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88 Minutes

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88 Minutes (2008)

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Reviews Counted:28

Fresh:1

Rotten:27

Average Rating:2.8/10

Consensus: 88 Minutes is a shockingly inept psychological thriller that expertly squanders the talent at hand.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for disturbing violent content, brief nudity and language.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Apr 18, 2008 Wide

Box Office: $16,930,884

Synopsis: In 88 MINUTES, Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino), a Seattle-based college professor and forensic psychiatrist, is informed by an enigmatic caller that he has exactly that amount of time to live. The... In 88 MINUTES, Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino), a Seattle-based college professor and forensic psychiatrist, is informed by an enigmatic caller that he has exactly that amount of time to live. The threat is linked to Gramm's role in putting a convicted serial killer (Neal McDonough) behind bars nearly a decade earlier, and sends the scholar/consultant on a desperate run to avert his imminent demise. Entering into Gramm's dangerous orbit are his dutiful assistant (Amy Brenneman), an FBI agent (William Forsythe), and his admiring young students (most notably Alicia Witt), all of whom add layers to the tense mystery. Shelved for years, 88 MINUTES was finally released in U.S. theaters during 2008, marking director Jon Avnet's first feature-film project since 1997's RED CORNER. (Avnet was brought in as a replacement for original helmer James Foley.) Pacino clearly knows his way around a thriller (see HEAT and INSOMNIA), and approaches his beleaguered character with typical gusto, while his costars, particularly Forsythe and Witt, also offer up energetic turns. Though the high-concept plot is secondary to Pacino's agitated performance, even those who drift from the storyline will appreciate the Hollywood veteran's over-the-top acting, especially if they are diehard fans of the iconic actor. [More]

Starring: Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman

Starring: Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman, Deborah Unger, Neal McDonough, William Forsythe, Melinda Clarke

Director: Jon Avnet

Director: Jon Avnet
Screenwriter: Gary Scott Thompson
Producer: Randall Emmett, Gary Scott Thompson, Jon Avnet
Composer: Edward Shearmur
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment

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Release:

Sep 16, 2008

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Reviews for 88 Minutes

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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If you like your women half-naked, strung upside-down from pulleys, and sliced like deli meat, this is the movie for you. Whether the victims are more tortured than the plot is a serious question.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment 1 Comment
04/25/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Nothing would give me keener pleasure than to reveal the identity of the killer, but a day after seeing the film I have genuinely forgotten.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
04/21/08
Anthony Lane
Anthony Lane
New Yorker
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It’s quite possibly the worst movie of 2008 so far.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment 1 Comment
04/21/08
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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The galumphing serial-killer picture 88 Minutes is dumb enough to be straight out of the parodies in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
04/21/08
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
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The preposterous "88 Minutes" is a serial killer movie starring Al Pacino's festival of hair.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
04/18/08
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
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This movie is Battlefield Earth bad. It's 10,000 B.C. bad. It's bad with a side of fries and a cherry cola.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
04/18/08
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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Not merely Pacino's over-mannered, near-histrionic performance, but the movie itself could be characterized as busy, busy, busy. It's so full of plot twists and revelations and exploding sports cars that its very perkiness comes to seem comic.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
04/18/08
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
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An inane thriller whose major fear factor hinges on a menacing phone call, the film also relies on a silly phrase intended to fill the viewer with unspeakable terror: 'Tick tock, Doc.'

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
04/18/08
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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Too bad the sober tone only makes for a movie that pretends at seriousness but that can't really be taken seriously.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
04/18/08
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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Although it’s often laugh-out-loud laughably bad, 88 Minutes is mostly just a slog.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
04/18/08
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
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Avnet lays all this stuff out before us with a straight face -- the picture is humorless and witless.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
04/18/08
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
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Try as he might to 'hoo-ha' some life into this stupendously stupid thriller, Al Pacino can't disguise the desperation of this CSI wanna-be.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
04/18/08
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
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A maddeningly mediocre, ineptly manipulative 'real-time' thriller. (A real-time thriller that's almost 20 minutes longer than its title suggests.)

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
04/18/08
Steven Rea
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
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When the doubting-cop character in a movie like this asks the hero 'Do you have any idea how absurd that sounds?' -- well, he's really voicing the screenwriter's own darkest fears.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
04/18/08
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
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88 Minutes holds you in a state of acute suspense, keeping you wondering until the very last minute whether this is the worst Al Pacino movie ever made.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
04/18/08
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post
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This slimy, slug-minded mystery thriller starts out dead on arrival and then, like three-day-old fish, gets really bad really fast. And it stays bad, ensnaring its star and every other cast member in its wretched net.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
04/18/08
Joe Neumaier
Joe Neumaier
New York Daily News
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What a bore. I guessed the identity of the killer from the character's second appearance, and I'm not that smart.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
04/18/08
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
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This new serial-killer thriller is such a preposterous mess it's a wonder it ever made it to the theatre.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/18/08
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
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Throughout which, you ask: Why is Al Pacino in this movie?... The better question: Why are you in the theater?

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
04/18/08
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
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The illogical script by Gary Scott Thompson is desperate to keep us guessing but clueless as to how. Every tin of red herring in the store gets ripped open.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/18/08
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
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Latest News for 88 Minutes

January 21, 2009: Razzies Name 2008's Worst Movie Nominees
No awards season would be complete without the Golden Raspberry Awards (AKA The Razzies), awarded each year to the very worst movies to hit Hollywood. This year's winners will... More...

October 03, 2008: UK Critics Consensus: How To Lose Friends & Alienate People Does Just That; Whilst Brideshead Revisited Is Resisted
In the UK cinemas this week we have two literary adaptations with Simon Pegg as an irksome hack in How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited... More...

September 09, 2008: While 88 Minutes is no 3:10 To Yuma, this beat-the-clock escape artist fare that's light on logic and heavy on the shoe leather, sustains sufficient breathlessly nerve-jangling lockdown for the duration, despite a couple of weirdly situated plot holes. Opens in new window
More...

April 22, 2008: Pacino, De Niro Take Lumps for Recent Choices Opens in new window
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino might be among the greatest living American actors -- but have they forgotten why they started acting in the first place? More...

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