Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a sucker for a good sci- fi / action movie. I'm rather forgiving in just how much I will overlook in the name of quality entertainment. First, the Good: Some of the acting (Cillian Murphy, Justin Timberlake and a few others) are respectably solid. Also, the overall concept is very intriguing... the world currency is time, and when a person turns 25 their "life clock" actually begins. From the time you are 25, life's objective is to keep your life clock from expiring. If it expires, you die. Not a problem for the rich, who have more time than they know what to do with: a "wealthy" person may have centuries to live, while the "poor" continuously struggle for more time. It's a very interesting premise that becomes more interesting when a poor worker (Justin Timberlake) saves a "wealthy" man from a time stealing mob boss while flaunting his wealth in the ghetto. in return, he gives Justine Timberlake all of his time (over 100 years). In a short but very philosophical discussion the wealthy man, who has mentally lived too long, says "We are meant to die." So begins a science fiction tale that promises to serve up plenty of symbolism, philosophical overtones about economy and the meaning of existence. Could it possibly be the rare sci fi / action film panned by critics but destined to become a cult classic somewhere down the road? Hell no. Unfortunately, that's about as good as the film gets. Actually, the movie starts to go down hill and remains spiraling out of control with the entrance of Amanda Seyfried. Sadly, the story abandons all of its earlier adult-oriented promise to become a vapid "love story" seemingly aimed at a much younger audience. I was not impressed with Seyfried in "Red Riding Hood" and even less impressed with her here. This suprises me, because normally I think she's a good actress. In this movie, she serves well as eye candy, but her acting in this movie was cardboard flat awful. However, in her defense, the characters aren't scripted very well and she really wasn't given much to work with. For example: she plays a wealthy girl who is kidnapped by Justin Timberlake and taken to the ghetto. They are both rendered unconscious and robbed of nearly all their time. Now they have to stay on the move and struggle to stay alive without running out of time. Excellent premise! However, never once does she seem very concerned that she is mere minutes from certain death. She acts incredibly hum-drum for a rich girl who always had an over-abundance of time and now, for the first time in her life (presumably) literally has almost none. The sense of non-urgency really detracted from what could have - and SHOULD have been an incredibly suspenseful segment of the film. Just another example of weak script, weak acting and weak directing all coming together. The third act gets even worse when the two lovers turn into Robin Hood-esque characters, stealing from the wealthy and giving to the poor. The movie becomes so trite that anything once redeeming is no longer a part of the equation. Not that I have a problem with the class warfare message behind the film: I agree with a lot of it. I just felt the execution of that message fell flat. Also, the 'ghetto' was way too tame: in a world where time can be exchanged simply by grabbing someones arm, think how chaotic, dismal and brutal the ghetto would really be with people killing eachother just to survive a few more minutes. The movie becomes its own worst enemy by completely santizing what it's attempting to condemn in the first place. I understand they didn't want to cross over into R- rated territory, but the ghetto should have been much more chaotic and gritty- even at PG-13. All in all, this movie is so incredibly disappointing because it started with so much promise and then took all that promise and wasted it. Some the actors were solid- I've always been impressed with Cillian Murphy and I must admit that Timberlake easily holds his own as well (except for the god-awful scene when his "mother" is killed, which was cringe-worthy bad). With a tighter script and direction, more concentration on story and suspense as opposed to a vapid love story between the stereotypically over-indulged rich girl and the poor boy from the opposite side of the tracks- this could have been so much better than it actually was.