One in the eye for the rich

Rating: 5/10 (21 May 2014)

In Time is an interesting premise - set in an Orwellian, dystopian future where everyone only ages up until they're twenty-five then stays that way (why? We don't know). Also, once they hit the big two-five they only have a single year left to live! (why? We don't know that either). Anyway, the year you have left is displayed on everyone's left arm by a green digital clock that's constantly ticking downwards. Instead of earning money from your job etc, you earn time for your arm-clock (why? No idea. You just do).
Justin Timberlake is an average Joe who works hard in the poor area where everyone is earthy and noble, while at the same time being horrible exploited and put-upon by the evil rich people, who have years worth of time on their arms in a different district (some of the evil rich are so evil that they're also British, making them doubly evil).
Justin Timberlake saves the only rich man on the planet's life and he gives Justin a load of time on his rich before he kills himself for no real reason at all. Now Justin has enough time to head to the rich zone and get back at all those nasty rich people who like nothing more than watching poor people run out of time and die.
Luckily, Justin doesn't have to do it alone. No sooner does he arrive in Richland (or whatever it's called) does he bump into Amanda Seyfried, who happens to be the only woman in Richville who also believes that poor people shouldn't be made to work until they drop and then laughed at as their corpses rot in the street. Throw into the mix Cillian Murphy's cop trying to hunt them and you have a chase movie where Justin continually gets away from the authorities because he can beat everyone up at once (he just can). Also, he can drive a car better than the police force (or 'Time Keepers' as apparently they're known), so he does have the edge.
The idea behind 'In Time' is nice, but sadly it's poorly executed, with a clunky script and riddled with one-dimensional characters and clichés. Lots of things don't really make sense (like the way you can 'steal' someone else's time by basically just going near their arm (?). The good characters are amazingly good and the bad ones are bad (because they're rich).
The film tries to be really hip by replacing all words that should be 'money' for 'time;' it thinks it's being clever by putting these sorts of things in, in an attempt to appear really deep and meaningful. Sadly, unless you're a massive fan of that working class hero, Justin Timberlake, it's actually pretty shallow. You've seen it all before and you've seen it better.
Just remember - all rich people are bad. Justin Timberlake is good.
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