Looper

So I'm going to start this one off by saying I have not watched this film.  I have only seen the trailers for it.  I should start off by saying I'm a huge Bruce Willis fan.  Seriously, I think he's great, no he's not like a true thespian Shakespeare actor in the same league as like a Kenneth Brannaugh, but for what he does, there's no one better.  He's also one of those actors that have just gotten better with age.  Now I should also say, just because Bruce Willis is in the movie, doesn't mean I'm going to like it.  I mean the fourth Die Hard, come on.  It was bad enough Timothy Olyphant played a boy band bad guy, but even Justin Long and Kevin Smith? couldn't save that movie.  But who else would have played a better Corben Dallas?  And whatever happened to Chris Tucker? I heard they are making another Friday movie and Cube said he would bring back Chris, but I just don't see that happening.  Am I the only one that thinks Chris Tucker just disappeared and turned into the guy he played in "The Dead Presidents?" I can see him now, in that recliner, ODing on heroin with the syringe still stuck in his vein.
Anyway, back to Looper.  So the main plot of this story, from what I've gathered from the trailers mind you, is that time travel is discovered, and then outlawed?, and the mob controls it like on the black market.  Okay, sure I can see that happening, realistic enough for a sci-fi fantasy setting.  But so then the mob decides to use this as a way to carry out their hits.  Okay, I get it, no body no crime, send it to the past problem solved.  Totally makes sense.  Or does it?

Here's where I have problems with this swiss cheese story.  Time travel is discovered and then outlawed, but the Mob seems to use it no problem.  Wait a minute, where's Jean Claude van Damme?  I mean where's Timecop?  If the government is able to outlaw time travel, don't you think they would have some way of enforcing that?  From the trailer it seems there is no deterrent for the mob to pull this off.  Which although I know this is fantasy, seems somewhat unrealistic.  How can you outlaw something, and then have no way of enforcing it?  It's not like when they had prohibition, even though bootlegging was going on, they had law enforcement do nothing about it.  That's where Kevin Costner came in, right?
So okay, the mob seems to control this outlawed process, with no deterrent whatsoever.  Let's look past that for a moment.  Let's take a look at what they use this for.  The mob controls time travel, and when they have a target that needs to be eliminated, they send him or her back 30 years into the past, so that a Looper can kill, and dispose of the body.  Does anyone else think this is ridiculous?  I have to imagine this is kind of like overkill.  So in the future, they don't have big furnaces, or lye, or acid, that can burn up bodies?  Or even a chain and a brick?  Or how about pigs? Or any other kind of animal you could chop up a body and feed to?  It would seem that any of those alternatives, would be just as effective, if not cheaper than having to use a time traveling device to send someone back into the past.  Think about it, time travel is invented, and outlawed, and only the mob uses it.  Well then that means no Joe Schmo is going to be able to do it, you must need time and money to be able to I'm assuming have a device of some kind to time travel.  Hence you would need money or some kind of resource to send someone back in time.  And if this becomes their whole operation of taking care of their hits, doesn't it seem like a complete waste of funds?  Yeah let's send this guy back in time to be taken care of, and pay up the ass to do it, where as you could just have some guy do it in the present, do the same thing the looper does, but not have to pay for the whole time travel.  So wait you're saying I'm starting to make more sense than this ridiculous movie idea? Just wait, it gets better!
So now that I've pointed out how ridiculous a notion this is, for the mob to send guys back in time, to be taken care of, when someone could just as easily do it in the present, which I'm assuming would be cheaper, brings me to the real point of how ridiculous this plot is.  Think about it, time travel is outlawed, and the mob uses time travel to carry out hits.  Do you really think, if the mob had access to time travel, they would use it to carry out hits?  No.  What does the mob do?  Make money.  Sure they do other things, but what is the real point of being in organized crime?  It is to make money.  So they have access to a time machine, and all they use it for is to send guys back in time to be killed?  That seems like a complete waste of resources.  Wouldn't it make sense to use the time machine to rig sporting events?  Like the mob wouldn't make a killing in Vegas being able to rig sports or affect the outcome of something?  Or use it to move in on another territory for its resources before they are even claimed?  Like say you're in 2073, and you're a Don Kingpin in the mafia, how much richer would you be if you sent some guys down to take over the 1970's and 80's cocaine market?  Seriously, I mean everyone has seen "Blow," and how about just a group of people were able to make a killing off the entire market?  How hard would it have been to send two tough guy mafioso's down there and tell George they work for them now?
Lastly, and this is a total nitpick but I think it needs to be said.  Am I the only one, that thinks Joseph Gordon Levitt, looks like an idiot in that makeup they put him in?  Seriously!  He talked in some interview about how he would have to sit in a makeup chair for hours because, "he looked nothing like Bruce Willis," well no shit Sherlock.  You don't look like Bruce Willis, but putting on some fake eyebrows and lines in your face, do not make it look any better.  In fact it just looks weird, and every time I see him in the trailer, I tend to think, "What's wrong with your face?"