In Time explains itself right away: People have been genetically engineered to age until they’re 25 years old and then they’re only given one more year to live. You must earn, borrow or steal time after that. Time is the new currency. Everything is bought, traded, gifted through time. The movie does a splendid job showing how the system works early on allowing the audience to understand the new sci-fi world and move right into the story. It also quickly gets you to understand why everybody in the movie has such great bodies. Everyone stops aging at 25 so your mother, sister and daughter all look the same age. You can’t truly know some body’s age unless you ask them – and then it’s just an anniversary of their 25th birthday. In Time also starts off right away with Justin Timberlake’s shirt off…so there’s that too.
I really liked the movie. The premise is superb and the movie is cute. After you get through the intriguing idea of everybody in the world having a 25 year old’s body and the flipped notion of living for and against time rather than money, you can assimilate to this very basic and easy to follow story. It didn’t get too scientific or sci-fish so it could keep the mainstream audience’s attention. The movie pretty much turned into a futuristic Bonnie & Cylde with a lot of running…out of time. If you hate puns, you’re going to hate the first 20 minutes or so of this movie – I cringed every time they said the word time. They did do it well somethings though; inventing new meanings for words such as time zone, timekeeper and minute men.
In Time is all about...time (who woulda guessed that?)
There’s a love story, there’s action, different groups chasing our main character, plenty of social commentary on the whole 99%/1% disproportion of wealth thing and bad ass looking retro-futuristic muscle cars. In Time bills itself as a crime movie but while there are crimes, nobody really cares about them. They’re not really investigating anything, just chasing Justin Timberlake around a lot. Instead, they build up this whole topple the system / bigger than oneself notion that doesn’t unfold like you’d think. I thought writer/director Andrew Niccol was going to spell out something intellectual like in his previous films such as Gattaca, The Truman Show or Lord of War but instead he kept it very shallow.
Run.
Justin Timberlake is Will Salas, a young man who lives with his mother Rachel (Olivia Wilde) in the ghetto. He’s always lived life on the run literally living day by day until he’s gifted with over a century of time to live by a wealth man named Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer). But nobody just gives a century away so he’s accused of stealing it and chased by Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy). He knows he can’t survive in the ghetto with all those years so he treats himself with a visit to New Greenwich where he meets the stunning and cute Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), daughter of time tycoon Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). Sounds cool, right? It is. But the movie drags on a bit and doesn’t quite get to that epic state which you might expect. Niccol could have taken this in a lot of directions but he kept it in line with a typical romance thriller. Obviously Timberlake and Seyfried become attached in a whole stockholm syndrome but I actually liked that. Seyfried’s character is ridiculously cute saying girly things while acting bad ass.
Well hello there Sylvia
This is a sci-fi movie that both geeks and girls can enjoy…and geek girls and guys. It has just enough of the science to get the brain thinking and the eye candy to get the other things thinking. The style of the movie is a mix of The Matrix, Tron and Grease. Yes, Grease…they used the L.A. River a lot as do so many films shot around Hollywood. The actions scenes were gripping especially the cheesy running towards each other scenes which I usually hate. The car chases were surprisingly good, it looks like JT knows how to handle a stick but it went from that to the worst CG car crash I’ve ever seen. To make up for it, JT has one of the most bad ass scenes of the year. My audience clapped right afterwards…it was awesome. I had my doubts going into In Time but I was delightfully pleased, Andrew Niccol can’t do wrong in my book.
The L.A. River must have a movie filming in it every day of the year
Swag.
Comic-Con is the leading comic book convention in the world. Over the years, it has become a platform for movie studios to debut exclusive information and footage from their upcoming films.
Bad Teacher’s title might remind you of Bad Santa: both bring shocking R-rated comedy to some traditionally innocent roles surrounded by kids. However, they each have their own style of comedy. While Bad Teacher isn’t as raunchy or despicable as Bad Santa, I was still blown away because it was nothing like what I expected and really funny…I was laughing all the way through. Cameron Diaz still has “it” as she headlines the show with a beautiful figure and great comedic presence. The loaded supporting cast doesn’t have to fight her for screen time which produces a well-rounded comedy with many can’t help yourself from laughing out loud moments.
Deja Vu. Everyone will automatically compare Friends With Benefits with the movie released earlier this year with the same exact concept called No Strings Attached so let’s start there and get the elephant out of the room. While No Strings Attached was almost all about the sex, Friends With Benefits is more about the relationship. That may sound more boring to some people, but it’s actually more “real” and genuinely funnier. They are both completely manufactured romantic comedies aimed to the female demographic but Friends With Benefits is more in line with what people really go through and audiences will be able to relate to it more. Instead of Ashton Kutcher, you have Justin Timberlake and instead of Natalie Portman, you have her Black Swan co-star Mila Kunis. Everybody just wants to have sex, buddy.
. There’s no full frontal nudity in FWB but there is plenty of backside from both Kunis and JT. Hooray for equality. The sex scenes are pretty funny…since they’re just f* buddies, there’s no romance and the sex is pretty nonchalant. They don’t do all the crazy positions like in No Strings Attached but it’s what they talk about during sex that’s really funny: “How was work today?” “Had a sandwich” “Oh, nice”. Woody Harrelson plays a flamboyantly gay sports editor at GQ and each of his lines are laugh at loud without a doubt. Richard Jenkins plays Justin’s dad who has Alzheimer’s and adds the serious element to the movie (like Anne Hathaway’s Parkinson’s in Love and Other Drugs – yet another recent movie about casual sex). Jenna Elfman plays JT’s sister Annie whose magical son is Nolan Gould who you may know from Modern Family. Masi Oka (Hiro from Heroes) is in here for quick minute as well as Shaun White who plays his douche self.
Hey Boo Boo! If you remember that line, believe it or not, you’re going to enjoy Yogi Bear. Yes, it’s your typical movie formula of a 90 minute cheesy family friendly comedy, but for some reason I was smiling from ear to ear while watching it. It has a little bit of action, a little bit of drama, and a whole lot of pic-a-nic basket stealing antics. It’s not a four star restaurant picnic by any means but more like a wholesome lunch packed by your mom. Kids are going to love it and parents are going to be glad they took their kids to it.
Facebook. Everyone knows about it and almost everybody is on it. To not be a part of it is just as conscious a decision as not to drink water, as it has become just as much a part of society as eating and sleeping. Despite its widespread popularity, however, for most, little is known about its origins, its founders, and how it has become such an institution in our everyday life. Cue Columbia Pictures to bring you The Social Network, the tale of how this social networking phenom implanted itself into the homes of millions of Americans nationwide.
