Review of 88 Minutes (2007) by Andrew S — 06 May 2009

It's been heralded as the worst movie of Al Pacino's career -- or at least the worst since Revolution -- so I couldn't help but rubberneck. It's certainly a train wreck, but a deliriously entertaining one for fans of this kind of trash.

Pacino (sporting a George Hamilton tan, a Phil Spector bouffant, and a Walter Matthau dye job) plays a forensics professor with a murky past who's been given 88 minutes to live by a mystery caller.

Chances are, it has something to do with a soon-to-be-executed criminal who was put away nine years earlier because of Pacino's testimony. Sure, there are plot holes the size of Al's crazed ego .

.. but who cares about little things like narrative continuity or psychologically realistic characters these days anyway?! I'm just happy that we still live in a culture where some whacked-out B-movie producer can slip a fading A-list star a ton of cash to guarantee foreign market sales on a half-baked thriller.

Hell, slap a Morricone score on this baby and you'd have the perfect, mindless, 1970s giallo. Hoo-Ahh!