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Dr. Jack Gramm, played by Al Pacino, and Kim Cummings, played by Alicia Witt, run across the street in the movie '88 minutes.' Pacino plays a college professor who is running from a killer he placed on death row.

'88 minutes' serves as worthwhile thriller

By: Ben Johnson

Posted: 4/23/08

Alfred Hitchcock is credited as the master of suspense. Since his canon of thrillers and spine-tingling films emerged, nearly every major suspenseful film has taken cues from his work. Moreover, Hitchcock made famous a genre of film that remains a favorite of moviegoers worldwide. Proudly joining the ranks of modern psycho-dramas is the Al Pacino movie "88 Minutes."

More than nine years ago, Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) served as the determining testimony involving the infamous serial killer and rapist "Seattle Slayer." Gramm's expertise in the field of forensic psychology compliments his work as a college professor. His charm also compliments his personal life with a number of one-night stands and careless sexual flings, both with students and colleagues. With the death sentence of the supposed Seattle Slayer (Neal McDonough), Gramm receives an anonymous phone call stating he has only 88 minutes to live. A game of cat-and-mouse emerges in which Gramm must first discover who is behind the plot against his life; a plot in which anyone could be a suspect.

"88 Minutes" features all the tropes and clichés one might expect from a psycho-thriller starring Pacino. But for all its unoriginality, it still manages to be a very entertaining film. With the exception of Pacino, the acting for the most part is fairly sub-par. Few of the secondary characters manage to completely inhabit their characters convincingly, but the film clips along at the kind of pace that leaves little room to care about less-than-stellar acting.

In a movie like this, plot and narrative are usually the most important elements. Fortunately for "88 Minutes," these qualities are its strongest. The story line never veers beyond the realms of plausibility. Simultaneously, the audience is made aware of a web of secrets and undiscovered back-story that leaves enough room for the unexpected. It's never quite clear exactly how clean Gramm's record is, and his loose morals reinvigorate the possibility that perhaps all is not as it seems.

Like any good psycho-thriller, the movie plays out in such a way as to keep the audience involved. After all, half the fun of a mystery thriller is trying to figure it out before the film reveals the answers. Having said that, "88 Minutes" manages to keep some of its secrets well under wraps, while it does not preserve others as well. It's likely that many in the audience will figure out who the bad guy is long before the credits roll. It is equally possible the rest of the audience will be thoroughly impressed with a surprise ending.

While other thrillers rely solely on a jarring score or images of carnage to stimulate the audience, "88 Minutes" makes use of a variety of cinematic devices to hold the viewer's attention. That is not to say the film, at times, is without a boisterous soundtrack or its fair share of blood. Quite the contrary: the opening scene, in which the Seattle Slayer claims another victim, is quite unnerving. The movie manages to hold the audience in its grip until the end. That's about all a mid-range psycho-thriller usually attempts to do, so that makes "88 Minutes" a success.