88 Minutes is a guilty pleasure, which shouldn't be confused with serious moviemaking.
Comment
04/18/08
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
Even a viewer with incredibly low expectations will be staggered by its badness.
04/18/08
...it is mildly entertaining to see Pacino in a role where he has obviously been encouraged to turn it up, to become a wild-eyed, roaring self-parody
04/18/08
While the actual ending does give audiences a reason to cheer, it's the final fade out that will make viewers the happiest. It means this tepid terror is finally over.
04/18/08
A skilled director could take the same exact script from 88 Minutes, change maybe three or four lines, and shoot it as a spoof movie. It's that close to self-parody.
04/17/08
If only the film actually ran 88 minutes instead of 108, the many glaring logic loopholes might have whizzed by without notice. But like a bad apple, that extra 20 minutes of wasted film has rotted the rest.
04/17/08
The only mystery here is why Pacino would have chosen to lend his talents to a project of an artistic level that most people would more readily associate with the likes of Michael Pare about ten years ago or Robert De Niro today.
04/17/08
At times it's almost like Pacino has been lured into a Bobby Bowfinger production except the best blackmail material around to get his permission for release is 88 Minutes itself.
04/17/08
Pacino feels like a bankable source to disguise mediocrity but a dud is a dud and Avnet is wholly indifferent
04/17/08
88 Minutes should have been 86ed.
04/17/08
Its U.S. release feels like an obligatory gesture before sending it to DVD -- where, truth be told, it should have gone to begin with.
04/17/08
At 68, Pacino still has the chops to give a scene a moment of raw power. But it's clear he could care less about this story, his performance has no conviction, and he's mostly emitting sparks of self-parody.
04/17/08
Let's start up a collection so Al Pacino doesn't feel the need to take paycheck movies like 88 Minutes
04/17/08
[88 minutes? It feels like 3 hours!] ... The only thing I cared about was when my sentence would be ended and I could finally escape the theater.
04/17/08
Might have made an entertainingly direct-to-DVD B-movie thriller with the courage of its sleazy convictions. But expectations are different for a theatrical feature starring Al Pacino, and by those standards it's a preposterous misfire.
04/17/08
Preposterous in design, abysmal in execution and laugh-out-loud funny when it's straining for drama, the film doesn't even honor the lean-and-mean promise of its title.
04/17/08
Could have used more innovation and less strained obviousness as it worked its way toward an underwhelming conclusion.
04/17/08
Why is Al Pacino in 88 Minutes?
04/17/08
This could be the single dumbest movie to be released yet this year, which is no small feat. It's definitely the worst thing Al Pacino has been involved with in quite some time.
04/17/08
It’s not often you encounter a feature film that contains not even one believable minute.
04/17/08
Latest News for 88 Minutes
January 21, 2009:
Razzies Name 2008's Worst Movie Nominees
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:
UK Critics Consensus: How To Lose Friends & Alienate People Does Just That; Whilst Brideshead Revisited Is Resisted
In the UK cinemas this week we have two literary adaptations with Simon Pegg as an irksome hack in How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited... More...
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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