I thought it was just okay. Not bad, not great. Better than the average popcorn movie. My biggest criticisms are:

[SEMI-SPOILER ALERT! only semi. not ral spoilers, but still consider yourself warned]

1) the sudden amount of excessive shoot-'em-up violence with Bruce Willis' Joe about 3/4 thru the movie
2) the impossibility of emphathizing with old Joe once he goes on his violent rampage and with one particular murder he commits just prior to that.
3) the ending. Big disappointment. They missed some big chances there. I would go so far as to call Joe's "solution" fucking lame. Considering the genre and the given circumstances of the flick, this was a total letdown and lack of imagination.

Bruce Willis is my favorite actor.

Bruce Willis is a gift. He is my favorite too.

I don't understand your Collins--Willis equation at all, but agree that the movie was very good.

fact 1: Phil Collins is/was an amazing drummer.
fact 2: Phil Collins sold out and made a fuck ton of money writing catchy pop songs in the 80s solo & with Genesis 2.0.
fact 3: Phil Collins is bald.

is your analogy based on fact 3?

My analogy is based on the fact that I don't like either one of 'em.

I've never understood the disdain for people who "sell out." Given the opportunity, what kind of moron wouldn't? "Gee, I can sell out and be rich and famous, or I can be poor and obscure but "authentic". Hmm... what's it gonna be? Geez, I love the idea of providing a good life for my kids, but some angsty teenagers and rock snobs I've never met will think I'm a sellout. Guess I'll stick with producing interesting but uncommercial music."

The female characters sucked. The movie hammered home the idea that women are only good for being mothers.

That said, there was a great diner scene.

Can someone tell me how the mafia has mastered time travel?

I have no intentions of seeing the movie.

What @8 said.

Turn up the Smoooooth! I like Bruce Willis (Moonlighting!) but I totally agree that he is the Phil Collins of acting.

@7: when i was a teen and a big time Lamb-Lies-Down-on-Broadway Genesis fan, the transition from art-rock to pop was disheartening. but i understood the motivation: "THAT sold 3 trillion copies? I can do that in my sleep!" And then Phil Collins proceeded to do exactly that, but he's was such a likeable bloke that it was impossible to resent him for it.

@9 It really isn't covered. All we know is Time Travel is possible in the future but is immediately outlawed. So only the mafia uses it now (that we are made aware of.)

Add @8's comment to my criticisms. Spot on 8.

@13: There was an episode of This American Life in which he chats with a young woman mourning a (sorta) recent breakup. He came across as friendly, vulnerable, and utterly charming.

A looper? .... A looper, you know a caddy, looper. Jock. So I tell them I'm a pro jock and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama himself.

@16, that was a great episode. She found his "Against All Odds" song suited her breakup perfectly, and it turns out he's pretty much the exact unlucky-in-love guy he was back when he wrote it. Richer, but still pretty, er, gloomy.

Bruce Willis was amazing in Moonrise Kingdom. I generally have no interest in his movies, but I give him a lot of credit for that movie.

@8 Would you explain more please? I thought the whole movie was about men with issues about their mothers, so it made sense that the two women primarily featured would be mothers.

Sure, Bruce Willis has done some dippy movies, but in the right movie, he's great. I sort of have a crush on JGL, and I loved Brick. So I'm definitely going to see this movie.

SPOILER ALERT

sisyphusgal@20,
a) Making a movie about a man with mother-issues is already starting off on the wrong foot. God only knows what brought Joe's mother to give him up; we never find out because she's not a developed character -- she's only a convenient caricature of a "bad mother."

b) Bruce Willis' love interest was pathetic. All she did was wipe up the man-child's vomit, and wish she could be a mother. I don't think she spoke once.

c) the scene with Sarah failing to scare off the vagrant was also pathetic. And her relationship with her son made me think of Ripley cuddling the newborn alien in Alien Resurrection http://www.tor.com/images/stories/blogs/…

This movie doesn't just fail the Bechdel Test, it doesn't even let any of the three speaking female characters meet each other. Lame.

*SPOILERS*

My only question is how the loop would ever start. Why the hell would a kid whose mom was killed by a looper sent back in time work to send all loopers back in time?

I like Bruce Willis a lot better than I like Phil Collins.

The safe was cool though.