DVDFile

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2008 / 107 Minutes / R
Street Date: September 16, 2008

It’s funny how a few added years and the fear that you might not be a bankable name anymore can color an actor’s choice of material. Some might argue that a great actor like Nicolas Cage has been slumming it in films like Ghost Rider or the more recent Bangkok Dangerous, but I think he’s still doing what makes him happy without regard for the attached paycheck, even if the projects aren’t connecting with a wide audience. Now an iconic figure like Al Pacino is a different story altogether. Having started out of the gate with an amazingly strong and impressive career, he’s only of late been tripped up by projects that are decidedly inferior to the bulk of his film canon. But when you consider his stellar work in The Godfather films, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Scent of a Woman and Donnie Brasco, just to name a few, I suppose it’s always going to be difficult to live up such high standards.

Not that 88 Minutes is the complete flop many critics would have you believe. I went into it with low expectations and found something admirable in Pacino’s valiant attempt to salvage the inept plot mechanics. To be fair, were Pacino not the star and the major draw here, it might even pass as a minor guilty pleasure with a lesser name in the lead. But since this is, in fact, an Al Pacino movie with his name prominently above the title, it will inevitably be judged accordingly. And while this may have all the markings of a job-for-hire, I have to give Pacino the benefit of the doubt since he obviously enjoyed the experience of working with director Jon Avnet enough to team up with him again for this year’s Righteous Kill, co-starring none other than Robert De Niro. (Although reviews for that haven’t been flattering, either.)

At least the premise of 88 Minutes is an attention-getter: Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino), a noted and respected forensic psychiatrist and college professor, gets a call on his cell phone one morning while heading to class telling him he only has 88 minutes to live. Years earlier Dr. Gramm’s expert testimony was key in convicting an accused serial killer named Jon Forster (Neal McDonough), also known as “The Seattle Slasher.” Not coincidentally, on the very day Gramm gets this cryptic call, Forster is slated to be executed, and one of Gramm’s students is also found murdered with the same modus operandi as the Seattle Slasher. Gramm immediately suspects this is the work of a copycat killer; someone who is either a fan of the Seattle Slasher or working with him to prove his innocence and get a stay of execution.

But FBI agents with whom Dr. Gramm has worked even start wondering about whether his testimony against Forster was as rock-solid as they first thought. The waters get further muddied when connections between Gramm and the student-victim are revealed, and other students in his class start questioning how his expert opinion could be beyond a shadow of a doubt. As more and more circumstantial evidence starts piling up against Dr. Gramm in the latest killing, he has to work fast to prove Forster is behind the scheme before his remaining 88 minutes are up. But the more manic and distracted he becomes, the more suspicious and guilty he begins to look. And the calls keeps coming – gently reminding the doctor that time is running out.

With few people he can inherently trust, Dr. Gramm seeks help from student-assistant Kim Cummings (Alicia Witt) in tracking down the mysterious phone calls which are placed from an unregistered, pay-as-you-go cell phone. His trusty secretary Shelly Barnes (Amy Brenneman, wasted here) also does her best to do extensive background checks into everyone he encounters within the limited timeframe. Meanwhile, his one closest FBI connection, Special Agent Frank Parks (William Forsythe), gives Gramm the benefit of the doubt, although he’s torn when all the evidence suggests otherwise. Without spoiling anything, our natural tendency to root for Gramm is well-rewarded in the end, although the ultimate resolution is a bit contrived and predictable.

