Posts Tagged ‘Al Pacino’
88 Minutes (2007)
Al Pacino! What’s gotten into you?!?
I consider Al The Godfather of acting. The 7-time Oscar-nominated, and 1-time Oscar-winning, actor is at the top of my “Favorite Actors” list. So it completely befuddles me why he would star in a movie like this. Perhaps it’s because his name is already etched in the Acting Hall of Fame stone. Or it’s because he knows that no matter what he does, his legacy will remain. But why???
Al’s a womanizing university professor of forensic psychiatry in Seattle. Alicia Witt (from TV’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Ally McBeal), Leelee Sobieski (of Deep Impact, Joan of Arc, and Here on Earth), and Benjamin McKenzie (The OC) are a few of his students. The bad guy is played by Neal McDonough (also the bad guy from Walking Tall).
I’m not going to get into the meat of it because it’s not worth my time. 88 Minutes is a cat and mouse thriller with bad acting, bad directing, and bad writing. I did not, for a moment, sit on the edge of my seat or anything like that.
Director Jon Avnet is losing his touch. I loved his work in the TV series Conviction, Red Corner, and Up Close & Personal.
Whirlygirl (2006)
I’m not sure what happened here… Director Jim Wilson, who produced Message in a Bottle and Dances with Wolves (two of my favorite films), really messed up his resume with this one. Ok, I take that back. This one’s on the writer as well. As bad as the film was written, I finished it. And that’s saying a lot about the director, considering how terrible the film was.
Monet Mazur from Torque (which will probably be the only role you recognize her in) plays Whirlygirl, a stripper who makes her bucks from horny prep schoolers. The guy lead is played by Julian Morris, whom I’ve never heard of until this movie. He’s the prep schooler who falls in love with the stripper. His grades start slipping and his life spins out of control.
Kind of like Scent of a Woman with a stripper twist (which I like), but totally butchered. First off, this guy’s no Chris O’Donnell. And no woman, no matter how hot, tops Al Pacino blind. And that’s final.
