A poor inept movie - just eat the popcorn and read a book instead.
Written: Apr 25 '08
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Ummm...the popcorn was great.
Cons: Poor plot - lots of holes in the plot - no cohesion.
The Bottom Line: This movie takes a plot that has been done a 100 times before and ruins it. There is no cohesion or flow. Avoid it - eat the popcorn ONLY.
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| quitesimply's Full Review: 88 Minutes |
OK so I love my Netlfix subscription – and no I do not get a fee from them for mentioning them in almost every opinion – but I decided to do something unorthodox and actually go and see a movie while is was still in the movie theater….what was I thinking?!
I admire Al Pacino. He’s had an illustrious career and starred in some great movies – Scent of a Woman being one that instantly springs to mind; mostly though he has starred in ‘rugged’ thriller movies that usually involve an assortment of guns and bad guys. Through the years he has starred in a few turkeys, but none have been quite as inane or less entertaining than this one. SO – my advice – don’t waste your money on this movie – no need to read the rest of my review even!!!
OK so you’re still here I guess…so I better write something…
88 Minutes is billed to be a thriller – it’s supposed to inspire terror and keep you on the edge of your seat. The clips you see in the trailer are perhaps the only ones you need to see. Take a book with you if you must go and watch this
Al Pacino smoothly slips into the role of a forensic psychologist – apparently he is world renowned and even the Pope has heard of him Ok so I made that up, but the movie implies that he is known by all even though it isn’t thoroughly explained why. As with any famous person there are those that adore and love him and those that hate him . Of course, one of these haters just happens to have his phone number – and guess wot? – he calls Al and gives him 88 minutes to live.
Now we delve more in Pacino’s character. Jack Gramm is a womanizing alcoholic How original – only seen that kind of character in a hundred movies before - oh, and his sister was murdered. Then he testifies against a serial killer – Jon Forster – and of course this Forster blames Gramm entirely well I guess there wouldn’t be a movie if he didn’t blame Gramm eh and therefore decides to seek a nasty end for Pacino.
OK – I really don’t know why I sat down in the theater. The plot is so much like so many other movies it’s incredible that anyone paid to see it. Like most of the other 100 movies along the same line, the plot is unbelievable and implausible. Why the bad guy simply doesn’t grab a gun and shoot Gramm is a mystery.
I guess it’s similar to the movies where the bad guy has defeated the good guy, goes into a ten minute spiel about how he is going to dominate the world, thus giving the good guy time to recover and kill the bad guy
To add to this there are many other things that don’t make sense…I read a review prior to the movie (and should have listened to it) – they mentioned a scene where Gramm’s Porsche is vandalized, only to appear in the next scene back to it’s original condition – this just kills the whole flow of the movie, and adds to the unbelievable factor.
Now where was I…oh yes..the plot…well if you watch House one of my favorite TV shows where he has a bunch of young doctors’s doing all the investigation into a medical problem…then you’ll see a strange parallelism in this movie as Gramm just happens to have a classroom full of budding investigators – during one of his classes Gramm is interrupted by several phone calls – umm ominous threatening phone calls that are ominous and threatening. OK so that sounds like a stupid line, but I almost laughed out loud as I watched the movie develop – it was so….stupid!!! I was looking for a really long and interesting word here, but stupid fits…thank you Forrest Gump!
Ok I’m not going into that much more of the plot as there really isn’t much more – you can guess what happens – the psychology expert tries to get into the mind of the guy who is ‘teasing’ him – it is supposed to get really suspenseful…hmmmm…YAWN
So why didn’t it work? There have been 100 movies just like this, and someone must think the formula works. I’ve watched movies with Colin Farrel, Robin Williams and a whole bunch of other movies use the same formula, and some of those have been pretty good.
I guess that this movie just doesn’t set up well – the inadequate character building, and the poor and contrived plot makes you really wonder why you are here – as you move through each plot point, at times getting very confused I saw many people in the movie theater turn to their friends with questioning looks at several parts of the movie. There doesn’t seem to be any cohesion in the movie – the flow is off (see my Porsche comment) and some of the scenes don’t really have relevance to the plot overall.
I felt sorry for Pacino – he is a great actor – but I cringed at some of the ‘text’ spewing from his mouth – you could almost see him cringe at the words he was saying…
All I can say is that you should avoid this movie…it simply doesn’t provide anything new, and foesn’t do the old stuff any justice….poor poor movie…what a waste of $9….
At this point I would have to say that the popcorn was excellent…just enough butter..and plenty of saltiness…..at least the jaunt to the movie theater did me some good…..Netflix can you accept my apology for deserting you for the day
Recommended:
No
Movie Mood: Die-hard Fans Only
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Everything
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Epinions.com ID:
quitesimply
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Member: Simon Cook
Location: Manchester NJ USA
Reviews written: 67
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
English Geek in the USA (Sounds like an update on a Sting song?)
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