Friday, October 28, 2011

Movie Review: In Time

From IMDB:
In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage - a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.

I am noticing a pattern here, and that is: If all the "know-it" people (aka: critics) don't like a movie, chances are that I WILL.

Much as I was pleasantly surprised with Green Lantern, I enjoyed every action-packed minute of "In Time".

Before I start my critique, I want to say that enjoying the movie was a huge relief for me! There really are some awful movies recently and I'm glad to see a good one snuck through the rabble. Also, I wrote a REMARKABLY similar story, about time as currency. This is my disclaimer in case I mean to publish it in the future :P I DID have this idea before I saw this movie ;) But all in all, this was a relief, because it was an idea I had, and it was very well executed. To the critique!

My biggest concern was when the plot got a little hazy, there were plenty of RUN RUN RUN! scenes. It almost made me feel like flashing something shiny in your eyes, because you got so distracted you forgot to pay attention to that small snag in the plot.

Despite that, I LOOOOOOOOOVED this movie. I went with the beau and my two 14-year-old brothers and ALL of us loved it. It's more a guy's movie than a girl's, but there is enough romance to pacify the non-action-affiliated love crowd :)

I found the "time" references very witty! Things we say without even thinking about it, that take on a whole new meaning when time=money=life. The concept of time, becomes Time, with a capital and right in front of your face. "I don't have Time for this" literally might mean, "I have only 4 hours to live and this is not important enough to spend it that way."

Loans dealt in Time, at the exorbitant 30% interest rate, someone might say, "I don't have the Time to pay that back!"

****SPOILER ALERT****

A con for the movie for me, was that the father's back story was not explored a little more. You really end up wanting a flashback, or some sort of scene to really clarify the main TimeKeeper's line, "Your father said the same thing, twenty years ago."

****END SPOILER ALERT****

There were a few clever twists on the time references, for example: the local time-stealing gang are known as "Minutemen". For some reason I got a really big kick out of that. Then, of course, Justice goes by the name the TimeKeepers. Very, very cool. And decking them out MIB style only adds icing to the cake ;)

The cost of things is quite strange, when computed in Time. Four minutes for a cup of coffee? Is it worth it, when you think like that? A MONTH for that sit-down meal??? I also thought the whole Time Zone distinction was VERY clever!

I don't care for Justin Timberlake as an actor, but I admit he was pleasantly surprising in this movie. Amanda Seyfried (Red Riding Hood fame), the lead female, also did a very nice job.

All in all, I found the characters 3 dimensional, believable, and full suspension of disbelief in the theater. I left the cinema wanting to check my arm for my Time! I can't give it 10 stars because while it was a fantastic movie, there aren't really any catchy lines that I think I can inside-joke about with my friends. None that come immediately to mind.

I would recommend this movie. I plan on watching it again! I give "In Time" (they really should have thought of a better title) 9 seconds out of 10!

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