88 Minutes is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Jon Avnet starring Al Pacino, Benjamin McKenzie, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Deborah Kara Unger, Amy Brenneman, and Neal McDonough. Filming began in the Vancouver area on October 8, 2005 and wrapped in December 2005. The film was released in various territories during 2007.
In May 2007, TriStar Pictures acquired all United States distribution rights of 88 Minutes;[3] TriStar Pictures released this film in the United States theatrically on April 18, 2008.
Plot
The film opens in 1997 with a scene of an unknown assailant breaking into the home of two sisters. After one goes to sleep, the attacker subdues one of them using halothane and murders her after raping her and torturing her by hanging her upside down with latches and rope. The assailant then rapes and tortures the other sister when she wakes up but she is not killed. After police questioning, the attacker, Jon Forster, is convicted by a jury after forensic professor Jack Gramm testifies against him in court. As Gramm leaves, Forster taunts him, saying "Tick tock Doc."
Nine years later, on the day Forster is to be executed at midnight, several similar torture murders with very similar modi operandi occur. Gramm is questioned but released. On the way to his class, he receives a threatening phone call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live. He reports the threat to Shelly, his secretary, and brushes off the threat. He receives another call while teaching, and he becomes suspicious of the students. A dean, Carol, enters the classroom and warns of a bomb threat, telling everyone to leave. Gramm finds written threats in the classroom. He goes to the parking lot to see that his car has been vandalized with a similar threat.
Later, one of his students, Lauren Douglas, is attacked by an unknown assailant. Gramm reports this to the police after questioning nearby people. He later discovers through a tape that someone had accessed his secure files. On the tape is a little girl, scared, saying Gramm's name many times and asking for help. The sound of a door breaking down and the girl screaming is heard. The screaming stops seconds later. With the help of his teaching assistant Kim, Gramm tries to notify authorities while trying to uncover Forster's past at the same time.
Later, Carol tells Gramm to meet her at a location, giving Gramm a similar threat. Gramm then tells Kim that the girl on the tape was his 12 year old sister, Kate. Gramm was 28 years old and was working on a case about a man killing six women. He almost caught the murderer of the women, but the murderer eluded Gramm. Because Gramm almost captured him, the man got back at Gramm by killing his sister. Gramm mentions "he did...things...to my baby sister. He did things that you wouldn't do to an animal that was bred for slaughter...Anyway, when they caught him, he laughed and said 'it took him 88 minutes. It took him 88 minutes to hack my sister to bits'". Soon after, Kim calls Gramm with a similar threat like Carol's. Before leaving, he manages to convince Special Agent Parks to make a rendezvous with him. Gramm arrives and finds that Forster's appeals attorney, Lydia Doherty (who is actually Lauren under a pseudonym), had set this up and was working with Forster all this time. Carol has been hung over a balcony while Kim has been tied up. Lauren threatens Gramm with a gun and forces him to "confess" that he gave false details at the trial, but Parks arrives and shoots Lauren, causing both Carol and Lauren to fall. Gramm tries to save both of them but Lauren comes loose and falls to her death. However, he manages to save Carol. When Forster calls, Gramm tells him that Lauren is dead and that Forster only has 12 hours to live. Gramm then has thoughts of Kate.
Cast
Production
Jon Avnet replaced James Foley as director. Shero Rauf was the digital effects artist for the film.
Filming locations
The university scenes in the film were shot at the University of British Columbia (UBC) near Vancouver, which stood in for a fictional Northwest Washington University. It attracted much attention on campus (mainly due to Pacino's presence in the film) and filming was interrupted repeatedly because of it. This also could have been because many integral scenes were filmed in the busiest areas of campus during peak class hours. It was common for students to exit buildings after class only to walk into a shooting location.
Scenes were also shot on the campus of UCLA. The filming was secretive and did not draw as much attention as it did at UBC.[citation needed]
The Canadian location is much in evidence when Pacino enters a cab early in the film, with a Shoppers Drug Mart store and a Canada Post mailbox in the background. The cab passes a "licensed" establishment. In the middle of the movie there's a scene with a Roots Canada store in the background.
Critical reception
88 Minutes was heavily panned by critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 5% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 120 reviews.[4] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 17 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.[5]
Box office performance
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $6,957,216 in 2,168 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking fourth at the box office and averaging $3,209 per theater. In its second weekend, the film grossed $3,593,890 and fell to number eight at the box office.[6] The film's worldwide gross is $32,593,385 with $17,213,467 from the US and Canadian box office and $15,379,918 from the rest of the world.
Home media
88 Minutes was released on September 16, 2008 and sold 220,965 in the opening weekend. As of the seventh week, it has sold about 574,041 units which gathered revenue of $11,150,056 or more than one-third of the budget.[7]
References
External links
