| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| randall |
Posted - 03/10/2012 : 21:15:26
Andrew Niccol has always been responsible for movies that get you thinking: GATTACA, S1M0NE, THE TRUMAN SHOW script], with varying degrees of success. His new one again takes a simple premise and extrapolates.
A near-future society's unit of exchange is time. Once you hit 25, you have a year of time left -- the digital readout is on your arm -- and then you die, unless you can provide something for more time than you must spend. The super-rich can thus live indefinitely, and by the way, your physical body is frozen at 25. Thus we have a movie that is completely populated by people who all look in their mid-twenties! Hooray for Hollywood!
First come the gags. "You got a minute?" "I'm running out of time." Etc etc etc. Then star Justin Timberlake [the luscious Olivia Wilde plays his 50-year-old mom; see where this goes?], a ghetto kid who literally lives day to day, comes into an entire century. But the Timekeeper [a fantastic Cillian Murphy] thinks he stole it, and besides, this whole thing is a scam to get rid of poor people -- there's only so much time to go around -- by constantly upping their cost of living so rich guys can go on living ever longer. [That's not a spoiler: it's revealed in the first :15.] So Justin goes on the run, taking with him poor little rich girl Amanda Seyfried.
In case you're starting to imagine this as some kind of metaphorical comment on real-life income inequality, what took you so long?
There's lots of action, car chases, gunplay, etc. -- this is what presumably would have sold the tickets, though it turns out not many -- and I call it tons o' fun. Except for ignoring the technical "how is this possible"s, Niccol has thought the social aspects through to an impressive degree. For example, in rich "New Greenwich," people walk slower and speak softer; they have plenty of time. In the ghetto, folks move and shout; they're scrounging for [literal] seconds. A man who owns "eons" introduces himself to Justin and notices he's been making eyes at Amanda. "Is she my mother? My wife? My daughter?" Hard to tell these days. For those of you keeping score at home, the answer is #3.
Throughout, I couldn't help but think of Harlan Ellison's classic story "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman," and it turns out Harlan actually brought suit to enjoin this film's release [there definitely are several similarities], then he dropped it a couple months later, presumably after he'd actually seen it.
This is nothing more than good clean fun, with beautiful people running the world, but sometimes good clean fun hits the spot.
Definitely worth the rental. A Blu-Ray bonus is Roger Deakins's swell digital cinematography: the picture's constantly beautiful. |
| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Airbolt |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 18:44:46
Trope Report 1
What is it about the future that everyone drives 60's muscle cars? It's what happens when theres more thought on how the film looks than other considerations.
A lot is wrong in this movie - a pity as the idea has fantastic potential. If all you want is a thud and chase with a bit of romance thrown in then it's ok. If you want a subtle metaphor about capitalism and the plight of the urban poor then...you're more likely to get it from watching Justin in concert ( He isnt a terrible actor - the part gave him nowhere to go really )
Trope Report 2
In the future all villains wear leather coats and look like they are stifling a fart
Internal Logic - if you have a fantastic idea it has to appear to work in the film. The idea of time as a commodity ( ooh a bit like money ) is never explained - how on earth is it kept in silver boxes?
Is it energy? Is it unobtanium? . There really isnt any effort put into this.
Speaking of effort - what was all that about the areas running at different speeds. " He's only an hour ahead ". They appear to have introduced that and promptly forgotten about it.
A pity that the idea wasn't really explored - after all when Justin can cruise around in a Jag why get all technical on Joe Public?
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| damalc |
Posted - 03/19/2012 : 16:50:51
I thought "In Time" was a good idea that never came together as a film. The first thing I thought when I heard of it was: updated Logan's Run. I saw it months ago, so I don't remember specifically what didn't work for me. I liked it, but I thought it could have been a lot better with not much work.
Also, I didn't know that the creator of "In Time" was responsible for the other films that randall mentions, but i can see it easily now. Gattaca, btw, is one of my favorite sci-fi films.
Here's a thread from imdb that estimates How much is a minute worth? |
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