With a cast full of sexy bombshells like Justin Timberlake, Olivia Wilde and Amanda Seyfried, I was expecting In Time to be jam-packed with a substantial distribution of guns, sex, money and drugs. Instead of a trip to the future where we somehow conditioned ourselves to stop aging at 25 (at the cost of having to pay for every minute after) I feel like we took a trip down memory lane with costumes like a Bond movie, a set like a horror movie, a story like Robin Hood and a couple like Bonnie and Clyde. And of course mixing a million things into a single dysfunctional film only makes one big complete waste of time.

The modest hero, Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) literally lives his life a day at a time in the ‘ghetto’ town of Dayton. Miraculously acquiring over a hundred years off a rich man in New Greenwich, his mom (Olivia Wilde) ‘times out’ before he has a chance to share the wealth. With nothing left to lose, he decides to focus his remaining time on equalizing the divide between the rich and the poor. Oh, how noble of you, Sir Timberlake! But first, let’s buy a very flashy car, stay a night at a gorgeous hotel and sleep in, and bet all your time (and consequently your life) on a poker game at the casino.

The notorious Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), the owner of a chain of banks and ultimately a man who plans to live for a million years, touches on the whole age thing when he questions Will’s interest in Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried). Is she the mother, wife or daughter? Beyond the fact that Amanda Seyfried runs around in this entire movie in 6 inch platform heels and mini skirts with the most sultry cat-eye and fringe cut since the 60s, I was expecting a lot more sexual activity. Seyfried plays a spoiled rich girl dying to live a fast life, but as she gets involved with Timberlake it’s almost as if he’s baby-sitting her as he teaches her how to shoot a gun. “Don’t press the trigger until you want to shoot something.” Duh?

Among other things, there’s the typical gang of bullies in Will’s hometown called ‘Minutemen’ lead by Fortis (Alex Pettyfer). Does this guy ever graduate high school in any of his roles? He sure doesn’t act like it. But I really can’t judge him too much when he ‘fights’ his victims for their time through arm wrestles. Then there’s the Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cilian Murphy), his sole purpose in life is to maintain the separation between all the different time zones and making sure that time doesn’t get into the wrong hands. He touches on a history of heroism with Will’s father who died trying to change the conception that “for a few to be immortal, many must die.” Murphy’s character is a little too intense, especially since everyone else is so light-hearted about all the time they’re throwing around. Save the straight face for Batman — this isn’t a comic book, it’s just the future.

Yes, this is a Sci-Fi. Don’t pay too much attention to about half of the stuff that doesn’t make sense. Like how you have to pay a minute to use a pay-phone when you’re probably using minutes talking on it, or that a meal could cost two months and this arm-clock doesn’t begin until you reach twenty-five. Regardless, I know the aim was indicating the fact that history repeats itself in this idealized future, but just repeating other cinematic conventions doesn’t make this is a successful Sci-Fi dystopia. It was a cool idea, too bad we didn’t have enough time to get the gist of it.

[star v=2]