Looper (2012)

    Looper (2012) Starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, introducing Pierce Gagnon. A run-down future taking place in 2044, Joe (Joseph), is a hired gun called a looper. Loopers are individuals who are apart of an posse or group with a leader from the future (Jeff Daniels) giving them silver and riches for each man they kill who has been teleported back to the past. By the year 2044 time travel hasn't been invented yet but the reason for killing these men is to dispose of their body because in the future it is almost impossible to hide the victim (better explained in the movie). Eventually Joe comes across almost killing his future self, but fails in an attempt in doing so letting his old self escape (Bruce Willis). Old Joe has lived a life of his own, being a looper from the future (again better explained in the film). They both have their own reasons how they want to live out their own life which causes the ultimate conflict in this story. Young Joe must kill his future self in order to stop chaotic events from happening, and Old Joe.... well I don't want to spoil his reason but you have to see the movie for yourself...

  Overall this movie is bound to be a classic sci-fi film. Has the same kind of twisted plot structure like Inception, except even better! The cinematography is beautiful and flashy, showing a very unique yet realistic future which has some scary similarities to which how ours can turn out to be. I was sitting up front and noticed a bit of a film grain effect which I liked, although I don't know if that was intended or not. This film will set the bar for future sci-fi films with intricate plots, which will be very hard to beat. There was almost nothing wrong with this movie except the plot seemed a bit confusing at times which is bound for people to have repeat viewings. The trailer gave very little away to such an intricate and well structured story. This movie is intricate, emotional, mind-bending, suspenseful, and has quite a heart. This is probably the best wide-release movie I've seen this year and gets a grade: A.

 

Dredd 3D (2012) Movie Review.

    Dredd (2012), Directed by Pete Travis, starring Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby co-starring Lena Headey and Wood Harris. Takes place in an overrun dystopian society full of gangs and chaos in an irradiated wasteland supposively set in America. But appointed cops known as judges are the established law and order of the city, the notorious Dredd being one of them. It is a violent metropolis with large buildings made up entirely of slums ruled by different gangs, but the drug lord known as Ma-Ma eventually takes over all 200 floors, eliminating rival gangs and anyone who interferes. She and her gang introduce a drug on the streets called Slo-mo which tricks the mind into thinking that everything being processed in moving at 1% speed which ties in perfectly with the slo-mo effects making it an actual logical use  throughout the movie. It is up do Dredd and his female rookie accomplice Judge Cassandra Anderson to rid the slums of this drug lord and to bring justice to the chaos. 

  Overall a very impressive film, displaying the latest visual effects (not special effects). This movie introduces something quite new to the action genre with its highly stylized slo-mo capture going where no movie has gone before. It actually shows in great detail the bullets ripping through human flesh as if they were ballistic gels, quite impressive to watch! The colors and stylization used in this movie were fresh and vibrant. This film will set the bar for future movies to come. On the down side the movie felt like it dragged a bit during the middle of the movie with certain plot points that seemed unbuyable, for example Olivia Thirlby's character was a mutant that can read minds yet she choses to be deployed as a judge. For about 30 minutes of the movie they bring along this cliche'd black thug that was quite irritating at times and felt unneeded, they should've just killed him off once they got him. The visual effects although great sorta distanced me from feeling for these characters and seemed like a movie that is all explosion yet no exposition. Other than that the villain in the movie played by Lena Headey was very well played, not being too cartoony yet having quite an intimidating presence on-screen. This movie also does contain some very surprising twists that made its flaws completely forgivable, straying away from the generic good cop, bad thug, shoot 'em up plot. Overall score: B+ 

"Beyond the Black Rainbow" Movie Review

     Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010), Directed by Panos Cosmatos, starring Eva Allen and Michael Rogers. Set in 1983, A lovely  girl with ESP,  Llana is held captive in a psychedelic underground drug manufacturing institute called Arboria. Run by Mercurio Arboria and the hypnotically evil Doctor Barry Nyle. Barry Nyle played very well by Michael Rogers interrogates her throughout the beginning of the film about her symptoms of the drugs she has been injected with and her psyche. He is probably one of the creepiest characters you will see onscreen, with his blue piercing eyes, cold stare, and slow hypnotic voice. In the film the Llana character has no dialogue which gives her character a charming yet brooding mystique, her emotions being conveyed only through her engaging eyes onscreen from time to time. Her goal is to escape from the facility without being sedated, or in a few cases killed. As the film draws on it further explains why she is held captive there and there is a really great scene which is told from Nyle's perspective of a trippy flashback he had in the 1960s involving him taking LSD that explains who the characters really are. The film itself artistically presents a lot of symbolism that we find in today's society. So if your the type of person who gets impatient with art house movies and likes to see explosions every five seconds, you probably won't understand this film. Although this film is VERY visually stylized it does have a very interesting plot that will leave you thinking for days to come.

   The role that cinematography plays in the movie is very great and the most daring than any movie I have seen this year. It is said by the cinematographer Norm Li of the film that it was filmed with a 35mm panavision camera which I find very raw and loyal to the earlier genre that the film portrays. This film presents imagery that is very reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, THX 1138, A Clockwork Orange, The man who fell to Earth, and many other films of the 70s and 80s. This film is the kind that will be still talked about 20 years from now and will most likely get a cult following. Grade: A.