Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

Movie Reviews: Just (In Time) Berlake

When I hear about a movie like this I picture a boardroom. I see four people with black ties, black suits, and black square frame glasses on one side. (Think Agents from the Matrix) On the other side I man who has not slept in 15 days. Papers crumbled around him. Pen marks all over his fingers. His head in his hands. And then, slowly, he looks up tears streaming down his face. "Time is money, Mr. Anderson." Suddenly a smile begins to break. He opens his mouth. "Ok. Ok. You say Time is Money. Well what if....what if in the future....time was the actual currency? And when you ran out of time.....you died." The four silent executives look at eat other. One of them leans forward and presses a big green button that says "Make Movie" on it and the tearful man stumbles out of the office with papers flying out of his overpacked briefcase. As he leaves, he utters, "You won't be sorry."

In Time, or I'm Mortal as it's called in other countries, is this exact premise. It's the near future. Everyone is genetically altered to age to 25 and then never grow older. Okay so everyone can be supermodels in the movie, not bad. Once they reach 25, however, they have one year to live. This is signified by the embedded Timex Indiglo timer built into their arms. Time from these forearm watches can be exchanged with a twist of the wrist. If your wrist is up you are giving time and if your wrist is down you are taking time. Enter crime bosses, high-stake gambling, the time police, and even time shares or as we know them, loans. The movie has a lot of potential and the concept would be interesting....if they explained it. How did it get this way? Why 25? Why one year? And why did someone think it was such a good idea to put everyones bank accounts on their arms? I mean let's just take the time part out of it. Let's just say your bank account balance is tied to your arm. Someone can steal from you with a shake of the hand and not just some of your money, but all of it. This is where the movie lost me at least. It tries to force feed emotion and lessons on mortality down your throat but it never feels genuine. They make jokes about how everyone is 25 but never realy tap into how weird and mentally taxing it would be. Imagine you, your mom, and your daughter are all the same age. It's creepy. Justin "I'm good on Saturday Night Live" Timberlake does a good job filling the lead role but the environment he is in just feels like a bad dream from which he can't wake. This is a solid intercontinental flight with 10 hours to kill and I already watched the Tom Hanks movie thriller. Don't own it. Don't rent it. Just let it come to you. In Time gets a C- for a fun idea that probably should have stayed on the SciFi channel. It would have got a C if the leading lady was hot.  C-