In Time

A typical Niccol sci-fi flick that captivates and entertains even without futuristic sets, digital robots or any kind of spectacular flying machines. All he needs is a simple yet great idea intelligently incorporated into an action story with humanistic values. Justin Timberlake is okay, Cillian Murphy is excellent as usual, and just undress Amanda Seyfried, cover her in chocolate and spend the last hour of your life with her. This is how respectable Mostow's Surrogates wanted to look. (06/11/2011)

Life should be lived, not survived. A classic, Bonnie and Clyde-style Hollywood tale weighed down by deep thoughts about how today’s world works. All in all, this is a bit of a weak picture for Niccol, but for most of the competition, this is way above average. An excellent cast does wonders. Even dumb Alex Pettyfer plays devilishly well (as a real swine) and Justin Timberlake finally abandons his image of pop singer to become a regular actor. And Olivia Wilde wins this years award for sexiest fifty-year-old. A mythical poke in the ribs for politicians and “self-declared defenders" of our world. I don’t have time. (16/11/2011)

Looks like Andrew Niccol has been partying with Ken Loach. It's beyond my power of comprehension how a kind of pub idea that lays down its meaningfulness in a film right after the first confrontation could win 40 million, regardless of the box office. Putting aside the traditionally excellent Deakins behind the camera and the ever-divine Cillian Murphy (who, of course, makes the acting limits of both protagonists stand out), all that's left is a tiresomely immature anti-utopian vision crossed with incredible Bonnie & Clyde romance and boundless naivety. There's no point in addressing the sheer technical background of time as currency, and in general the entire internal economy of the film has the logic of a 15-year-old Greek leftist revolutionary's brain. Instead it's the Marxist railing against a system that resembles apartheid communism in its centralization (everyone works under a central evil company) that piques the interest. The fact that the film informs us that if an ailing bachelor lays out $315 billion in front of the workers on the street in the ghetto (see trivia), everyone will take their decent piece and go see the world is perfectly consistent with the perception of the world's problems from the armchair of a millionaire director out of touch with reality. (06/07/2015)

Andrew Niccol has two super blockbusters to his credit, Lord of War and above all Gattaca were able to inspire me and when I add his work on the script for The Truman Show, his merits are exceptionally high in my eyes. Simone may not have been a film that could be talked about in superlatives, but it was still a very decent and definitely above-average affair. On the other hand, In Time is a decline in quality from all sides, which is rarely seen. This is especially painfully true in comparison to the genre and the thematically related Gattaca. I would describe Gattaca as a cultured and clever film, this film is banal shallow Hollywood nonsense without a hint of logic. True, it is filmed at a fast pace and with undeniable directorial professionalism, and it has "quality" (but at least attractive) actors in the lead roles, so I will give it a second star, especially considering Niccol's previous merits. But I do it with a truly heavy heart because this film is simply, to put it bluntly, stupid. Overall impression: 30%. (17/12/2016)

The Bonnie and Clyde of the digital age yearned for analog, resulting in a sympathetically understated film set in the future. In it, a single serious nag at the laws of Niccol's world immediately takes away from the positives but is then ultimately saved by the great Timberlake and even better Murphy. (14/01/2012)