88 MINUTES
RYAN: I couldn’t be bothered to see “88 Minutes” with you since it was made more than two years ago and has been sitting on a shelf ever since – until now.
CAROLINE: Yes, that’s never a good sign. I’m not sure why they decided to release it now; maybe they thought the world wanted another Al Pacino movie. And it stars an actress you really like, Alicia Witt.
RYAN: I do like her, primarily because she guest starred on “Ally McBeal.”
CAROLINE: She purses her lips a lot, which annoys me. Not as much as Renée Zellweger, but enough that it’s distracting.
RYAN: I’ve never loved Al Pacino though.
CAROLINE: I like him, but he has an inexplicable bouffant hairdo these days. One warning though; this movie also co-stars one of our least favorite actresses, Leelee Sobieski.
RYAN: Ugh, I can barely tolerate her. Though I did love her in “Eyes Wide Shut.”
CAROLINE: Well, she hasn’t done anything good since then, and she’s painfully bad in this movie. And the leather pants she wears at the end are atrocious.
RYAN: So how’s the movie in general?
CAROLINE: It started strong. The first half hour was pretty interesting, but maybe it was only because I wasn’t expecting much. The premise is that someone is trying to kill Al Pacino and he’s only got 88 minutes to live. He plays a forensic psychiatrist, and I dig all that serial killer and forensics stuff, so that part was interesting to me. But the movie lost steam as it went along. And it was kinda predictable who his would-be killer turns out to be.
RYAN: How very irritating.
CAROLINE: And the movie is a lot longer than 88 minutes, so it feels like false advertising.
RYAN: I wonder why Al Pacino took this role. I mean, did you walk away thinking, “Wow, this was a role he clearly had to play”?
CAROLINE: Not at all. Maybe he owed someone a favor. And it’s not like the other actors are so great either, other than Amy Brenneman, who I like a lot these days because of TV’s “Private Practice.”
RYAN: So if you’re looking to see a suspenseful movie, is this one to see on the big screen or can you wait to rent it?
CAROLINE: You can definitely wait. And it’s really not a must-see at all, though it’s not the worst movie ever made either. It’s got some pretty gruesome murder scenes though. It reminded me a little bit of that Diane Lane movie, “Untraceable,” which we saw earlier this year.
RYAN: Bottom line?
CAROLINE: You don’t have to see this movie. We’re on the cusp of all the good movies coming out, so you should skip this one and wait for “Iron Man.”