Tuesday, February 14, 2012

In Time

In a world where the population is genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, time becomes a commodity to be bartered, traded, and stolen. Without acquiring more time those who have already reached their 25th birthday begin to see the final year of their limited life start to fade away.

When a wealthy benefactor (Matt Bomer) looking to die bequeaths Will (Justin Timberlake) a century of time the young man from the ghetto learns the truth about how time is horded by the wealthiest class and decides to do something about it.

Kidnapping a young girl (Amanda Seyfried) and persued by a time cop (Cillian Murphy), Will does his best by living day to day with a limited amount of time by committing the worst crime in the world, the same thing that got his father killed - giving away time.

An intriguing concept isn't handled all that well by writer/director Andrew Niccol who, despite the sci-fi aspects of the story, delivers little more than a man on the run tale that morphs into an even less original Bonnie & Clyde story with two actors who have very little chemistry together on-screen.

Despite a $40 million budget many of the film's effects look cheaply produced, most notably the movie's car wreck sequence which leaves Will and Sylvia with only hours to live. Even cameo appearances by Olivia Wilde, The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki and White Collar's Matt Bomer aren't enough to save what amounts to nothing more than an awfully boring action film.

In Time plays much like a poor Philip K. Dick translation that, despite an intriguing set-up, fails to ever become more than a typical unimaginative B-movie. Timberlake's wooden acting, Seyfried's ridiculous hair, and the couple's lack of heat don't help matters.

Both the Blu-ray and DVD include deleted and extended scenes as well as previews for other 20th Century Fox movies coming to theaters and home video. The Blu-ray also includes a short featurette made up of interviews from the movie's characters better describing their world.

[20th Century Fox, Blu-ray $39.99 / DVD $29.98]

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