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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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In Time (Film)

by Annette Basile | October 26, 2011 23:59

Smart and tremendously entertaining but the clever premise soon loses steam.

Time has replaced money in this dystopian future. It costs a minute to make a phone call and decades to buy a fancy car. The wealthy don't have shares, they have time - centuries of it - while the poor live, literally, day-to-day.

 

Genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, those born into time-rich families are potentially immortal, as long as there are no nasty accidents. Those from the ghetto have to earn (or steal) time if they want to see 26. A device embedded into everyone's arms - a kind of hybrid between a digital clock and a credit card - shows exactly how long each person has to live. Once they run out of time, they keel over.

 

Enter Will Salas (Justin Timberlake). He's from the ghetto but a chance encounter lands him a century of time - plus a murder accusation. He journeys to the exclusive New Greenwich, where the privileged live unhurried, luxurious lives. There he meets the wealthy Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), and before long the pair are on the run from the Timekeeper (Cillian Murphy, 28 Days Later, Inception).

It's a high concept that's fully explored by writer/director Andrew Niccol (who wrote and helmed Gattaca and penned The Truman Show), but the plot itself is a pretty standard, albeit enjoyable, poor-boy-meets-rich-girl chase yarn. There's an undeniable element of social commentary, though - this is an uncompromising critique of today's super-elite, and also offers philosophical snippets about the nature of time.

 

Any resemblance to the 1970s sci-fi favourite, Logan's Run (which is currently in Hollywood the remake factory), is only on the surface - in Logan's Run, everyone died at 30. Here, they might live forever. In Time is also different from the average sci-fi multiplex beast - there's a distinct lack of special effects. This is good old-fashioned movie making. But it does lose steam in the second half, where things start feeling repetitive. It picks up soon enough, with an utterly likeable Timberlake and a beguiling Seyfried carrying us through the flatter patches.

 

The premise may be stronger than the plot but this is a smart and tremendously entertaining film with engaging characters and more than enough emotion and thrills. Just don't expect another Inception or Source Code - those were mind puzzles with snaking plots. In Time isn't in their league, but it's still way above average.