A far cry from his most memorable roles, Pacino does an admirable job of making Dr. Gramm a credible character. His performance is a bit subdued, but I prefer it to some of his more manic, over-the-top interpretations in Any Given Sunday or The Devil’s Advocate. The thing that’s obviously lacking throughout 88 Minutes is a cohesive directorial style and a better conceived final act. Director Jon Avnet fails to guide any of his actors – which may be fine for seasoned veterans like Pacino and Forsythe, but the younger members of the cast seem utterly lost. Even competent actresses like Alicia Witt and Leelee Sobieski walk through their scenes like the robotic kids in Village of the Damned. And instead of the intended “a-ha” moment the ending was striving for, I just sat there trying to wrap my head around how this one person was capable of accomplishing everything alone.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s original 2.35:1 aspect ratio is presented in a very good but slightly muted high-definition transfer using the AVC video CODEC. It amazes me how all these years later David Fincher’s Se7en still inspires the look of many serial-killer movies – with their desaturated color scheme that borders on black and white. 88 Minutes assumes that same palette, with a preponderance of grays and blues that give the film an oddly washed-out look. While the transfer is sharp and clear revealing fine details like the salt-and-pepper whiskers in Pacino’s hip goatee, the consistent lack of vivid color tended to mar the overall look of the transfer. Black levels also skewed a bit gray as a result and the flesh tones all took on a pale hue. Color balance, such as it is, was good and the encode revealed no signs of compression artifacts, black crush or edge enhancement. To be fair, this seems to be a good video transfer – the problems with the ultimate look of the film are apparently due to the source material and the filmmakers’ intended print processing. Overall, a decent but underwhelming video presentation, though it is faithful to the artistic look of the source.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track fares a little better than the video presentation on this disc. The full and enveloping mix offers nice front channel separation, discrete surround effects, deep and solid bass, and strong midrange. There’s a couple of big effects scenes, such as a car explosion, that make the most of the six-channel track, providing a loud and aggressive soundstage. Dialogue remains clear and concise through the center channel and the LFE channel remains active and punchy. The original score by Ed Shearmur (Charlie’s Angels) is prominent throughout and encompasses both front and rear channels. Overall, a very good audio presentation.

The optional subtitles are in English SDH, English and French.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The BD is surprisingly lean on bonus material, and most of it is courtesy of director Jon Avnet. He first contributes a solo feature-length running audio commentary track that starts out with some interesting insights but soon disintegrates into a lot of look-see comments that become redundant. While I understand and appreciate it takes a certain hubris to be a feature film director – especially one wrangling big-name stars like Al Pacino – Avnet really comes across as quite arrogant and egocentric at times. Although he doesn’t talk much about how the project came to fruition, the script was shopped around for some time before he was chosen to helm it – a point backed up by a list of producers longer than the cast. Had Avnet been more successfull in bringing the whole thing together, I might have taken his comments a bit more seriously.

Next is an alternate ending (10:02) that’s really more of an extended ending since the film’s outcome doesn’t change at all. This includes just a short coda tagged onto the theatrical cut that shows Jack Gramm addressing a group in his classroom that only offers about three minutes of new material. The other seven minutes are a verbatim replay of the ending as-is, which seems a bit pointless.

There are two featurettes beginning with Director’s Point of View (7:46). Again, Avnet is the star of his own show here and he talks about his intent in presenting this basic serial-killer whodunit as a high-profile drama. He also heaps praise on Pacino and noted how committed he was to the project – so much so, that after falling asleep during a read-through of the script, he immediately wanted to resume work. Maybe Pacino should have taken that impromptu nap as a sign. Next is The Character Within (7:48), where Pacino himself talks about how he likes to dissect a character he’s playing and create him from the ground up. It’s an interesting but brief peek into Pacino’s acting process.

The BD includes the standard Sony Blu-Ray promo reel along with the trailers for Prom Night, Made of Honor, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, 21, Vantage Point, Untraceable, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Felon.

The 107-minute film is divided into sixteen chapters.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Final Thoughts

Although it’s not quite as atrocious as the scathing reviews suggest, 88 Minutes is certainly a minor entry in Al Pacino’s impressive portfolio that’s only slightly elevated by his own respectable performance. Director Jon Avnet squanders a promising premise and wastes a talented cast with a predictable and ultimately incredible resolution. Despite a good audio presentation, the film’s colorless palette doesn’t do justice to the high definition format. Factor in a meager collection of bonus material and this BD is not recommended.

Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide. Our I.T. people are still hard at work on a large project and have not yet had the time to modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the new 0-to-10 rating scales. So until they do, for HD on disc, I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.