Sometimes, a movie comes along with a killer hook, a stellar cast, and an intriguing story, but sadly fails to live up to the sum of its parts. One such example does just that, earning a reputation as a science fiction action thriller that wasted its potential. Despite this, the movie has suddenly found success on streaming more than a decade after it first landed in theaters.
The sci-fi action movie in question drops audiences in a future society in which time has literally become a commodity. Set in 2169, humanity has undergone a great change, with people no longer aging beyond 25. To live beyond that, everyone has to work to “earn” time, with the rich becoming near-enough immortal while the poor do everything they can to acquire more hours. Perhaps it’s not such a big change after all…
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This intriguing idea is at the center of the 2011 sci-fi action movie, In Time, which stars pop superstar and The Social Network actor Justin Timberlake as a struggling factory worker who finds himself with more time than he knows what to do with after rescuing a very time-rich man. Written, produced, and directed by Andrew Niccol, the filmmaker behind Gattaca and The Truman Show, and starring Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde, Matt Bomer, Johnny Galecki, and Alex Pettyfer alongside Timberlake, In Time is now climbing the charts on HBO Max, reaching #5 and falling just behind The Great Wall, My Mom Jayne, A Minecraft Movie, and Sinners.
‘In Time’ Is Still Worth a Stream
20th Century Fox
In Time was deservedly met with mixed reviews, landing ratings of 36% from critics and 51% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, but it did decent business at the box office, grossing $174 million against a $40 million budget. Sadly, despite such a compelling premise and a great cast, In Time is a pretty frustrating waste of interesting sci-fi ideas. Crafting a future society that reflects the extremes of our own, In Time largely fails to explore either the world or the ideas beyond the obvious, squandering both the premise and the talent. Despite all this, In Time is still worth your time thanks to some solid performances and explosive action pieces. Or even if you just want to have a semi-hate watch while you ponder what might have been…
While legacy sequels and prequels and so on continue to dominate Hollywood, one wonders if it’s time for the studio to reach back into the deep bucket of ideas that is In Time, and give a filmmaker another shot at doing the premise justice. You can check out that official premise below:
“In a future where time is money and the wealthy can live forever, Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is a poor man who rarely has more than a day’s worth of life on his time clock. When he saves Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) from time thieves, Will receives the gift of a century. However, such a large transaction attracts the attention of the authorities, and when Will is falsely accused of murder, he must go on the run, taking the daughter (Amanda Seyfried) of an incredibly wealthy man with him.”
Release Date
October 20, 2011
Runtime
109minutes
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