The overwrought production, sieve-like plot and ludicrous characters merge into something genuinely hilarious. But that's clearly not what cast and crew were going for.
Comment
10/03/08
88 Minutes (2008)
5
%
Tomatometer
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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.
Theatrical Release:03-10-2008
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... [More]
Starring: Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman
Director: Jon Avnet
Reviews for 88 Minutes
Ridiculous and ultimately disappointing thriller that stays just about watchable thanks to an amusing pair of performances by Shouty Al and his hairpiece.
10/03/08
THE WORST FILM OF THE YEAR.
10/03/08
Pacino looks half asleep throughout, no doubt concentrating solely on his cheque, while the script is a catalogue of clichés and contrivances.
10/03/08
Good Sunday afternoon entertainment but it won’t hang around the multiplex for long.
10/03/08
Full of dreadful turns and awful dialogue (“There’s been a breach in my most secure area!” mutters Al at one point), 88 Minutes is 107 too long.
10/03/08
It's called Eighty Eight minutes. But, in fact, it's one hundred and seven minutes of your life that you lose should you persevere with this witless thriller.
10/03/08
Interestingly, the more overblown and insincere a performance Pacino delivers in a film, the more self-important and bouffant his hair gets. Here, it’s so towering it takes up 90 per cent of the screen.
10/03/08
Top CriticThere are more thrilling ways to spend 88 minutes, like counting from one to 5,208.
10/03/08
Top CriticNow that this stupendously inept serial-killer flick has slithered into theaters, the diminutive legend had better clear room in his closet for another cinematic skeleton.
10/03/08
Top CriticIt verges on so-bad-it’s-good territory, but just isn’t entertaining enough. Lacking in tension and pace, poorly edited and starring wholly unsympathetic characters, this is just dull, drab and boring.
10/03/08
Top CriticThe kindest thing one can say is that director Jon Avnet and screenwriter Gary Scott Thompson bought a flatpack version of a thriller and then couldn't follow the instructions. Manuals can be confusing.
10/02/08
88 Minutes is the sort of overblown thriller in which every action, no matter how insignificant, is pregnant with portent, yet it's a film of nothing but red herrings.
07/12/09
Don't bother
02/12/09
The movie runs blandly through its paces without generating an ounce of tension or suspense.
09/19/08
I should have walked out after 8 minutes.
09/14/08
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.
09/09/08
The film is a disaster in every way possible. I have rarely seen a big budget, star studded, major studio motion picture flop this hard.
06/08/08
When they were counting down the 88 minutes, I just kept saying to myself, "oh man, this movie still has 72 minutes left?" "Oh man, this movie has 17 minutes left?" I just couldn't wait to get out of the theatre.
05/13/08
This is an excruciating "88 Minutes."
05/10/08
Latest News for 88 Minutes
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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:
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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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