Bruce Willis

Moonrise Kingdom: A Movie Review

/ Casey Tingle / Leave a comment

They say that opposites attract. But has it ever occurred to you that the exact opposite is true as well? This theory is put to the test in Moonrise Kingdom, when two outsiders in the social world, Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward), find each other and fall in love.

With the knowledge that no one understands (or even likes) them, Sam and Suzy decide to run away together. However, their disappearance is quickly noticed, with Sam in the Khaki Scouts — a type of Boyscouts — and Suzy stealing her brother’s portable vinyl player. After a couple of days, the search party, consisting of Suzy’s parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), a local police officer (Bruce Willis), and Sam’s scout master (Edward Norton), discovers their hideout and insists they never see each other again. But true love can never be kept apart and Sam and Suzy will do anything to stay together.

Dubbed a comedy, Moonrise Kingdom was more of a dark comedy than anything and some parts made me think of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (I guess because of the forbidden love aspect). It was a quirky film that made you root for the underdogs. Written and directed by Wes Anderson, this film had a subtle feeling around it. It never forced you to laugh, but told you a story of life as it is, forcing you to see the truth (in a satiric way) about how both children and adults react in certain situations they think they understand.

If you liked Moonrise Kingdom, check out The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore, The Squid and the Whale, among other films in Wes Anderson’s portfolio.

Grade: A-

Looper: A Movie Review

/ Casey Tingle / Leave a comment

The year is 2044 and time traveling has not been invented. Yet. But it will be.

Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works as a looper, who are a kind of hired assassin. When time travel is invented, it will be controlled by the mob bosses who send people they want killed back into the past and it’s the looper’s job to get rid of them. Looper’s are only finished being a looper when they are sent their future selves to kill. It’s called closing their loop.

When Joe’s future self (played by Bruce Willis) is sent to him, he hesitates in his surprise and lets him get away, which is a big no-no in the looper job description. Now Joe must hunt him down and kill him before his present self is apprehended by the leader of the operation. Tracking him down won’t be as hard as he thinks. His future self has a goal: to find and kill the child who will be the future Rain Man, a powerful entity who begins closing loops in the future. But which Joe will find the child first?

Looper was an interesting movie. I thought the concept was intriguing, which is what drove me to see it, but other than that the rest was just OK. There were some parts that I felt were forced, such as the people being telekinetic. It felt like that was just added in there as an excuse to why other things ended up happening. For me, personally, there weren’t any parts of the movie that “wowed” me. Not that everything was totally predictable. Just not surprising. I also didn’t have a connection with any of the characters. There was nothing in the movie that made me care what happened to the characters in the end. Overall, good movie, interesting concept, but not winning any Movie of the Year awards from me.

Grade: B