Eye Candy #28 - "88 Minutes"

88 Minutes: An odd little thriller (not in real-time as the title might suggest) populated by people who are largely caustic and unsympathetic. Al Pacino is Dr. Jack Gramm, a forensic psychologist who works with the FBI. He’s recently helped convict suspected serial killer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) and is basking in the glory of helping take another killer off the streets. However, he receives a phone call telling him that he’s only got 88 minutes to live, and this new killer is somehow tied to Forster (who is in prison) and is whacking female colleagues and students close to Gramm. So Gramm has to figure out who is doing what to save his own life and those of several of his friends, all while contending with evidence implicating him as the killer and contentious students who may or may not be involved (I had no idea most psychology grad students were complete, self-absorbed jerks, but apparently in Hollywoodland, it’s true). In support we’ve got William Forsythe, Alicia Witt (who I’ve always had a crush on), Amy Brenneman, Deborah Unger (who is given barely anything to do), and Leelee Sobieski (who I don’t think can act her way out of a paper bag). The main problem with the film is this – the characters populating this film don’t act like real people. They don’t speak like real people, they don’t behave like real people, and as such, they are darn near unrelatable. And that makes it hard when the bodies start to pile up to give a hoot about anything that’s going on, particularly when they telegraph the killer out so far in advance that when it’s finally revealed (seeing as the character hasn’t shown up in the better part of an hour when it finally happens), it comes as a surprise to no one but the characters in the film. Disappointing, but not complete garbage because...well, it has Alicia Witt in it and she's easy on the eyes. Certainly could have been better. Woodchuck sez, “Meh.”