Review of 88 Minutes (2007) by Stephen T — 02 Mar 2009

I was hoping this movie would run 88 minutes, like the title suggests, but instead, it was closer to 2 hours of steaming doo doo. Hey Al Pacino, have you seen your talent anywhere, because you apparently forgot to bring it to the filming of this movie. It's like he's turning into a caricature of his former self where he just shouts a lot because that's what Al Pacino does, right? That's why they like me, hoo-waa! - that's suppose to be his internal monologue.

Also, there is a lot of unnecessary direction given in this movie, not by the director, but by the characters in the film. Every scene is chock full of Pacino giving every character a laundry list of extra unnecessary stuff to do. (i.e. Cathy, send this package to Joe. Joe, call Cathy when you get that package. Ann, call Cathy and Joe in 20 minutes to see how that package thing went. Bill, go see if Ann did that and then call Cathy. Cathy, why hasn't Joe called you yet, oh wait, that's him on the caller ID now!).

The pinnical of this rediculousness is reached towards the end of movie, when Pacino is in a big hurry, racing against time, having to get to a location, but be on the phone and look at lists and stuff and flags a cab down, but gives the cab driver either $100 or $500 bucks to sit in the back seat and not drive. It's like, "Man, I'm in the huge hurry. Lives are on the line. I've got lots to do and only a little time to do it. Wouldn't it be great if there was someone in the car that knew the city well and could drive me to my destination, quickly and for a nominal fee? Oh my gosh, What's a cab driver doing back there! What luck! This is great!", but instead he's just multi-tasking like crazy with the cab driver just chilling in the back seat, looking out the window like my dog.

My favorite scene comes just a little bit before the cab part. Frank pulls a gun on Pacino and Pacino goes, "Frank. Don't do this. Don't pull that gun on me, Frank. What are you doing? Frank. Frank, don't do this. Don't pull the gun on me, Frank. You don't have to do this. I'm telling you, Frank, just give me a little bit more time. They're setting me up! Can't you see that, Frank!?!".

I thought it might make for a fun drinking game. 1 shot everytime Frank's name is said in the scene, but then you would be with it enough to enjoy the cab scene coming up next.

Also, one of the villain's main motives for coming after Pacino was that Pacino falsified evidence on the stand to wrongfully convict him. No motive was ever really given for this, other than Pacino's sister was murdered at a young age. I've never really taken a script writing class, but I'm pretty sure they would stress that characters need motives for doing things and it's important to explain those motives to the audience. I guess 88 Minutes' script writer skipped class the day they went over that concept.

PS. If you wrote the script for this movie and what I just wrote hurt your feelings, I'm sorry. Maybe there were things that were removed for time that explained some of the action. If that's the case, maybe they could have cut the movie down to 88 Minutes like I originally thought it was gonna be. That would have been a pretty neat bit. Think about it.

In conclusion, (Mr. Script Writer, probably just stop reading this, go write something), so like I was saying... In conclusion, this movie was really bad. As soon as the credits started rolling, I apologized to my wife for picking the movie and we decided it would be best to quickly watch another movie, so as to not mar the entire weekend.

We did, and everything was saved! Thank you Ghost Town.

THE END.

Coming soon: My review of the film Ghost Town.