Forensic psychologist Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) finds himself the target of a killer, who tells him he only has 88 minutes to live.  Gramm tries to figure out what is going on, which is linked to a serial killer he put away who is about to be executed.

CRITIQUE

88 Minutes has an interesting hook, with the idea of a man being told that he has only 88 minutes left to live (a number that the killer keeps lowering as time passes) an interesting one:  it sets up the intriguing question of not only why he is being targeted, but why the killer has chosen to warn him about what is happening.  Unfortunately, when the answers come they just aren’t very satisfying, and ultimately this is a contrived tale that really doesn’t have all that much to it that works at all.

The film is really a showcase for Al Pacino, who is in just about every scene as forensic psychologist Jack Gramm, whose testimony 9 years earlier was largely responsible for convicting a man (Neal McDonough) as a serial killer, who is now about to be executed despite continually protesting his innocence.  A copycat killer – or maybe the original, still free – has started killing people Gramm knows, which nominally gives a focus to the action here, as Pacino tries to stay alive while visiting crime scenes and uncovering new ones.

But the plot just gets sillier and sillier as it goes on.  Though I won’t spoil the “revelations”, all the red herrings that screenwriter Gary Scott Thompson sprinkles into the script just feel very contrived or coincidental, while innocent characters do things that really don’t make any sense at all.  When the climactic revelation comes about what has been happening, it needs to be the kind of thing that really makes everything click in retrospect, but here it doesn’t; instead, it makes the whole villainous plot just seem needlessly overcomplex.

Unfortunately, Pacino just doesn’t do enough to elevate the material.  Though he has generally dialed-down his recent over-acting here, the role just doesn’t have all that much to it, while crucial questions like how much he did fudge his testimony (or what any of it has to do with his murdered sister) are really rather glossed over.  By the end, when Pacino starts raising the volume of his voice, turning the role into another all-too-familiar Pacino part by the end, it’s just another frustrating aspect of a movie that just never comes close to realizing its potential.

THE VIDEO

88 Minutes is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.  The picture quality is generally good.

THE AUDIO

88 Minutes is presented in English 5.1 and French 5.1 Dolby Digital.  Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear.  There are English and French subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

There is a Audio Commentary with director Jon Avnet that is occasionally interesting but somewhat dry as well.  Avnet also doesn’t seem to realize that the vast majority of people listening to the commentary will already have seen the movie, and he spends too much time simply talking about what is going on onscreen.

There is an Alternate Ending that is basically about three minutes tacked onto the end of the film (though for some reason the extra makes you sit through the unchanged seven minutes of the film before that to get there).  It does have a payoff for the fudging-testimony question, but ultimately the whole section was probably cut because it’s too long and dull.

The Director’s Point of View is an 8-minute clip-heavy promotional featurette in which director Jon Avnet talks about the film.

The Character Within is another 8-minute clip-heavy featurette in which Pacino talks about his role, though it is more about the character than his process of playing him.

FINAL THOUGHT

The story really doesn’t hold together, and Pacino isn’t interesting enough to make it work.