Movie 98: 88 Minutes

Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is forensic psychologist who’s testimony lead to serial killer Jon Forster being put away. On the day that Forster is due to be executed, some copy cat murders show up and Jack gets a call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live.

What follows is a tense, real time thriller full of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. Apparently. That’s not what showed up on the screen. What showed up on the screen was a discarded episode of Lie To Me that they didn’t use because it was a bit shit.

It’s not horrendous, it’s just a bit crap. I never really felt any tension. I wasn’t 100% sure who the bad guy was, but it ended up being on of the couple of candidates. I hope Al Pacino bought a boat or something with the pay check as then someone will get a decent amount of entertainment from this. No idea why he was in it.

The acting at times is slightly elevated from porn level, the rest of the time its just fine. It’s actually a shame as one guy I’d like to see getting lots of work, Ben Mackenzie who played Ryan in the OC, is very briefly in this and he does a fine enough job with a non existent character.

They seem to set things up to be full of potential suspects, but it never really is. I think Ben’s character is meant to be one but he shows up 3 times in the whole movie. Just pick the person you think is kind of creepy and you’ll probably hit the nail on the head.

And its not in real time either. I think it might make a valiant effort at it, until the end. There’s 15 minutes to go and Al Pacino drives what appears to be across Seattle and wanders about a college campus with a good 5 minutes to spare. I don’t know Seattle all that well, but you’d be hard pressed to do that in Inverness and its bound to be WAY smaller. Particularly as he sits looking at some files at a red light for a good 3 or 4 minutes. You’d think they’d have stuck to the real time aspect at least, but no.

The whole thing is under written too, with a few character moments that are really forced. I’d just avoid it entirely if I was you.

Next up: It’s Complicated