It's a B-movie with an A-movie cast, where the cast doesn't even perform up to B-movie standards.
88 Minutes (2008)
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Reviews Counted:120
Fresh:6
Rotten:114
Average Rating:2.6/10
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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Reviews for 88 Minutes
Pacino's bluster isn't quite as big as his hair in this one, at least. But he still often comes across as one of those people who've crossed the line from "eccentric" to "deluded."
A comical crime thriller where you're likely to find yourself more amused by the unintentionally funny goings-on than trying to solve the underlying whodunit.
Quite possibly the dumbest movie ever made by an Oscar winner--and that includes all the dreadful pictures with Rod Steiger, F. Murray Abraham and even Cuba Gooding, Jr.
...looks as if they put the cast and crew together by handing out fliers on Hollywood Boulevard asking if anyone wants to write, direct, or act in a Hollywood movie.
The film had no opening credits, except for the title 88 Minutes. Maybe that's because no one wanted to take credit for this mess.
Essentially, it's 88 distracting minutes of watching Al Pacino work the hell out of his formidable fright wig.
It's a clumsy, clunker of a movie; one barely even worth reviewing let alone seeing.
The preposterous "88 Minutes" is a serial killer movie starring Al Pacino's festival of hair.
There's a lot of familiar territory covered in this new thriller. Unfortunately, most of that territory falls in the land of bad movies.
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.
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.
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.'
Compared with Jon Avnet’s barely functional directing and the ripened dialogue, Pacino’s phoned-in turn hardly qualifies as a cardinal sin.
The script is a confused jumble that director Jon Avnet cannot wrestle into shape.
"88 Minutes" is one of those thrillers in which characters seem to run all over the place and talk a lot on cell phones. Yet nothing really seems to get accomplished.
The only enjoyable elements to this film are Pacino's impressively hardworking hair (no matter how bad Jack Gramm's day gets, his exuberant hair looks fabulous).
Too bad the sober tone only makes for a movie that pretends at seriousness but that can't really be taken seriously.
Fortunately for the great Al—and us—this one ought to be in and out of theatres in just about 88 hours.
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. ![]()
More...
April 22, 2008:
Pacino, De Niro Take Lumps for Recent Choices ![]()
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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