88 Minutes

Day 180 - 6/29/09 - Movie #180

BEFORE: Al Pacino vs. a serial killer. My on-screen programming guide only gave this 2 out of 4 stars. Hmm....

THE PLOT: A thriller about a college professor who, while moonlighting as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI, receives a death threat telling him that he has only 88 minutes to live.

AFTER: Just a bit too twisty. Pacino's character, Dr. Jack Gramm, did himself no favors by surrounding himself with young, beautiful women who he might have one-night-stands with - plus there are students, colleagues, patients - which of them might be connected to the Seattle Slayer? And are the recent killings (timed to occur right before the convicted Slayer's execution, possibly in an attempt to exonerate him) the work of a copycat - or perhaps the real Slayer?

Everyone close to Gramm becomes a suspect - anyone with a cell phone and a voice-changing device, that is... Gramm is given 88 minutes to live, and the killer offers no details on how the death will occur - but they've obviously taken great pains to predict how Gramm will react over the next hour and a half. The movie itself is 107 minutes long, but when you add in the intro sequences, plus the wrap-up and closing credits, it's possible that the death threat plays out in something close to real time. Kudos to the filmmakers if that's the case, and shame on them for a missed opportunity if it's not.

And I'm reminded of the old saying - it's not paranoia if the people around you are, in fact, out to get you.

RATING: 4 out of 10 carrabiners