Wick's Review

Summary - OK 2.5

Blade Runner meets Robin Hood In Time. If only Andrew Niccol’s sleek techno-thriller were as good as its antecedents. Well, it’s better than some Robin Hoods, but that’s a low bar.

What In Time is is quintessential Hollywood fantasy:

• No one ages beyond 25, the peak of hotness.
• Speaking of hotties, the movie’s stocked with ’em. Most are disaffected, kinda like the bored dancers in Addicted to Love back in the day.
• The rich are rich because they cheat.
• Marxist economics animate the fallacious rules driving the story.

All of which would be fine if it were more than a one-note story. Sadly it’s not.

Time is money becomes more than just a busy Tinseltown mogul’s mantra. Time really is money In Time. This singular conceit gets played for a series of increasingly lame puns that quickly lose their charm.

Nor are the attractive leads well used. Justin Timberlake & Amanda Seyfried are plenty sexy, yet limited.

Wanna know a real economic injustice in Hollywood? Wasting so many pretty faces.

Then again, fashionably Marxist Hollywood moguls get their chicks for free.

Acting - Good 3.0

Justin Timberlake & Amanda Seyfried – legitimate movie stars now – have a modicum of chemistry together. Pity that their cliche roles are so limiting.

Pity also that none of the supporting characters outshines them.

• Cillian Murphy makes a competent bad guy, though hardly a villain for the ages.
• Johnny Galecki fares better as an alcoholic factory worker. Nice adult role for The Big Bang Theory’s Leonard.
• Olivia Wilde is always striking, here playing Timberlake’s 50 year old Mom, living in a 25 year old body. Guess that makes her the ultimate MILF.
• Yaya DaCosta has a great name and manages to jump off screen in a bit part as a bereft woman. She did the same in The Kids Are All Right, meaning DaCosta could be a star.
• Vincent Kartheiser is passable as a heartless mogul.

Trivia note: Timberlake, Wilde, Seyfried and Kartheiser acted together in Alpha Dog, a better movie.

Film - OK 2.5

The film looks cool, with a 70s retro futurism style.

Edge - Risqué 2.1

Reality - Supernatural 3.5

Justin Timberlake is 30 in real life, yet plays a perpetual 25 year old In Time.

What’s next? A remake of The Picture of Dorian Gray perhaps.

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