88 Minutes Review

Since when does Al Pacino make stinky movies?
We found ourselves asking this about 12 minutes into the longest 108 minutes of the year.
My husband and I love Al Pacino's acting, and consider him to be a good enough reason to buy a movie ticket. (This club, for me, includes Edward Norton, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Mark Wahlberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman and a few others)

But 88 minutes falls so flat so fast it will leave you sitting there aghast.   First of all (and this is not a spoiler), who gets a death threat that gives them 88 minutes to live but doesn't react at all, and instead just goes to work as if nothing had happened?   Even if you can swallow that, you will find yourself incredulous over cinematic gaffs like a shot where Pacino is holding the phone with one hand, then after a cutaway shot is holding it with the opposite hand.  None of the plot is believable. Many of the characters are cartoon-like.   It's really just super bad.

Al, if you're reading this, I'll tell ya that I think something went haywire with your agent, or...?  Maybe somebody got loosey-goosey with your rights to oversee any script changes?  I just cannot imagine you signing off on this thing.  You're a really great actor, and this was a really lousy movie.   Whaddup, man? 

The Bottom Line:  LIbby Loathes It.