| | | Jack Gramm Has Eighty-Eight Minutes to Solve a Murder. His Own.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Subtitled, French, Dubbed & Subtitled
A college professor (Al Pacino), who moonlights as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI, receives a death threat that says he has only 88 minutes to live. To save his life, he must use all his skills and training to narrow down the possible suspects, which include a disgruntled student, a jilted former lover and a serial killer on death row.
"...a B-movie with an A-movie cast..." Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
"A tense race against the clock..." Jackie K. Cooper, JackieKCooper.com
"A heartpounding thriller. Pacino is electric. Keeps you guessing till the end." James Thomas, First Look
"...holds you in a state of acute suspense, keeping you wondering until the very last minute..." Kyle Smith, New York Post
"An enjoyable thriller..." Michael A. Smith, Nolan's Pop Culture Review
Editor's Note
In 88 MINUTES, Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino), a Seattle-based college professor and forensic psychiatrist, is informed by an enigmatic caller that he has exactly that amount of time to live. The threat is linked to Gramm's role in putting a convicted serial killer (Neal McDonough) behind bars nearly a decade earlier, and sends the scholar/consultant on a desperate run to avert his imminent demise. Entering into Gramm's dangerous orbit are his dutiful assistant (Amy Brenneman), an FBI agent (William Forsythe), and his admiring young students (most notably Alicia Witt), all of whom add layers to the tense mystery.Shelved for years, 88 MINUTES was finally released in U.S. theaters during 2008, marking director Jon Avnet's first feature-film project since 1997's RED CORNER. (Avnet was brought in as a replacement for original helmer James Foley.) Pacino clearly knows his way around a thriller (see HEAT and INSOMNIA), and approaches his beleaguered character with typical gusto, while his costars, particularly Forsythe and Witt, also offer up energetic turns. Though the high-concept plot is secondary to Pacino's agitated performance, even those who drift from the storyline will appreciate the Hollywood veteran's over-the-top acting, especially if they are diehard fans of the iconic actor.
| Features | Alternate Ending | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Featurette: The Character Within | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 9/22/2009 |
| Running Time: 107 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 23578 | | UPC: 00043396235786 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Melinda Clarke | | Alicia Witt | | Neal McDonough | | Al Pacino | | William Forsythe | | Deborah Kara Unger | | Leelee Sobieski | | Amy Brenneman | | Lawrence Bender - Executive Producer | | John Baldecchi - Executive Producer | | Avi Lerner - Executive Producer | | Dan Dimbort - Executive Producer | | Josef Lautenshlager - Executive Producer | | Edward Shearmur - Composer | | Jon Avnet - Producer | | Denis Lenoir - Director of Photography | | John Thompson - Executive Producer | | Andreas Thiesmeyer - Executive Producer | | George Furla - Executive Producer | | Gary Scott Thompson - Screenwriter | | Trevor Short - Executive Producer | | Randall Emmett - Producer | | Gary Scott Thompson - Producer | | Jon Avnet - Director |
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| | Professional Reviews | Reel.com 5 of 10
A slop bucket of misconceived tricks, rigor-mortis mood, and laughable intentions, Jon Avnet's 88 Minutes certainly isn't the first bad movie that the still-feral Al Pacino has top-lined but, for one reason or another, it feels like the first time that the actor hasn't tried to save himself from the sinking ship. In the vein of Untraceable, another vacuous thriller too hard-nosed to play it loose or be creative, Avnet and Pacino indulge in full-blown gimmickry while happily feasting on every sweaty-palmed cliche in the '90s thriller grab-bag...Set in Seattle, the titular ticking-clock device doesn't actually kick in for a solid 20 minutes, giving time for Pacino to wake-up to a naked woman half his age in his kitchen and a fresh copycat murder checked off his to-do list...Pacino feels like a bankable source to disguise mediocrity, but a dud is a dud and Avnet is wholly indifferent to the idea of playfulness or fun. Out of all the innumerable faults on display in 88 Minutes, the most nagging of them all is the film's consistent need to take itself seriously in the face of honest-to-god buffoonery. But the fun doesn't end here, folks. In a few months, Avnet will release Righteous Kill, a similarly-minded serial-killer romp pairing Pacino with that other paradigm of lost ferocity, Robert De Niro, and none other than 50 Cent. I haven't seen it yet, but sometimes you've just got to trust your gut on these things. - Chris Cabin
ReelViews 5 of 10
It's always a shock when a movie turns out to be this bad. It's an even bigger shock when it features an actor of the caliber and reputation of Al Pacino. 88 Minutes is one of the dumbest thrillers to arrive it theaters in a long time, so it's no surprise that it has been lingering on Columbia's shelves for more than a year. (It came out on DVD in Germany early in 2007.) The screenplay is credited to Gary Scott Thompson, but could have been written by a trained chimpanzee employing a "dial-a-cliche" computer program. Director Jon Avent gets into the general sense of badness by mangling continuity and Pacino does his part by sleepwalking his way through the role. The rest of the actors follow suit...To be fair to Pacino, he's an arresting presence even when he's not trying - and he most definitely is not trying here...If it wasn't for Pacino's involvement, 88 Minutes would have landed directly on the DVD shelves, bypassing movie critics and theaters altogether. Columbia Pictures is banking on Pacino being a big enough draw that people won't care much about the lobotomized screenplay, the plastic acting, the incoherent direction and editing, and the overlong running time (88 minutes + a 20 minute prologue). Judging by what's been making money at the box office recently, the cynic in me must concede that they may be right. - James Berardinelli
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