Posts tagged assassin
“Looper” about Time-Travel Assassins
Oct 11th
“Time-Travel Assassins”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Looper is a pretty good movie about time travel that uses the classic paradoxes about time travel, but doesn’t bother going into too much detail trying to explain them.
That is why they are called “paradoxes.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe, and Bruce Willis stars as Joe, too. I mean, “also,” not the number “2,” because they are both playing the same person. So, let me call the Willis character Old Joe.
The story begins in 2044 in Kansas, and Joe is an assassin for the mob 30 years in the future who is called a “looper.”
You see, even though time travel is illegal in the future, the mob uses it in order to get rid of people they want killed. If people are killed in the past, then they never existed in the future, right?
Then Joe tells us in a voice-over that the mob boss of the future, who is called The Rainmaker, is closing all the loops by sending his assassins’ future selves back in time to be killed by their younger selves, and he says, “This is called ‘letting your loop run’; it’s not a good thing.”
Joe is notified of the time that a victim will show up, and it occurs out in a field where Joe has already made disposing of the body easy. The victim suddenly appears with a hood on, and Joe blasts the person with his weapon, a blunderbuss that can’t hit anything over 15 yards.
Joe is paid with bars of silver strapped to the victims’ bodies, and he is saving for his future and learning French, because he plans to retire and move to France.
However, Joe knows about “closing the loop,” and so he is not completely surprised when Old Joe shows up as a victim.
Then we get some flash-forwards into the future that explain Old Joe’s life and how he suddenly shows up in 2044 in Kansas, but in different circumstances from Joe’s other victims that allows Old Joe to escape from Joe.
And so the rest of the movie is about both Joes trying to kill his other self in order to get out of the dilemma he is in, which also involves a Kansas woman named Ana, played by Emily Blunt.
Looper closes all the loops and then manages to end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The American – Movie Trailer
Sep 14th
Academy Award winner George Clooney stars in the title role of this suspense thriller. As an assassin, Jack is constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, Jack retreats to the Italian countryside. He relishes being away from death for a spell as he holes up in a small medieval town. While there, Jack takes an assignment to construct a weapon for a mysterious contact, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). Savoring the peaceful quietude he finds in the mountains of Abruzzo, Jack accepts the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues a torrid liaison with a beautiful woman, Clara (Violante Placido). Jack and Clara’s time together evolves into a romance, one seemingly free of danger. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.
“The American” The Red Herring
Sep 14th
“The Red Herring”
THE AMERICAN stars George Clooney as the title character in what is essentially a foreign film and not just because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Most of the film takes place in Italy, and because Clooney is one of the producers and also owns a home in Italy, cynics could say that Clooney made the film just so he would be able to sleep in his own villa every night.
Clooney plays Jack, although he sometimes goes by the name of Edward. The story opens in Sweden, and we see Jack and a beautiful woman out walking in the snow when suddenly they are shot at. Jack pulls out a pistol to the surprise of his companion and kills the man shooting at them.
Jack says to the woman, “Go to the house and call the police.”
What happens next is just the first of the many unanswered questions.
The next thing we know, Jack is in Italy, and he’s not wearing a beard anymore. He calls on a man who appears to be his handler and is told to leave town and to wait for a call from the man.
So, Jack drives to a small town and sets up shop, so to speak.
He tells a priest he meets that he is a photographer on a working vacation, but we never see him with any cameras. He also claims that he is not good with machines, but later he fixes the priest’s small truck for him when it won’t start.
Jack also exercises a lot and keeps looking out the window of his room with a pair of binoculars.
Then he meets a woman in a cafe by arrangement, and they have a very technical discussion, but there is also the suspicion that they are being watched.
Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara, and when he goes back and she isn’t working that night, he just leaves.
As you might have guessed by now, Jack could possibly be a hired assassin or he might not be. And if he is, you might have guessed who his next victim is going to be.
Unfortunately, we will never know, because the whole movie is one big buildup without any satisfactory payoff.
THE AMERICAN, in other words, is nothing more than one long, extended red herring.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”