A Ghoul Versus Looper (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1!

Joe jacks a nearby hoverbike and escapes into the cornfield as well, which is kind of strange because he should be pretty easy to find on a thing like that. He looks over the piece of the map he took, tracing it to a very nearby farm where we meet the third star of this movie, Emily Blunt. She's playing a farmer named Sara, whose hobbies include pointlessly hacking at a stump with an ax and pretending to smoke cigarettes. She's kinda weird.

Back in the city, Abe takes Blue's gat away from him. He's very mad at Blue for trying to capture Bruce on his own, but once again isn't scary at all. Blue is played by the excellent Noah Segan, who was also in Brick as well as the MEGA fucked up film Deadgirl, a film which can be described as “not right in the head” in the understatement of the decade.

Segan is really good in this film, playing Blue as a cocky hitman who doesn't have the brains to back up his swagger. He also really wants to please Abe, again nearly in tears that he's failed him again. Abe doesn't kill him though, instead taking a hammer and breaking his gun hand. I take this as proof Blue is Present Abe, since he doesn't kill Blue when he really should have and seems to be taking great care to protect him.

A Ghoul Versus Looper (Part 1)

"This time travel crap, just fries your brain like an egg..."

Rian Johnson is a writer/director who made one of my favourite films of ALL TIME, an indie picture called Brick that I once found in a bargain bin at Blockbuster and am eternally grateful I took the chance because it "had that one girl from Lost in it".  He took a very typical story and completely turned it on its head thanks to some extremely clever and layered writing, in addition to some beautiful cinematography and all around great direction.

The film also starred a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who instantly made me a fan due to the insanely good performance he gave in that movie.  Up to that point he'd always been "that one kid from that one stupid show about stupid aliens" to me.  Since then he has gone on to become one of the hottest actors currently working today, I'd even go as far to say he's the best young actor in the world right now.

Take these two, throw in one of one of my favourite genres (time travel), and add an actor who can deliver an epic performance when properly motivated (Bruce Willis), and you have a movie I've been dying... er, I'm already dead... living? to watch.  Mmm, that didn't end well.

Pocket some bars of silver and grab your trusty blunderbuss, it's time for A Ghoul Versus Looper!

A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau (Part 2)

Click here for Part One!

David invites Elise to come along because he doesn't want to let her out of his sight, but she tells him she has to go rehearse for her big show later that night. Then immediately after that she says “Actually, I just heard they're moving my rehearsal to Pier 17, right next to the bridge.” Huh? What is going on? SLOW DOWN MOVIE!

We see the angels are able to send fake texts to people's phones, so it's safe to assume this is how they got Charlie to the cafe and Elise to learn her practice session was being moved. It would have maybe been nice to SHOW them getting the texts, as this comes off so abrupt in the movie. The pace of this scene is so fast I had to rewind it a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss anything. Repeat: I had to rewind a talky scene! This scene had more action than the entire the film Max Payne.

Before he's sprinted off by Charlie to the bridge, David tells Elisa he won't let anything come between them again. This is supposed to be all touching and romantic, but again, THEY HAVE NOTHING BETWEEN THEM to inspire this kind of dialogue. I suppose you could make the case for “love at first sight” but come on... this movie is way smarter than that.

A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau (Part 1)

“Dueling Movies: The Adjustment Bureau Vs. Source Code!”

One of my favourite phenomenona in Hollywood is when studios release two identical looking movies at around the same time. It's been going on for years for numerous reasons, despite the fact it almost always ends up hurting both movies because it only serves to confuse most people which is which. For instance, take the recently released films White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. I CANNOT tell these two movies apart. I honestly think they just released the same movie twice and changed the titles to make some extra money.

In some cases one movie is so vastly superior, while the other is lost to the vague memories of time. See Babe vs. Gordy. In rare cases both movies become very popular and each spawn their legions of fans. See A Bug's Life vs. Antz. A lot of the time despite looking the same they're actually radically different stories. See The Prestige vs. The Illusionist or Observe And Report vs. Paul Blart: Mall Cop. And sometimes they're both just miserable flops that make you wonder why they even bothered going through with it. See First Daughter vs. Chasing Liberty or Mission To Mars vs. Red Planet.

Today we're going to look at the first of two films that released within a month of each other in 2011, The Adjustment Bureau (March 4) and Source Code (April 1).  These fall into the “different despite looking the same” category as I believe they have completely different premises but damn the trailers made them look similar: a handsome young man battles fate to save the woman he loves.  Grab Emily Blunt by the hand and try not to look down her dress and get ready for A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau!