In Time

When I was around 20, a new sensation broke into the scene. It was none other than 'NSync. I remember hearing their sweet voices and thinking, "One day, that skinny one with a fro is going to go places". THIS...is that place.

Click the link. Quickly! There's no "TIME"...

PREMISE

It is the near (or distant) future. Slums are overcrowded and dangerous, while rich people live in amazing, futuristic casinos. Luckily, man has perfected digital watches. Every human lives a normal life until they're 25, and then a clock in their arm starts ticking.

Everyone is given one year for free. Of course, time is what is used to pay for everything, from your rent to a cup of coffee. Most people end up spending their first year of time paying old bills, and then live on a day to day basis. You could say they don't have a lot of TIME on their hands. (Get it? It's a time based metaphor).

It comes with a built-in stop watch and calculator.

This is where our hero, Justin Timberlake, comes in. He meets a man who has 100 years on his clock, but is unhappy with so much life, and transfers all his time to Justin. This causes Justin to feel that time is doled out unfairly, and that either no one should live forever, or that everyone should die young. Either way, he feels that it's TIME for a change. (Foreboding use of time?)

"Im'a save da world, yo!"

MY TAKE
Using time as currency seemed like a pretty original idea. Using time metaphors throughout the movie to remind us that time is used as currency wasn't nearly as original. I'm sure there's a reel of footage we didn't see where the director asked everyone to emphasize the word "time" when they said it. "Hey pretty lady. Wanna have a good.... TIME?!" "I'm going to CLOCK him!" "Sorry bad guy. There are no SECOND chances".

"STOP!"

HAMMER TIME!

To be honest, I'm not really sure what to think of this movie. It looked pretty cool. The cars looked like big, futuristic pimp-mobiles, but everyone wore modern-day clothes. Was this the distant future, or just around the corner? And if it was in the near future, how could some of those people already have lived hundreds of years? The idea of the story was good, but there wasn't much effort put into reinforcing the logic.

Future fashion. Can't ya tell?

The biggest problem I had with the film was in regards to how people treated their time/currency/life force. Overall, the film wants us to understand that those seconds ticking away on everybody's arms are the most important thing in the world. Then at times, it seems like most people don't even care that much about their limited lifespan. For example, a major character does something near the end of the movie which bordered on the level of Homer saying "Must clean the attic! Must clean the attic. Must... Oh a dog! No time to clean the attic Marge." And as soon as it happens, you know exactly what will follow.
Also, there's a kind of betting game people can play where they grab hands, and try to steal each other's time. If you are good, you can suck the time right out of someone. If this was the case, though, wouldn't there be gangs of people wandering around the slums, beating up anyone out on their own (Hello Justin's Mom running home from work) and steeling their time? Considering that seeing dead people in the streets isn't that big of a deal for anyone, and there seem to be no actual police in the slums, it would be a given. In general, the slums were pretty safe, if a little on the expensive side.

But let's face it. We're all really just watching this movie to see Timberlake's beautiful face.

Beautiful boy.

 

FINAL SCORE- Two and a half tequila shots done in quick succession, because there's not time to nurse that beer, dammit!