Argo

One day after seeing Looper, a group of us went to see Argo. Evan was busy attending a friend's wedding (the reason he was in town at all), so I scrounged together eight other people. And when I say I, I actually mean Carolina, who invited more people, so it turned into a group of myself, Carolina, Trina, Kim, Steph, Sammie, Brian, Clement, and Steve. And this is why you should go see movies with me - you never know who else might show up.

We chose a different theatre than usual, and that may have been a mistake. For one thing, I have never seen so crowded a multiplex. It seemed like all the available space was taken up by people. For another, Argo was nearly sold out when I bought tickets, so we didn't get fantastic seats. It a bit too close to the screen. In fact, we were in the row directly in front of the main aisle. I've never sat there before, but apparently in UltraAVX theatres, that row of seats leans way back, so at least that was good.

Trailers for the movie included Cloud Atlas, Midnight's Children (I guessed it was Life of Pi, but only because it was set in India. Whoops), and Gangster Squad. There may have been another one, but I forget what it is. Zero Dark Thirty, maybe? I feel like I've watched that trailer with other people.

The movie opens with a brief history of early Iran, how various people came to power, and how the CIA instigated a coup to put a puppet in charge, and how he was overthrown. Now there's a Shah in charge, and things aren't that much better. Then there's a lot of shots of massive protests outside the American Embassy, soon followed by the Iranians breaking into the embassy and taking everyone hostage. However, six potential hostages slip out onto the streets, unnoticed, and take refuge in the Canadian Ambassadors house. All this is based on real life - the CIA documents were declassified during the Clinton Presidency.

For 70 days, nothing happens, except for the growing risk to the Canadian Ambassador and his wife. They tell the Canadian Government they want their guests out, and the government relays that message to the US, who gets their State department to put together 6 bicycles, so the hostages can bike 300 miles to the Turkish border. The CIA nixes that idea based on the fact that it's colossally stupid, and so Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) has to put together a different plan. The plan goes as thus: Mendez will pose as a movie maker doing location scouting in Iran, and the hostages will ostensibly be a Canadian film crew going along with him. Then they all fly out together. That's the plan, and like all plans explained in detail in movies, things are bound to go wrong.

First, Mendez knows nothing about making a movie, so he flies out to Hollywood to learn all about it. Here is the part that satirizes movies in general. They even made jokes that I didn't get until I read about them later. A bit of self-deprecation on Ben Affleck's part.

Anyway, the rest of the movie is about delay. Delays for the heroes. Delays for the villains. Basically, whoever wins is about whoever gets delayed least by the plot-contrived obstacles of time. That said, it's a very good movie. I wasn't expecting it to be action-y (since it was listed as a drama), and I was expecting it to be a bit funny (which is was), complete with unofficial tag-line and motto of "Argo [expletive] yourself".

So it's a blu-ray movie. Not quite enough of my style to firmly plant itself as a theatre movie, but I can honestly say that the worst part of the movie was the very end, when they panned over a series of science fiction toys, and had Boba Fett in there. And I was screaming in my head "BOBA FETT WAS NOT A TOY BACK THEN!" because The Empire Strikes Back wasn't to be released until a few months later. But other than that, excellent movie.

Zombie Column: Looper

Evan's back in town for this weekend, so we had to go see a movie. Okay, we didn't, but we wanted to go see one. With a good slate of mindless movies already out (Resident Evil, Dredd 3D, Taken 2), we set our sights on higher fare, and went to see Looper. Evan had been adamant about going to see it, and I came around to his point of view. Everything I heard about the movie was good, so I was pretty pumped about it.

I won the preview game, guessing a bit on Paranormal Activity 4 (pass), and nabbing Cloud Atlas (I just finished the book, just so I could see the movie - it looks that interesting). We both missed Parker (with Jason Statham!) and Broken City (with a bunch of people). We had each seen those last two previews, but just couldn't remember the name of those movies. Parker's on my list of movies to see (again, Jason Statham!), but we'll pass on Broken City. Evan made the comment that it looks like one of those movies where they put all the good stuff in the trailer. I can't disagree.

For the actual movie itself, it's brought to you by four different companies. I don't know why there are so many involved, unless each main actor had their own houses that had to be involved. Anyway, the main plot of Looper is thus: time travel will be invented some time between 2044 and 2074. It will immediately be outlawed, used only by giant criminal syndicates. They use it to send victims (tied up and blindfolded) back into the past, there to be murdered by the eponymous Loopers. Apparently it's too hard to eliminate people in the future, because they're tracked all to hell and back. But kidnapping and sudden disappearances are fine. Don't think about it too hard. Eventually, the Looper himself (or herself, although we only ever see male Loopers) is sent back to be murdered by himself. Again, don't try to think about it too hard. That's called closing your loop. Each victim is also sent back with a small payment to the Looper. Closing the Loop has a much bigger payday, but starts a ticking clock, counting down the Looper's life.

If you've seen the previews, you know that the trouble starts when Joe (our hero) can't kill his future self, letting his Loop run. Whoops. Massive problems ensue, because future Joe can get up to all sorts of shenanigans while he's in the past. This means that present Joe is in all sorts of trouble with his boss, who was sent back from the future to watch all the Loopers. Got it?

I could probably talk about the plot, but that would confuse you further. However, the plot does resolve itself into something slightly less confusing. It plays out differently than you would think. However, try not to think too deeply about causality or temporal paradoxes after the movie's done. You can accept the film at face value, and it's a pretty good way of saying "here's how you change the future". And even one layer down, the implications are pretty decent. But digging deeper and you run into problems. Time is like a Mobius Strip, and you can try and change it, but you'll eventually wind up back where you started, after travelling down an alternate reality for a while.

So, Looper broke my brain. It's still worth seeing. The music isn't fantastic, and there wasn't enough action for my tastes. But it's still a great movie to think about, especially for the awesome impression of Bruce Willis that Joseph Gordon-Levitt pulls off. They squint and growl the same way! I'll put it at the top of Blu-Ray movies, although I bet Evan gives it at least nine stable time-loops out of ten.