Episode 98: In Time

Episode 98: In Time
In Time (2011)
Director	Andrew Niccol
Running Time	109 minutes
Budget	$40,000,000
Gross	$174,000,000
	Rotten Tomatoes entry
	Wikipedia entry
	NNDB entry
	imfdb entry
	IMDb entry
Episode 98
Show Link	Flop House website
Hosts	The Peaches
Published	23 Mar 2012
Podcast Time	65 minutes
Previous	Awards Floptacular 2012
Next	The Three Musketeers

Tag

"We discuss the movie that doesn't understand either how time or money works: In Time."

Official Show Notes

"But there was time! Time enough...at last!"

Movie Summary

Premise

A dystopian future where instead of currency, the medium of exchange is people's remaining lifespan.

Story

Man, having grown tired of ageing past 25, has been altered to remain forever young. Finding no sport in such an existence, clock implants have been invented which kill the implantee if he does not have Time. Time, which may be earned and spent like conventional money, or alternatively stored and stacked like gold in Time-Bricks, is also necessary in order to live. Time may be transferred by touch without authorization, which is not an issue. The rich live apart from the poor in bordered "Time-Zones", which may just be normal, bordered time-zones.

Our hero, J-Time (Justin Timberlake), works in a Time-Brick factory making Time-Bricks. He lives with girlfriend mother in the fashionable Dayton ghetto, and enjoys spending time/Time at the local bar, where he saves a wealthy man of 105 from a gang. Grateful, the elderly man teaches J-Time about inflation and gifts J-Time his Time, killing himself. The large transfer causes suspicion with Leon (Cillian Murphy), a Timekeeper (an officer of the time).

A surprise increase in the cost of public transportation kills J-Time's mother, causing him to travel to New Greenwich in order to seek revenge on no-one in particular. Eventually he ends up at a casino, where he wins a game of Texas Hold'em against Weiss (Pete Campbell from Mad Men), a Time banker; additionally, he wins the heart of Weiss' daughter (Amanda Seyfried), figuratively. Leon seizes J-Time's Time save two hours, causing him to take Amanda hostage.

After this point, the two become time bandits, stealing Time from banks to distribute to the poor, without much by way of plot; Weiss is robbed and Leon runs out of Time. At the end of the film, the two Time bandits plan to knock off a massive bank.

Final Judgments

• Bad-Bad Movie (Stuart) @39:50
• Bad-Bad Movie (Dan) @40:40
• Bad-Bad Movie (Elliott) @41:40
  • Crank @41:55

Episode Highlights

Tangents

• Steak and Hamburger
• Wildegate

Quotes

• “­Everyone knows money does have inherent value—God said so in the Bible.”
         —Elliott @05:00
• “­Who knows? I'm not a fuckin' freak!”
         —Stuart @44:30
• “­It's like you're just spitting on Steve Jobs's grave right now.”
         —Elliott @45:10

Listener Mail

Letters

"Some Praise for Elliott, and Then I Call Him Out for Being a Wrong Idiot" from Andrew Lastnamewithheld @43:05
 

Castle Freak @44:10

Castle Freak, The Invisible Maniac, Head of the Family @47:25

"Let's Clarify This Rooney Mara-Giants Connection" from David Lastnamewithheld (Elliott's brother) @52:40
 

Recommendations

• Crazy Stupid Love (2011) by Dan Fogelman (Dan) @58:45
  • watched on a plane either to or from Las Vegas

• Real Steel (2011) by Shawn Levy (Dan) @57:55
  • watched on a plane either to or from Las Vegas

• Tower Heist (2011) by Brett Ratner (Dan) @57:25
  • watched on a plane either to or from Las Vegas
• Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) by Sean Durkin (Stuart) @Time
• John Carter (2012) by Andrew Stanton (Stuart) @Time
• The Exile (1947) by Max Ophüls (Elliott) @Time