88 Minutes (2007)

88 Minutes Doesn't Deserve 108 Minutes of Your Time

About the most complex contribution Jon Avnet's 88 Minutes makes is that it somehow manages to be both predictable and surprisingly disappointing. Writer Guy Scott Thompson, whose other contributions include the TV show Knight Rider (2008), provides a fairly simple plot involving a highly successful celebrity psychiatrist (celebrity in that he's well-esteemed in his small Seattle pond, not celebrity in that he councils the rich and famous) who is slowly stalked (via cell phone!) by a creepy techno-altered voice that may or may not be coming from a copy-cat killer. Pacino, who is entirely miscast here, approaches his Dr. Gramm as if to say, I have played this character a thousand times. Now, what's my line? Typically he is stimulating and brings energy to even the most 2-dimensional roles, yet here he seems only exhausted and disheveled.

Dr. Gramm, despite being quite successful profiling crime scenes and serial killers, has terrible boundaries with his students. He flirts with them, drinks with them, and is out one night with them at a bar celebrating the fact that a serial killer (Neal McDonough) he helped send to death row has lost an appeal for clemency. Soon someone is dead and then we all arrive with Pacino staring out at his classroom, wondering which one of the clean-cut, pretty, model-like actresses is the killer.

It isn't long before we have car explosions and lots of people, including the unknown techno-voice killer, scrambling around and haunting each other on the phone. People jump from behind dark corners in garage stairwells, cryptic taunts miraculously appear, and then characters seem to suddenly get invented and written into the script for no other reason than to serve as "yet another unexpected suspect" who we all know didn't really do it. Or maybe they did. By the time we are head-first into this thing we don't really care. By the time the real killer is finally presented, we are delighted - not because we are surprised but because then we know that this convoluted and contrived mess that has all of the logic and brilliance of a 90s B-flick (see Sliver) is finally coming to an end. At some point I actually grew as exhausted as Pacino looks and lost interest and started counting how many times his character's phone rang, say, within 5 minutes. That was far more entertaining than the 108 minutes lost watching 88 Minutes.

November 25, 2008

If only it would have lasted just 88 minutes.

That was 88+ minutes that I will never get back. Very disappointing from Al Pacino. Will he accept just any role now? The idea and premis were good but the execution was horrible. November 23, 2008

Yes, it is that bad

You've heard it's bad. The movie critics said it, people who saw it said it, Amazon reviewers said it. But it's Al Pacino and Jon Avnet, so you wonder, how bad can it be? You buy it or rent it, and sit through one of the most tedious and pathetic movies ever made. The plot is ridiculous; the writing, atrocious, and not even the most talented actor and director on the planet could save this ridiculous film. The only interesting question regarding this movie is, how did it get made? Why did Avnet and Pacino agree to work with one of the worst screenplay ever written? I'd really like to know. November 22, 2008

Wow, I can't believe that some people actually liked this movie...

This movie was just bad. It doesn't even deserve the one star I was forced to give it. The only good think in it was Pacino, and even he was sub-par.

The story was simply a rehash of every other "out of time" movie. Nothing new happened, there were too many characters. So many that there was no way for each of them to contribute to the film in a meaningful way.

The acting was bad and the script poorly written. Some lines were just so unbelievable that I wanted to turn the movie off.

The biggest problem is that the characters were so badly written that you are never able to connect with any of them. You simply don't care when any of them dies, or gets hurt, or anything.

The best part of this movie was the credits... That's about it.

Looks to me like it's time Pacino either retired, or raised his standards a whole lot.

Don't waste your time or money on this movie. November 10, 2008

Riveting but flawed!

Unlike most other reviewers, I actually enjoyed "88 minutes," despite obvious flaws. The film provides thrills, fast pace, a mystery to solve, and great suspense.

The usual story emerges: Serial killer goes to jail, copy cat murders begin again nine years later just in time to cause doubt in his guilt and reason for a stay of execution. We've all seen movies with copy cat murders when the guilty one is imprisoned. How is that possible? Answer: the usual--outside help. This is not a plot giveaway, but an oft used plot technique.

The onus is against Jack Gramm, whose testimony as an FBI forensic psychiatrist, sealed the murderer's fate. Now nine years later someone intends to kill Gramm 88 minutes from the time he receives the death threat. There is a reason for the 88 minutes.

That's as much plot as I can safely reveal. The story is worth watching if you can overlook the flaws. Here in no certain order are those flaws:

1. Jack Gramm as the object of desire of college students. Wha? He's 60+ years old. It's not the age--it's how he looks!
2. Jack Gramm's absurd hair style--huge and puffy!
3. Jack Gramm running and running here, there, and everywhere! Wha? Maybe Matt Damon. Maybe Tom Cruise. But not a 60+ year-old-man!
4. Even worse, this 60+ year-old-man can do all that running and not break a sweat or appear winded. Wha?
5. Those silly red herrings. Can't say anything more here.
6. The pulley system discussed in other reviews.
7. The odd disappearance of the red-haired assistant.
(Note: As a 60+ year-old myself, I am not making fun of what they can do or can't do. I simply expect realism.)

Here's a summary of the movie with no spoilers involved: When one psychopath meets another, all mayhem ensues.... Tick tock. Tick tock. November 10, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...