88 Minutes – movie review

Cast: Al Pacino

Studio: TriStar Pictures

Rating: 2/10

Corporate line:
In “88 Minutes” Al 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 must use all his skills and training to narrow down the possible suspects, who include a disgruntled student, a jilted former lover, and a serial killer who is already on death row, before his time runs out.

The review:
I want to believe that the concept for “88 Minutes” was good because it was made into a movie–but after seeing the movie it’s hard to believe it was anything but crap from concept to delivery. It appears that someone thought “hell, mobile phones are big with the kids nowadays lets make a thriller about one.” And someone went off and wrote some crap movie about a mobile phone. The worst part of all, Al Pacino got sucked into the the mess.

It’s embarrassing to see a scene in which Al Pacino takes a call with the asinine line “tick tock, Doc.” There are worse parts of the movie–all in all this is the worst movie of Pacino’s career. No matter how many dopey twists and turns thrown in it doesn’t matter. Everything about “88 Minutes” is implausible. One of the funniest parts, and remember its a thriller so there shouldn’t be funny parts, of the movie is the guy who keeps seeming to follow Pacino and yet never arrested or asked “who the hell are you?”

Finally:
Plot holes are nothing new–but the fact that everything thing about “88 Minutes” rests on the holes gives you an idea that this is a crap movie. All the twists are there to throw you off the scent not to add depth to a movie swimming in the shallow end.

Watch the movie trailer for “88 Minutes:”