88 Minutes is the name of an Al Pacino film that's been sitting on the shelf since last year. Now that it's finally be released, it's easy to see why it's been held back for so long. This may be the worst film the great actor has ever made. Well, okay, tied with Bobby Deerfield.
It's a goofy pulp thriller that's hard to swallow even by goofy pulp thriller standards. In 88 Minutes, Pacino stars as Dr. Jack Gramm, a college professor who moonlights as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI. When Gramm receives a death threat claiming he has only 88 minutes to live, he has to use his skills and training to narrow down the possible suspects, who include an ex-student who comes on to him (Alicia Witt), a dean who comes on to him (Deborah Kara Unger), his assistant (Amy Brenneman), two students (Leelee Sobieski and Benjamin McKenzie), a serial killer (Neal McDonough) who is already on death row and several more folks.
Actually, Pacino and the rest of the cast is pretty good. The star tones down his propensity to chew the scenery and gives, by recent Pacino standards, a fairly restrained performance. It's the totally illogical plot developments by writer Gary Scott Thompson that do the movie in. Why does the killer keep trying to kill Gramm every few minutes after promising he'd die at 11:45 am? Why is Gramm's car vandalized in one scene with shattered windows, then just fine in the next scene? Why are we told the movie is set in Seattle when there's little attempt to disguise the fact that it's actually Vancouver? Why does everyone act guilty, even the innocent?
Then there's the repeated, sadistic viewings of women strung up and sliced. Finally, there are scenes that come and go with little connection to the rest of the film. It's hard to believe that so much could go so wrong in 88 minutes -- well, actually 112, but you get the idea.
88 Minutes is rated R for disturbing violent content, brief nudity and language. Running time: 112 minutes. Macsimum rating: 3 out of 10. You can check out the film's trailer on the [url=http://www.apple.com/trailers/]QuickTime movie trailer site[/url].
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