Movie Review - "88 Minutes"

This movie survives based upon Al Pacino's earthy charm and roughneck, gritty personality. Despite a couple of weirdly situated plot holes he is able to keep you in a relatively breathless nerve-jangling lockdown for the duration. But with a charismatic guy like Pacino around, whom you can pretty much follow wherever he takes you, this mind-boggling maze, even if the 88 minute timeline seems rather stretched, is well worth the wait. I give it 3-1/2 Stars.

SYNOPSIS: Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is a renowned forensic psychiatrist and college professor who works with the FBI profiling serial killers. One of his famous trials in which he gave expert testimony was the case of Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) aka "The Seattle Slasher". Jon Forster believed that he was sentenced to death based primarily on Gramms manipulated testimony against him to the jury. The day before Forster is scheduled to be executed; one of Gramms students is killed in Seattle in a "Modus-Operandi" that matches that of the "Seattle Slasher". If the "Seattle Slasher" is still killing women, then Forster must be an innocent man. Gramm believes that this murder is the work of a copycat killer, and he sets out to prove it. When the news hits all the TV channels, Forster asks for a stay of execution. In the meantime, Gramm receives a threatening phone call that tells him that he has only 88 minutes to live. Then another dead woman is discovered who was also killed by the same "MO". Gramm must solve the case before his time (88 minutes) runs out, "TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK".