Die Hard in The White House...

Or to use it's alternative title, White House Down.

For those of you concentrating, it may have been obvious from the very beginning.  I'm tempted to use the excuse that I was giving the film chance, in reality I was just enjoying myself.  When you get 30 to 40 minutes into the film however, if you hadn't already made the Die Hard connection, you get a big fat 'I'm just Die Hard set in the White House' slap in the face.

**If you haven't seen the film yet, spoilers lay ahead**

Let me set the scene for you.

A techno-geek by the name of Tyler is brought into the White House secure bunker by the bad guys.  Here he proceeds to get himself set up, opening up laptops, logging into systems, laying out a cup holding several lollipops (one of which he unwraps and puts into his mouth).  All the while getting giddy with excitement, much like a kid at Christmas.  A triumphant crescendo of well known classical music (when I say well known, I mean that I recognised it but couldn't tell you the name) volumes up in the background.

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you...

Hopefully for those of you who have now seen Die Hard in the White House, you will know which seen I am relating this to.

Even though the Die Hard link has now been made in my mind, my enjoyment of the film has not been diminished at all.  I am, however, now entering into a game of which White House Down character relates to which Die Hard character.  I came up with the following:

Let's get the most obvious one out of the way first.  Where would Die Hard be

without a variant shade of white vest clad Bruce Willis?

White House Down comes complete with Channing Tatum.  Don't worry,

although he starts off looking dapper in a suit.  He soon discards this for every

heroes favourite, the white vest.  What better way to single handedly take on a

group of highly trained paramilitary types?!

Next up we have our vision of Aryan perfection, fan favourite Karl.  His failed attempts

at killing McClane frequently reduced him to a gun toting rage.  Impervious to pain,

practically indestructible.

Our White House Down replica is Jason Clarke's 'Stenz'.  Equally tough, equally angry.

The only thing we're missing is a final hurrah whereby Stenz rises from the rubble of

the White House in one final attempt to kill Cale.

That brings us to Sgt. Al Powell, whose final act is to overcome his fear of firing his gun.

Thereby saving McClane and finally killing Karl.  His plucky, witting, and sometimes

heartfelt radio chatter keeps our hero going through some of his more difficult moments.

White House Down sees Sgt. Powell replaced by the glamorous Finnerty, played by Maggie

Gyllenhaal.  And whilst a radio is replaced by a satellite phone, you can expect the same

plucky, witty and sometimes heartfelt chatter.

Holly Gennero McClane, hostage who is then discovered to be our heroes significant

other.  Then dutifully used as bait to draw McClane into a trap.  Holly and John have a

frosty relationship at the beginning of the film to say the least.  But the events at Nakatomi

Plaza bring them back together.

....Surely you're starting to get the picture by now?!

Don't worry it doesn't stop there.  Die Hard's antagonist Hans Gruber, is replaced in White House Down by James Woods' Walker.  The villainous techno geek Theo seen in the video clip above is replaced by Tyler.  I'd even go as far as to say that limo driver Argyle...

(you know, the guy who spends all his time with the teddy bear?)

...is re imagined as Donnie the Guide.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I loved Die Hard.  So they could do far worse than to flatter such a great film.

They'll be no Oscars, but you'll enjoy it.

Looper packs a punch...

Heading in to see Looper, I had made an effort to not look further than the theatrical trailers for information about what was in store for me.  Undoubtedly there was not much more to find out at that point, but I had a good feeling about Looper being something special, so I didn't want to take any chances.

One thing I was aware of, was the talk surrounding Joseph Gordon Levitt's prosthetics and attempt to mimic Bruce Willis.  The talk seemed to turn to ridicule in some instances.  I fully believe it enhances JGL's performance, and really adds that 'younger Bruce Willis' element.  JGL does a great job of his expressions and speech patterns as well.

Whilst they have great material to go on with the story, Bruce, JGL, and Emily play brilliant parts (Emily's character Sara has a fabulously dirty mouth).  But the performance that had me on the edge of my seat was that of Pierce Gagnon, the child playing Cid, Son of Emily's character Sara.  He has great comedy timing, is freakishly natural in front of the camera, and really nails some emotionally charged scenes.

The film starts, sets the scene, introducing the Loopers in a near future world, who act on behalf of those in a future 30 years further on.  There are some great touches to this not so distant future, solar powered cars (where cars are used and battered with solar panels crudely attached to them), and over crowding from increased population to name a few.  But the best thing it does here is not dwell on, or over think, time travel.  You know the bare minimum, even during dialogue between the 2 Joes (JGL and Bruce), this way it doesn't become a thread to pick at, distracting you from the main story.  It's illegal, and used only by criminals for the purposes of getting rid of people, this is then where the Loopers come in.

Then, once the stage is set, and the film gets in to it's rhythm, I thought for a brief moment that it was going to end by the numbers and predictable.  All this Twitter hype for the few days previous would have been just that...hype.

Then something quite remarkable happened, and it was like being punched in the face by the fist of awesomeness.

To start with, I thought the film had come to a rather abrupt and premature end.  Then, I realised that I'd been hit with the twist.  But even after that, after the credits, walking out of the cinema, and even on the drive home, the sheer brilliance of what I'd just seen was still sinking in.  So many different aspects of the relationships between people are examined during the course of the film, not least between the different incarnations of Joe, and it's only with the final twist that it all gets brought together.

A great tonic to the fast paced, explosion fest, blockbusters of the summer, Looper is a film that I will enjoy watching the second time just as much as I did the first.