Three films in this month’s round-up:
First up is Looper, a brilliantly structured narrative about inevitability, love and sacrifice, seen through the eyes of a killer tasked with the murder of his future self. While that sounds convoluted, it’s not in practice; the film focusses much more on its themes than on the sci-fi mechanics that allow the story to move forward. While having Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a younger Bruce Willis is a big stretch, the acting through-out is solid. It’s a big and bold tale, often quite pretty, but fantastically paced. Very worthwhile. (See my Looper Twitter review).
The Campaign, meanwhile, manages to undersell what could’ve been a great comedy. The premise is solid enough (a sleazy, corrupt politician takes on a well-meaning, naive upstart), but it never really amounts to anything. In the final edit, it feels like there are a number of segments they wanted to show and they built a fairly flimsy plot around putting those pieces together. It is funny, but it’s just not cohesive enough to be great. Passable, though. (See my The Campaign Twitter review).
Finally, Taken 2 is a bit of a let-down on every level. While no-one would’ve expected a great, character-led plot, it fails to make much of its action sequences. There’s a decent car chase in there, a few little moments, but nothing that grabs you as much as the relentless and breathlessly executed sequences from its predecessor. While that was a well-executed action film, this sequel feels very much like a needless and ill-advised cash-in. Avoid. (See my Taken 2 Twitter review).
The winner for this month is Looper, for its brilliant take on time-loop movies.