Seeing Al Pacino on the poster was all I needed to know.
Al stars as a Dr. Jack Gramm, a forensic psychiatrist who works for the FBI and as a college professor. Some years previous, he gave testimony that sent a serial murderer to death row.
On the day of the scheduled execution, Dr. Jack is stalked by a copycat killer, who gives him '88 minutes' to live.
Lots of twists and turns, a new suspect every minute, detailsdetailsdetails, as the movie tries to cram in as much 'thriller' elements as possible 'til it just gets tiresome.
A decent bit of entertainment, it's not too bad of a movie. I've seen worse. It's just that this one doesn't live up to it's potential. Pacino delivers a stellar performance,as usual, but his performance can only go so far.
Actually, the entire cast of attractive actresses was capable. Starring Leelee Sobieski,Alicia Witt,Leah Cairns, and a few other lookers. Another downside, now that I think of it: all these pleasant looking babes, and so little nudity. A little gratuitousness would have been appreciated.
Maybe a different director would have made the difference.
10 comments:
Not to sound gay or anything, but I'm usually annoyed when they throw a romance into a perfectly good action/war/western movie- especially sex scenes. As with violence, they're usually just there to make up for plot weaknesses. I'd like to go back to Greek Drama at least as far as keeping sex and violence off the stage and showcasing the plot as the source of entertainment. Al Pacino would be even more stellar as Agamemnon in the Orestes series.
For such a good actor Pacino has made a surprising number of not very good films. I can't think of one post-70's movie of his that has really lived up to his potential. They just don't make Al Pacino films any more I guess.
scarface was in the 80's.
also,more recently:
scent of woman, carlito's way, any given sunday,donnie brasco.
true: he doesnt pick 'em as well as deniro does,though.
revolution? (85). what the hell was he thinkin?
I am huge Pacino fan. Scarface and the Godfathers being my all time favorite. Carlito's Way and Any Given Sunday were also good.
My b-day is Saturday, I may just have to take myself to the movies!
Heat. Quite possibly one of the finest films ever made.
Also, The Devil's Advocate was very fun to watch, if not strictly, you know, good...
brian: i left out 'heat' for the reason being it was also a deniro film. and deniro only picks good films.
barn goddess: same here. there are two actors, pacino and deniro, where i'll go blindly into the theater not knowing what i'm seeing except for what the poster outside shows me.
Brian - Devil's Advocate, whenever I think of that flick I think of the horrible, horrible bad edits towards the end - Pacino's vest is open, then shut, then open, then shut... it's one of the few examples where I picked up on a bad edit with the first viewing.
I like Pacino. I love Deniro.
"...deniro only picks good films."
Whaaaaa....?
Um, Meet the Fockers, Analyze That...
But yeah, overall he's got Al beat on the ratio of good:horrible...
Take Fockers and the Analyze movies with a grain of salt... along with his part in Startdust... his ability to have such a great sense of humor and timing with comedy makes the movies worth watching - if for no other reason than to be amused by the comparison of characters from these to the likes of his roll in Casino.
he had to take Fockers. but Parents was a good movie.
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