Review of 88 Minutes (2007) by Tim B — 06 Jan 2010

The horrible reviews and word of mouth told me to stay away from this one. But I was bored one night, had a limited selection as to my choices and picked this one out of the lot. Why? Two words: Al Pacino.

The man wins in almost every movie I've seen him in and even when he acts "sedated", he's more appealing than most of the other actors. So I turned it on and sat back. I'll start off with the bad as this was a weird one for me.

The plotline of the movie, the characterizations, the mystery surrounding it and the useless subplots were so choppy and see-through that I haven't been this insulted with these types of thrillers in a while.

The script was filled with plot holes and 89% of them became useless to the story altogether. The characters here were given such lame lines and why was there so much emphasis on the whodunit? They really overplayed that card here where they tried their damndest to make EVERY SINGLE person to look like the bad guy.

That was too bad, since I figured it out early on (and I'm usually the dumb-ass in the room who gets surprised by those). So for all this bashing on the movie, why haven't I given it a lower rating? One word sums it up: amusement.

I have to admit, this movie flew by quickly and kept me pretty interested in the events at hand. Think of it like an ADD two-year-old. Not the brightest bulb in the shed, but very entertaining! Whether it's for the right or wrong reasons, that's none of my business.

Al Pacino aced his part again. It was a lame part, but he still pulled it off. I haven't seen Alicia Witt since Vanilla Sky and she did okay here. She needs to gain some weight, though. Leelee Sobieski showed up and said bad lines.

She deserved better. William Forsythe and Deborah Kara Unger were hardly in the film enough to leave an impression. Were they even paid for this? The same can be said for Neal McDonough but I think he knew his time was limited as he shone in every scene! Jon Avnet went insane with the camera for the first half of the movie, then toned it down for the action packed last half.

Weird choices, but again, INTERESTING. The premise does start off well and the movie is very entertaining, just don't think about it at all while or after you watch it. If it's free, there's nothing else, or you simply need a Pacino fix, I'd recommend it.

It's stupid stupid STUPID fun. This clashing is making me tired...