Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

As Good As It Gets

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

In a day when sadism, cruelty, and torture appear on our TV and movie screens on a daily basis, I am surprised that so many people think this movie is awful.Not to say that I wanted to see the cruel things done in this movie. There were many scenes of partially clad young women being strung upside down and cut. Didn't need that. But these scenes were such that this movie stayed within the bounds of R movies, maybe because those scenes were relatively short.I agree with most of the bad reviews to the extent that the acting wasn't great. I usually love Alicia Witt, but why did we need her character? It really didn't make sense that she followed him everywhere, even more closely than his office assistant. I think she was meant to be another red herring, but then, it's obvious she couldn't have been responsible for everything that was happening.The plot was OK, but had many flaws. If Graham was supposed to die after 88 minutes, then why so many attempts before that. The murderer sure got around almost as if the murderer had a teleportation device. If you think in detail about what was done, including planting DNA evidence, the logistics were just about impossible, at least for one person. And the overall purpose, to vindicate Forster, was actually hurt by all the overkill. One body with semen would have been the most convincing, but all the others leave too much chance for error and questioning by the police.But this movie didn't really require any more suspension of reality that most of the shows and movies we have seen about sadistic serial killers who seem to be almost omnipotent. I can name at least two popular TV shows based on FBI agents that have had multiple plots that were more unbelievable.Neal McDonough makes a great psychopath, but they are always pretty much the same performance.

It's 1997. Serial killer Seattle Slayer murders Joanie Cates with her twin sister Janie surviving. Forensic psychiatrist and college professor Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) testifies and sends Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) to death row for the crime. Then another girl is murdered with the same MO. The question becomes whether this is a copycat, or a companion killer, or that Forster is actually innocent. The latest victim was Jack Gramm's student and patient. Shelly Barnes (Amy Brenneman) is his loyal assistant. Kim Cummings (Alicia Witt), Lauren Douglas (Leelee Sobieski) and Mike Stempt (Ben McKenzie) are some of his students. Then he gets a call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live. Dean Johnson (Deborah Kara Unger) tells the class about a bomb threat and he notices somebody had written 76 minutes to live. So it goes.It's never really set up how a forensic psychiatrist sends somebody to death row all by himself. There needs to be some kind of explanation at the start. It needs to show him at his work. Without a proper setup, it's all muddy. I couldn't buy into Al Pacino's character and I couldn't care about what's going on. The movie throws a lot of characters on the screen and everybody is a suspect. Yet I couldn't care about any of them. The 88 minutes countdown is suppose to be a real time tension builder. It just serves to countdown when this movie finally ends.

88 Minutes is one of those movies which keeps you glued to the screen till the very last second. Al Pacino is surely a great actor whom he presents himself with a calm yet attentive personality throughout the whole film as Jack. Thus, his character is one of those reasons you get goose bums all the way during the movie. His students are presented as people who are young and are attending his lessons so that he will teach them what to do in circumstances they are dealing with throughout their studies. Yet, the story takes an unexpected turn when you get to see that they too have their own experiences, sometimes greater then his. Ultimately still, the man with the greatest experience wins. Meanwhile the serial killer is trying to end Jack's life from prison and the plot is interesting in a way that this is done through his students. So the same innocent young students are turned into an unbelievable whole different character to show their teacher what are they worth. It is a fast moving movie, full of suspicions and exciting turn out all the way through. Surely recommend to those who like action movies and a good story!

I really like these kinds of Mystery Thriller movies .They make fell exited .I like to follow them to see what would happen next,especially when they are so well performed like this one.Al Pacino is perfect as always.He plays the role of an experienced psychiatrist in a very cool way.I think if he was so stressed out and if he did strange things to keep himself alive it would have been unbelievable but now his great cool performance is acceptable.The ending is wise enough to make us amazed.Great music and wonderful cinematography style don't leave the audience alone.Any way I loved it and I do think it deserves a better rating in IMDb.