88 Minutes a disappointment

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  • George Bellefontaine
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Jan 2001
    • 7637

    88 Minutes a disappointment

    Al Pacino stars as Dr. Jack Gramm, a psychology professor specializing in forensics, who also moonlights for the FBI. His expert testimony convicts a serial killer ( Neal McDonough ) who is sentenced to death. The day McDonough is set to receive his lethal injection, Gramm gets a cellphone message that he has 88 minutes to live. The 88 minutes is significant in that it connects to the murder of Gramm's younger sister. The rest of the movie involves Gramm's efforts to find the copycat killer who is obviously working with/for the real serial killer ( McDonough ) behind bars. There are so many red herrings ( everybody in Gramm's life is a suspect ) that it begins to border on utter silliness. But the whole film lacks tension and pace, and at no time did I worry whether or not Gramm would save his life before the 88 minutes ran out.

    Pacino fans ( I am one ) may or may not be disappointed. I for one was utterly disappointed. He just seemed to wander through this role as if in a daze, hardly even frazzled when people are murdered around him and even when his car blows up. He only really shows a little emotion when he discovers a security leak involving personal information. And what's with the hairdo ? It seemed to have a mind of its own: in some scenes it looked large, wild and out of control, while in others it looked smaller and neater. And his clothes even looked illfitting. Now maybe he dressed a certian way feeling that's how a somewhat eccentric university professor would dress, but what's with the hair ( wig ) already ?

    The most recent film I liked Pacino in was Insomnia. Others since then have not been so good and it's beginning to look like Al is only doing them for the moola. I just hope that Rightous Kill, with he and Deniro starring together, will rekindle my admiration for ol' Al.

    Recommended for hardcore Pacino fans only.
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  • hawkfan
    Member
    • Feb 2007
    • 60

    #2
    I'm not sure if I can be categorized as a real hardcore Pacino fan, but he carried this movie and saved it from being straight to video status. I wouldn't call this movie a must see by any means, but it's a pretty good movie to watch when nothing else is going on. This was probably just a nice paycheck for Pacino until Righteous Kill.

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    • George Bellefontaine
      Moderator Emeritus
      • Jan 2001
      • 7637

      #3
      Originally posted by hawkfan
      This was probably just a nice paycheck for Pacino until Righteous Kill.
      Yeah, I quite agree.

      You probably liked 88 Minutes more than I. One thing, I almost bought this on Blu, but decided to rent first and that was a good decision on my part. PQ was below the usual Blu-ray standard.
      My Homepage!

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