“88 Minutes” is one of those frustrating movies. You know, one with a good actor and an interesting premise, but where everything else is wrong. The plot holes are big enough to walk through, the red herrings are just plain irritating, and the character development nonexistent. Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino with a distracting pouffy hairstyle), a famous forensic psychiatrist, has been told via cell phone that he has 88 minutes to live. At the same time, Jon Forester (Neal McDonough), who has been convicted of rape and murder based on Jack’s testimony, is fighting to get a reprieve from his death sentence due to be carried out within 12 hours. When bodies start popping up and evidence points to him, Jack sets out to discover who is responsible.
Unfortunately, rather than develop “88 Minutes” though a logical sequencing of events with plausible clues, Gary Scott Thompson’s script has Jack mindlessly running around, flashing his ID as if it were police credentials and suspecting everyone around him. And Pacino is getting a little too old to be the object of college-girl crushes. It’s obvious Forester is guilty because McDonough is typically type-cast as the creepy bad guy. Amy Brenneman is wasted at Jack’s gay assistant and Alicia Witt (Jack’s teaching assistant) and Leelee Sobieski (one of Jack’s students) overact. “88 Minutes” deserves 1 smile, but because Al Pacino is the star, it gets an extra half of a smile. (5/1/08)
1 comment:
I couldn't agree more. There was so much possibility and yet so much went wrong in the execution of the film. It was a great disappointment. Worth watching when it comes out on DVD though.
Post a Comment