Director commentary, Character Moments, Through the Director's Eyes, Preview, Alternate Ending

What would you do if you found you had 88 minutes to live. Tick Tock. Time flies when you're being framed for murders that appear LIKE the ones the person you put away and is awaiting execution suddenly happen to those you know. A potboiler but fun thriller (and predictable), "88 Mnutes" allows Al Pacino the best of both worlds--working with beautiful woman half his age (and less) AND scenery to chew. Luckily, Pacino one of our finest actors in his best mode dials down the intensity level as he plays Dr. Gramm a forensic psychologist well known for his pivotal role appearing for the prosecution in the Seattle Slayer serial murder case. When Dr. Jack Gramm's (Pacino) students and associates start showing up dead and there's physical evidence linking him to the crime, those 88 minutes tick by at a surprisingly fast rate. Meanwhile Gramm has to do with a potential stay of execution for the man who he believes IS the Slayer all the while keeping his reputation intact and trying to protect those around him. ***

Suddenly all of Gramm's students (Leelee Sobieski, Benjamin McKenzie), his teaching assistant (Alicia Witt), his secretary (Amy Brenneman) and others become suspects. As the clock tick-tocks on the execution of convicted mass murderer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) who Gramm's testimony helped put away for the Slayer murders, it becomes critical that Gramm find out who is trying to discredit him otherwise there's a chance that Forster may get a stay and possibly a new trial because of what occurs. ***

Well made by Jon Avent "88 Minutes" allows us to see Pacino doing what he does best--ruminate with the potential for explosion which only adds tension to this entertaining if routine thriller. The entire film is a mystery puzzle and while predictable, it has the usual assortment of jealous suspects that might want to pin murder on Dr. Gramm the only problem is that none of them are credible and we learn too little about them to truly understand them as characters. Motivations are simple in a whodunit like this. ---

Image & Sound:

"88 Minutes" looks solid in its DVD presentation with nice accurate colors. The grainy look of the film is intentional since I believe that it is designed to recall films like "Three Days of the Condor". ***

Audio isn't all that remarkable but used effectively during action sequences. A lot of the time is spent on dueling dialog between Pacino and the person he believes might be setting him up. Dialog is the primary focus here when he don't get an explosion or music isn't swelling up in the background. ---

An interesting assortment of special features that aren't necessarily illuminating but nevertheless interesting. We get a commentary track from director Jon Avent (who also is directing the forthcoming Pacino-DeNiro film "Righteous Kill" which looks much more interesting than "88 Minutes" and makes THIS film almost seem like a dry run for that one). It's pretty interesting to get his take on how Pacino works along with his impressions of the other actors/actresses in the film. The film is populated with a relative young cast of veterans so the contrast in their approach to Pacino's is often interesting although Avent manages to create a consistent tone with his cast and their performances enhancing the believability of the film. ***

We also get two featurettes the first features director Avent discussing shooting the movie. One of the things that interested him was trying to put a thriller in real life and playing with the limitations of that. The biggest concern any director has is whether or not he and Pacino would get along during the shooting and obviously they got along like gangbusters with a very similar outlook on the material. ***

The second featurette has Pacino sit down and discuss his character. He gives us some interesting insights about the decisions he made in playing the character the way he did particularly given the background that we discover about midway through film that motivates Gramm's character to become the person he does. ***

The alternate ending doesn't appear to be one until the last few minutes. The film revisits the climax of the film before we see the little coda that was dropped from the film. While it may have made some audiences feel a bit unsure about identifying with Gramm, the alternate ending (like the recent alternate ending for "I Am Legend") proves that preview audiences are usually idiots and get it wrong most of the time. The alternate ending is actually superior to the final version of the film and adding that coda back in would have given it additional character depth that the film was sorely lacking. ---

Final Words: