime dramas. Nothing new there. Much of the action is stylized, particularly the killing ground for each execution when s/he arrives, trussed up and ready to be killed. Special effects are okay, but nothing extraordinary. Editing is adequate for a fast-paced action movie. The acting is formulaic, all you'd expect from this genre.
The movie will, of course, appeal to those viewers who want to see something new, even though time travel stuff has been done too many times already in literature and movies. All that time travel provides is an opportunity to apply new twists to a stupid idea and sell it to viewers who don't bother about absurd paradoxes and impossible plots. Well, I guess for some, it's entertainment.
Last week, however, I saw Gamer (2009) which I also thought was a dumb story. After Loopers, though, I must say Gamer at least was, indeed, sci-fi and hence a better movie – although the sound track was way too loud.
I'll give Loopers four out of ten. Recommended only for fantasy fans.
November 9, 2013.