It's 1997. Serial killer Seattle Slayer murders Joanie Cates with her twin sister Janie surviving. Forensic psychiatrist and college professor Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) testifies and sends Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) to death row for the crime. Then another girl is murdered with the same MO. The question becomes whether this is a copycat, or a companion killer, or that Forster is actually innocent. The latest victim was Jack Gramm's student and patient. Shelly Barnes (Amy Brenneman) is his loyal assistant. Kim Cummings (Alicia Witt), Lauren Douglas (Leelee Sobieski) and Mike Stempt (Ben McKenzie) are some of his students. Then he gets a call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live. Dean Johnson (Deborah Kara Unger) tells the class about a bomb threat and he notices somebody had written 76 minutes to live. So it goes.It's never really set up how a forensic psychiatrist sends somebody to death row all by himself. There needs to be some kind of explanation at the start. It needs to show him at his work. Without a proper setup, it's all muddy. I couldn't buy into Al Pacino's character and I couldn't care about what's going on. The movie throws a lot of characters on the screen and everybody is a suspect. Yet I couldn't care about any of them. The 88 minutes countdown is suppose to be a real time tension builder. It just serves to countdown when this movie finally ends.

Pacino looks like he's melting on screen and starting the film off watching this geezer dancing like he's hip in a trendy club in slow motion is comically off the mark and absurd. 88 Minutes is unfortunately 108 minutes and wisely director James Foley, who worked with Pacino on Glengarry Glen Ross left the project before shooting began and was replaced by the less than stellar Jon Avnet. This stinker rotted on the shelf for over two years before being released to critics who disemboweled it and audiences who ignored it. In what I can only assume what was written for a much, MUCH younger leading man, Pacino is about as hilariously miscast as they come. Women swoon over him and he has the sexual voracity of a 20 year old, yet beyond offering an AARP discount to these women, Pacino is about as off putting as abandoned soiled underwear. Once the high concept plot kicks in, we're subjected to leaps of logic and and really terrible Leelee Sobieski acting. Everyone is a red herring and the killer(s) motives are so convoluted and complicated that the plot depends on the most ludicrous decisions and senseless actions ever made by a thinking race.http://www.boxofficeflops.com/yearly-breakdowns/2008-2/88-minutes/

88 Minutes is one of those movies which keeps you glued to the screen till the very last second. Al Pacino is surely a great actor whom he presents himself with a calm yet attentive personality throughout the whole film as Jack. Thus, his character is one of those reasons you get goose bums all the way during the movie. His students are presented as people who are young and are attending his lessons so that he will teach them what to do in circumstances they are dealing with throughout their studies. Yet, the story takes an unexpected turn when you get to see that they too have their own experiences, sometimes greater then his. Ultimately still, the man with the greatest experience wins. Meanwhile the serial killer is trying to end Jack's life from prison and the plot is interesting in a way that this is done through his students. So the same innocent young students are turned into an unbelievable whole different character to show their teacher what are they worth. It is a fast moving movie, full of suspicions and exciting turn out all the way through. Surely recommend to those who like action movies and a good story!

I really like these kinds of Mystery Thriller movies .They make fell exited .I like to follow them to see what would happen next,especially when they are so well performed like this one.Al Pacino is perfect as always.He plays the role of an experienced psychiatrist in a very cool way.I think if he was so stressed out and if he did strange things to keep himself alive it would have been unbelievable but now his great cool performance is acceptable.The ending is wise enough to make us amazed.Great music and wonderful cinematography style don't leave the audience alone.Any way I loved it and I do think it deserves a better rating in IMDb.