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Movies Forum Index » Movie Reviews Forum » Review: 88 Minutes (2008)
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| Steve Rhodes |
 Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:29 am |
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88 MINUTES
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
Let's say people are being killed and your phone starts ringing every other
minute, giving you the countdown to your death, starting with 88 minutes. Do
you immediately call the cops? Or do you assume it's a hoax and go about
your business, teaching a class, etc., trying as best as you can to fit in
your own personal investigation into whether the threat on your life is real
or not? If you have trouble answering that question, maybe you'll be one of
the very few people who'll like 88 MINUTES.
It's been a full decade since director Jon Avnet released a feature film.
His last theatrical release was RED CORNER, a real stinker staring Richard
Gere as an innocent man being setup. Following in the same formula, 88
MINUTES follows another Hollywood star, Al Pacino playing FBI forensic
psychologist Dr. Jack Gramm, as he is falsely accused and targeted.
88 MINUTES, however, which feels at least three hours long, manages to be
even more unwatchable than RED CORNER. 88 MINUTES is one of those films that
leave you with absolutely nothing whatsoever good to say about it. Our
packed audience was as dead as the corpses that littered the screen. The
pacing of the picture was just as terminal, since the movie moved like a
dead man walking and was filled with dead time.
Most of all, what sinks 88 MINUTES is that it's both utterly ridiculous and
completely predictable. Worse still is that the movie takes itself
seriously. It's so bad that it borders on parody, but director Avnet and
writer Robert King (CUTTHROAT ISLAND) never give us a chance to laugh with
the picture. All of the laughs that it produces are unintentional. Some
viewers won't be laughing at it for long, if the large number of walk-outs
at our screening is indicative of typical audience reactions.
On to the film, if I must. After a brief setup, most of the movie occurs
when notorious serial killer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough), a.k.a. the
"Seattle Slayer," is about to be executed. Since Gramm's testimony was the
key to Forster's conviction, it falls to Gramm to answer what it means when
someone starts killing people with Forster's signature style. Is there a
copycat killer at large or was Forster innocent all along?
The script, which treats viewers like idiots, parades everyone with a 98.6
degree temperature past us and suggests that they might be the killer or
killers. But, the real murderer is so obvious and easy to guess that it's
like the editor drew a big red circle around the person in post-production.
On the other hand, if you are among the one percent of the audience who
guesses the killer incorrectly, you're not going to have any better time
watching the movie.
Gramm is given 88 minutes to live by an unknown caller, who keeps calling
back like a bad telemarketer. For quite a while Gramm ignores the warnings,
but eventually he decides that he and he alone should track down his
would-be killer. "Tick Tock Doc," the killer keeps warning him.
The movie, which never rises above cheap melodrama, has a jarring score and
dreary cinematography to insure that there is no way possible for you to
have a good time at the movies. I never bought a minute of the story, and I
certainly never cared what happened to anyone in it. The only thing I cared
about was when my sentence would be ended and I could finally escape the
theater.
88 MINUTES runs an incredible long feeling 1:48. It is rated R for
"disturbing violent content, brief nudity and language" and would be
acceptable for teenagers.
My son Jeffrey, age 19, gave the film a single star, finding nothing good to
say about it. He said it had more dead time than any thriller he could
remember. He said the killer was obvious, he didn't care about any of the
characters, and he thought the dialog was laughably bad but not in a good
way. His girlfriend Yasmin, age 18, gave it * 1/2, saying that she hated all
of the actors and the acting. She found it all very predictable, and, though
the story had potential, nothing at all was done with that potential.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, April 18, 2008. In
the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
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