IN TIME

Director: Andrew Niccol

Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy

THIS has a really great sci-fi storyline, some pretty decent actors and... less than impressive dialogue, which turns what might have been a great movie into a run of the mill one.

The storyline sees a world where the ageing gene has been switched off.

You reach 25 and then have to work for or buy time. In theory you could live forever, but in practice only the rich have this luxury with constant ‘price’ rises causing deaths among the poor - keeping the population down.

Enter our hero Will Salas (Timberlake) who manages to acquire a whole bunch of hours and sees life from the other side.

He links up with the daughter of one of the big bosses (Seyfried) and, after being accused of murder, attempts to change the world, with one of the ‘time keepers’ (Murphy) hot on his trail.

It’s a plot with plenty of potential and the three main stars do their best to hold things together, although while Timberlake just about gets away with pretending to be 25, Murphy definitely looks older.

However, once they have to say something the dialogue is rather obvious and there’s a longing to get back to the action.

Thankfully, there’s plenty of it.

We have chases across roofs and in cars that are quite impressive.

But there’s too much flagged up in advance - casual throwaway lines are obvious pointers to what is to come.

And just how did our hero become so adept at shooting and driving a sports car (backwards as well as forwards)?

Despite the criticisms, there are other good points.

Alex Pettyfer is growing into quite a decent actor and plays a particularly unpleasant baddie.

Also it’s good to see Johnny Galecki (from TV’s Big Bang Theory) given a half-decent role as Timberlake’s mate, though that relationship could have been built on.

So overall - an OK evening’s entertainment, but it could have been much more.

three out of five stars

Steve Payne

Screening courtesy Cineworld Crawley