Time travel stories are hard to pull off. There will always be nitpickers who love to point out plot holes, citing scientific theories that they subscribe to that they believe null and void the entire plot. While I do appreciate that it gets people involved and researching theoretical time travel, just debunking the plot because it doesn’t fit your definition of how time travel should work means you may never like a time travel story. My only prerequisite for these stories is that they explain their time travel rules and as long as they follow those rules they clearly set out, then it works for me.

This brings me back (See what I did there?) to Looper.  Looper revolves around bounty hunters in a future society. They get paid to assassinate anonymous targets sent from an even-further-into-the-future society. Eventually they will execute themselves, only finding out after the deed is done that they just killed their future counterpart based on the huge bounty they receive followed by a special “retirement” party. Their loop is now closed, so they can go off and do basically whatever they want until their eventual day of reckoning.I won’t describe any more of the plot, but I will say that it does a great job establishing the rules of its time travel universe and then following those rules, so the plot was extremely satisfying from that point of view. What really pushed the film home for me was the performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. After hitting it big in the recent Christopher Nolan universe of films, he goes back to his movie roots. He again teams with Director Rian Johnson, who’s 2005 murder mystery Brick started Gordon-Levitt on the path of shaking his child star persona to become a full-fledged movie star. 

Bruce Willis stars as the elder Gordon-Levitt character. While the actors wouldn’t seem to be great matches to play the same person, Gordon-Levitt goes the extra mile by giving the best young Bruce Willis impression imaginable, even down to his now trademark whisper-speak among his many other mannerisms as an actor we’ve all known for years. For his part, Bruce Willis doesn’t get in the way of the movie, but also doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before. He’s good enough, but the true star here is Gordon-Levitt and luckily he is the primary focus for the majority of the film. 

The production is obviously done on a modest budget, but the effects are subtle enough to sell this as a future society without making a ton of compromises. I felt constantly reminded of Willis’ other time travel film, Twelve Monkeys. However, this film also feels like it has a 90’s action film at its heart, which is no doubt aided by the presence of Willis. Many conflicts are resolved with guns as opposed to words, and there were more blood ‘n guts moments than I was expecting going in. But the movie is smart enough in its storytelling that it more than makes up for the parts that some may find beneath it. 

I’m a big fan of time travel stories, especially when it’s done right. When Looper is at its best, it’s a convoluted yet well executed plot anchored by excellent performances, especially from its lead actor. When it’s at its worst, it’s still a gritty and fun action flick reminiscent of the glory days of 90’s cheese-ball action movies like Timecop and Virtuosity. 

Acquisition Method: Blu-Ray ($35.99 MSRP) Rental