Escaping to the movie theatre

I've been trying to sell my condo, which means there are long stretches of time over the weekend when I'm instructed to clear out of my home. So, on those weekends, when I'm not booked up, movie theatres are the idea place to kill a few hours without feeling like you're wasting your time.

This weekend's picks were Looper and Seven Psychopaths. Both were selected due to the convenience of their starting time, but I also got a recommendation for the second one. I enjoyed both. Looper is a time travel movie and it's best to see it without knowing too much about it. Everyone already knows that Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis play the same character, 30 years apart. I found the makeup effects on JGL a  little disconcerting (particularly the eyebrows), but there were moments when he did BW so well it was eerie. The city that JGL lives in is 30 years or so in our future and you can see from the visuals how things are going to go for us. And it's not good. The time travel aspects would make for very interesting post movie discussions over drinks, and I think there are some holes in the reasoning that won't stand up to much scrutiny. However I thoroughly enjoyed the movie despite them. It's quite a violent movie, and a little gory in parts, but there are quiet moments as well and JGL is such an excellent actor that despite his character being really not a nice person, you start to hope for him to figure out how to get out of his dilemma.

Seven Psychopaths is even MORE violent than Looper and gorier. It's also really funny. I'm not sure there's much substance beneath the humour and violence, although I think the writer/director wants us to find some. Martin McDonagh is a playwright who has made quite a splash in the theatre world. His script is intelligent and twisty and a lot of fun. Colin Farrell plays the straight man who we observe the action through. Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken are incredible. I don't want to give too much away since this is one of those layered movies where you learn how things interconnect as it goes along. Don't get up right away when you see the credits. It's not quite over yet.