Joe Francis reviews 88 Minutes

So the plot device is pretty well known from the trailers. Dr. Graham (Pacino) gets an ominous phone call informing him he’d have 88 minutes to live.

To which I thought, “Say, if he hadn’t picked up that unknown ‘restricted’ call and let it go to voice mail, would the killer have left one? Or tried to call back? If they did call back, would the time dwindle down or does it start directly when Pacino is informed?”

Bah. Y2k, right?

So he goes on a wild goose chase trying to solve his possible murder, or at least figure out what’s going on.

Graham’s no saint though, right off the bat you’re introduced to his character as a commitmentphobe who drinks too much as he boogies down and brings home a lady half his age during the opening scene.

During the movie we’re also introduced to a serial killer awaiting execution, ON THE SAME DAY NO LESS, and you guessed it..Graham was cincher in getting him put away. So much in fact, the killer claims innocence.

It doesn’t help that at the same time someone is possibly copy catting the same style of kill the killer was put away for.

So we’re led down a herky jerky path, with the filmmaker trying to make us think just about anyone on screen is the one pulling the strings.

I won’t spoil it here, but there was a BIG FAT BOO BOO that I caught midway through that gave the whole cat sack away. If you’ve got a keen eye, you’ll catch it too. It’s not some ‘hidden mistake’ purposefully put in either…at least I don’t think so. It made the end result way to obvious, thus killing the movie for me.

All in all, it was decent fun. Had I not been able to figure it out, I would have enjoyed it more. It was just too easy.

Aside from that, everything else here is pretty top notch. Nothing Oscar worthy here of course, but it does make for a good lazy Saturday afternoon movie.

***FUN FACT!!*** I don’t think Pacino yelled once in this movie. Are you okay, Al?