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88 Minutes opens with an intricately choreographed murder that finds a young Seattle woman trussed up like a hog for slaughter. Cut to the present. The murderer has been caught, and the man who helped put the villain on death row is Dr. Jack Gramm (Mr. Pacino), a forensic psychiatrist and professor with young Amazon students (Alicia Witt and Leelee Sobieski) and a sympathetic foil with a badge (William Forsythe). Dr. Jack fields lots of calls from his assistant (Amy Brenneman), but one day he receives a ring-a-ding from someone who says that he has 88 minutes to live … then 82 minutes … and so on.

The narcissistic Dr. Gramm is a typical Pacino character. The plot makes a few twists and since I was looking for some mindless entertainment, I wasn’t overly disturbed that I didn’t figure out who was the guilty party until near the end. While the movie was about 88 Minutes to live, it took a little longer on the big screen.

The movie got horrific reviews, the NY Times blew it out of the water, and Rotten Tomatoes hit only 6%. It was characterized as shockingly inept psychological thriller that expertly squanders the talent at hand. However, I enjoyed it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 jalapeños.