Shawn's 88 Minutes Review

I've had this movie on my desktop for just over a week now but completely forgot it was there until I saw Wolvy's review of it. Since I'm not watching any of the current movies, figured I might as well review one that doesn't come out for 2 and a half more months. Anyone interested in watching it now, it can be found quite easily. That's all I will say. However before you go eagerly searching it out, read what I have to say.

2008 Movie #16 - 88 Minutes

The premise behind this movie is promising even though it's something we've seen many times before. Essentially Al Pacino's character gets a phone call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live. It then becomes a race against time for Al to weed through countless suspects to find out who is behind all of it. Is it the guy on death row claiming Pacino gave false testimony in court in order to put him there? Is it LeeLee Sobieski who needs a good movie so badly she must cry herself to sleep at night? Or maybe it's Ryan from the OC? Needless to say there's tons of misleads all leading to a conclusion that's met with a resounding "meh." There's a lot more to the plot than that but I really don't feel like detailing all of it right now.

This is what we call a "slummin' it" movie. Pretty much all of the actors in it (especially Pacino) are capable of much better material, so they must be in it for the paycheck or something. That's not to say they're bad in their roles. Everyone does adequatly with what they're given, unfortunatly they're simply not given very much.

The movie is basic, seen it 100 times before, thriller material. It spends the entire movie trying to trick with a lot "oh look maybe it's this person, oh wait no it's this person" until as said before, the very unsatisfying reveal at the end. It's mildly interesting, but I was there all that invested in what was going on.

Also, how in the fuck does all this manage to happen in 88 minutes? The killer keeps updating Pacino on how much time he has and sometimes hours worth of events will happen and the killer will call to say that only 4 minutes has actually passed. I'm pretty sure by the time Al drove from one side of the city to the other, he'd be almost out of time right there. I guess it's movie logic but still. Also I suppose 88 Minutes is a better title than 304 Minutes.

In conclusion, when this thing hits theatres in April, there's pretty much no need to go and see it. I just can't recommend a theatrical viewing. If you would like to acquire it the way I did and view it, I could recommend it slightly more, but there's still tons of better thrillers out there. Hell go see Untraceable even.

**/5