The Basics: Al has 88 minutes to solve his own impending murder. So many suspects! So many motives! So much Saw-voiced guy saying "tick-tock" on Al's phone! So much killing of PYTs! So much Hawaiian Tropic Tan and confusing hair on Al's head! So predictable and dumb! So what!
What's the Deal? I wish this movie were fantastically warped and insanely bad in that way that's still a kind of gross fun. But it's just grueling instead. And worse, it's full of itself. It thinks it's smarter, darker and more complicated than it is. And that's the real crime.
Featuring the Wasted Talents Of: Indie film staple Deborah Kara Unger, who always gets misused in rotten movies like this. It's like they hire her because she can communicate cool detachment, almost like she's underwater all the time (see her do that nonstop in David Cronenberg's amazing cars-and-sex movie Crash), and then they put her in these overheated moron-fests. Get paid, Deborah Kara Unger!
How Long Is It Really? 105 minutes. That's 17 extra minutes of non-real-time running out for Al's character. Time may have already run out for Al's career, however, if he keeps accepting roles in these kinds of crap sandwiches.
| CRITICS' REVIEWS | ||
| SOURCE | RATING | THE GIST |
| NEGATIVE REVIEWS FOR 88 MINUTES | ||
| Chicago Tribune | 1 star/4 | "… a serial killer movie starring Al Pacino's festival of hair." |
| Entertainment Weekly | F | "… a stinker …" |
| Hollywood Reporter | N/A | "… nonsensical, exposition-heavy script …" |
| MSNBC | N/A | "… the movie is a disappointment even at being a disappointment." |
| New York Times | N/A | "… often laugh-out-loud laughably bad …" |
| Onion A.V. Club | D- | "Why is Al Pacino in 88 Minutes?" |
| TV Guide | 1 star/4 | "… a preposterous misfire." |
| USA Today | 1 star/4 | "An inane thriller …" |
| Variety | N/A | "… Al Pacino's career worst." |
| Village Voice | N/A | "… an ugly specimen on just about every front …" |