88 Minutes (2007)

Directed by: Jon Avnet | 110 minutes | action, drama, thriller | Actors: Al Pacino, LeeLee Sobieski, Alicia Witt, Amy Brenneman, William Forsythe, Deborah Kara Unger, Benjamin McKenzie, Neal McDonough, Leah Cairns, Stephen Moyer, Christopher Redman, Brendan Fletcher, Michael Eklund, Kristina Copeland, Tammy Hui, Victoria Tennant Michal Yannai, Paul Campbell, Brenda McDonald, Carrie Genzel, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Heather Dawn, Julian Christopher, Tim Henry, Brad Turner, Michael Adamthwaite, Jean Montanti, Timothy Paul Perez

Everyone agrees that Al Pacino is one of the best actors of the past forty years. With classics such as ‘The Godfather’ (1972), ‘Serpico’ (1973), ‘The Godfather Part II’ (1974) and ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975) on your record, you can hardly go wrong. It’s almost a surprise that Pacino only managed to cash in one of his eight Oscar nominations (for ‘Scent of a Woman’ from 1992). Whether he will win a second Oscar in the coming years remains to be seen. The last really good film he made was ‘The Insider’ from 1999. This was followed by some fairly successful films like ‘Insomnia’ (2002) – although it is inferior to the Norwegian original by Erik Skjoldbjærg from 1997 – but also outright flops like ‘ S1m0ne’ (2002), ‘People I Know’ (2002) and ‘Two for the Money’ (2005). Now Pacino is trying it with the action thriller ’88 Minutes’, but that film was also poorly received. In fact, the film was never released in theaters and went straight to video stores.

Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is a successful forensic psychiatrist and university teacher. He helped the FBI track down serial killer Jon Forster (Neil McDonough), who has been sentenced to death by the jury. Jon claims that the trial was not fair because Jack allegedly persuaded a witness, the sister of one of the victims, to testify against him. On the night of the execution, Jack receives a call from someone who tells him he has only 88 minutes to live. Meanwhile, a new serial killer walks around using the exact same method as Jon Forster. With the help of ex-wife Shelley Barnes (Amy Brenneman), FBI agent Frank Parks (William Forsythe) and ambitious college student Kim Cummings (Alicia Witt), Jack sets out to find the killer. This search leads him to a couple of troubled students, a campus security guard, and a woman he shared one night with.

Just to get straight to the point; ’88 Minutes’ is a disappointing film in all respects. The mediocrity that this work radiates is also not out of the blue when you consider that the direction is in the hands of Jon Avnet, in whose oeuvre the highlights are the unedifying films ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ (1991) and ‘Up Close and Personal ‘ (1996). The screenplay is by Gary Scott Thompson, whose main exploits are the scripts of ‘Hollow Man’ (2000), ‘The Fast and the Furious’ (2001) and its 2003 sequel. ’88 Minutes’ is typically one of those films that promises a lot, but fails to deliver on those promises from the very first minute. First of all, the story is bursting with coincidences and plot holes. Important questions, for example the why of all that revenge action that Jack is the victim of, are never answered. Admittedly, the film has its tense moments, but we’ve all seen it before – and especially better. The race against time, the revenge attacks, the large group of potential suspects; it is nothing new under the sun. In addition, after about an hour, the attentive viewer already realizes who the mysterious person is who is threatening Jack. And if there’s one thing that can ruin a thriller, that’s it.

On paper, this film has an interesting cast that you can expect to put in a good performance. But in practice it doesn’t work out that way in ’88 Minutes’ unfortunately. Pacino plays on autopilot and walks uninterested in it. The film seems to him merely a nice way to earn some extra pocket money. The screenplay also lacks depth to really empathize with Jack Gramm. The only thing that becomes clear is that this sixties knows how to hook up amazingly young women and that he likes a drink every now and then. Moreover, it seems as if he doesn’t care at all, he remains so calm under all the threatening phone calls he receives. But no matter how mediocre Pacino is, he still stands out – in terms of performance – above his opponents. Especially LeeLee Sobieski (‘The Wicker Man’, 2006) is horribly bad. But Alicia Witt (‘Vanilla Sky’, 2001), Amy Brenneman (‘Heat’, 1995), William Forsythe (‘City by the Sea’, 2002) and Neal McDonough (‘Minority Report’, 2002) are also not achieving their usual level.

Anyone who has seen this film will understand why ’88 Minutes’ never made it to the cinemas in the United States and on this side of the ocean. This work by Jon Avnet is not really bad, but the seasoned thriller lover will absolutely not be warm or cold. In fact, everything is substandard; the acting, script and direction. The most annoying thing is that credibility is hard to find. And even the biggest fans of Al Pacino will have to admit that this living acting legend looks washed out and resigned. His name may give rise to high expectations, but they are absolutely not fulfilled in this film. So don’t expect too much of this thriller, it can only be easy…