Looper (2012)

Directed and written by: Rian Johnson

In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

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I went to see Looper when it came out in Finland, and I was in love with it since then. 

I've always liked the idea of the story. It's complicated in the way time travelling stories are always complicated. Still the plot is mostly straight forward and it's clear what people want. Also it's brutal just in the right way.

Of course if you're serious about the time travel aspect, sometimes the time travel paradox doesn't seem to make awful lot of sense, but if you're just in it for an action thriller then you're going to be fine.

One of the weirdest things in this movie is to see Joseph Gordon Levitt look like Bruce Willis. Like he pulls that off, and it's not completely awful, but it just look odd. You could've made that happen some other way too, not just make JGL copy Bruce Willis completely... 

I'm usually not a big fan of science fiction, but when it comes to only small doses of science fiction, I might love it. With Looper the only doses of sci-fi are the time travel element and the telekinetic abilities possessed by some of the characters. Even if time travelling is a key element in the story, it doesn't make the story feel too futuristic. The weapons look pretty regular and there are only few futuristic looking vehicles in the world. 

This makes it possible for the story not explain the world too much. It looks and works pretty much like ours apart from the few details that are explained very clearly. It's not necessarily only a good thing: you might want to know more about the world, but you can't. You can only see the slightly dystopian aspect on how there are clearly wealthier people partying and then there's so much poverty on the streets and all that.

If I absolutely hate something about this movie it's the sound mixing. Sometimes watching this movie is painful because the characters talk quietly but then there's all that action noises and shouting... It's easier if you have subtitles on, then you don't have to blast the movie on full volume. I often stop paying attention to it, but there's that one diner scene where I always pay attention to it, it's just super annoying.

It's always a risk to rewatch a movie you used to like 5-6 years back, because you might ruin it, but also can you be neutral in reviewing it if you already like it? The thing about Looper is that while it's a good action movie, watching it too many times doesn't make it good, unfortunately. It's still alright, and there are still some scenes that are breath-taking, but everything between those few amazing scenes feels dull. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

Directed by: Joe Dante

Written by: Larry Doyle

The Looney Tunes search for a man's missing father and the mythical Blue Monkey diamond.

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I really liked this movie when I was a kid and because I'm hungover I wanted to watch something comfortable and I though hey, I haven't seen Looney Tunes: Back in Action in ages. Yeah, of course it's a children's movie and it's very silly, but for me this is kind of that adventure comedy I compare all others to, at least subconsciously, since it's about the first one I saw.

Even as a grown-up I still find this movie funny. Yeah of course there are some corny childish jokes in there, but most of the comedy is still funny. The Looney Tunes character bring most into this movie. Sure, Brendan Fraser's character is alright and Timothy Dalton is good and all that, but still none of those characters beat Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny and all those other characters we've learnt to love watching the Looney Tunes shorts.

The story itself is pretty simple but it has so many hilarious details and the characters and the fun mix between live action and animation are the things that make this movie fun. It's not the best adventure movie out there, but it's hilarious, and what kid wouldn't love it?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

8 / 10

Commercial - BTS

First course of the year has been about commercials. And there's pretty much no theory involved, apart from the first day when we watched a few commercials made by previous students for our school.

So like the previous students, we too are making commercials for our school. Our idea came from our director, and it features a short clip made in the fashion of 1920s silent films, featuring six characters, representing our different syllabi: a director / cinematographer, an actor, a journalist, a photographer, a psychologist and a teacher. 

Our producer dabbing while holding a
prop skull

I actually got a role I haven't done before: I'm in charge of costumes and props. This has been challenging mostly because I don't have any theoretical knowledge on what costumes are supposed to look like. Another challenge is that our wardrobe isn't so great. It's surprisingly good, but looking for certain items may be challenging. As I'm writing this I've found pretty much anything: all the clothing and luckily some actors found their costumes in their own closets. 

But to be honest I've enjoyed the prop part more. Mostly because most of that stuff came from school and I got to choose these really cool old cameras which I'm completely in love with. Like even though this has been stressful because I know nothing about being a costumier, all these cameras are pretty much worth it.

Our first day of shooting was 16th of January at Valkeakoski, where we shot a scene where the characters were lost in a snow storm in a forest. We had a lot of technical problems though. Like right from the start Kaj had forgotten half of our cables back at the studio, which resulted in an angry message from our teacher. Setting up lighting equipment in the woods took a long time and the biggest problem was our snow machine. It apparently wasn't meant for a situation like that and it kept freezing, so eventually our snow storm didn't even have snow in it, just a hazer (and our producer faking a snowfall in front of the camera by dropping snow)

That was a long day and it got dark before we were finished. We started at 7.30 in the morning when we left Tampere, and I was home at 8 PM, so... 

As a costumier I didn't have much to do except help carry things and turn on the fan when we shot.

Another day of shooting didn't take as long because it had only one shot, but we started at 7 to set things up. Most of the actors were late though so we couldn't start as soon as we wanted. After that there was disassembling (what the fuck is the right word for that?) of the set which took a while, and then... It's done. There's only editing left. 

Except for me, I have to wash the clothes and return them. I'm hoping I'll have the energy to do that.

I'll be making another post once the commercials are up on YouTube and post them then!

Four Rooms (1995)

Directed and written by: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino

Four interlocking tales that take place in a fading hotel on New Year's Eve.

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This is the first movie I watched this year, even though it's been two weeks since this year began. School's been keeping me occupied.

I've loved Four Rooms ever since I saw it. It's an excellent episode film, where each episode is weirder than the other. Even though there are four different directors for each part, they go along perfectly even though styles differ from each other. Also all have certain really weird kind of cheesy elements that go well with the weird stories, like really bad special effects and transitions between scenes or weirdly dramatic musical sound effects...

If there's something I don't exactly like about this is that there's some overlap between the second and third segment. If it was done flawlessly, I'd be completely ready to accept it, but I have hard time trying to place the second segment The Wrong Man inside the third segment The Misbehavers.

Still, Four Rooms is a hilarious comedy. It's over the top, but that doesn't matter, it goes well with the short stories.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10