Tense and suspenseful thriller film with a stunning race against time. This Hichcockian movie deals about a forensic psychologist and University professor with tortured past named Jack Grimm (Al Pacino ) who receives a phone call telling him which has only eighty eight minutes to live. Jack was witness on trail against serial killer Jon Foster (Neal McDonough)and influenced the tribunal to condemn him to death row. In narrow time he desperately seeks to communicate with a problematic student (Ben McKenzie,OC),his associate Shelby (Amy Brenneman),assistant (Alicia Witt),his friend and FBI agent(William Forsythe),a security guard (Brendan Fletcher) and University dean (Deborah Kara Unger). Meanwhile being pursued by a delinquent (Stephen Moyer) and besieged by numerous threatening cellular calls.

Gripping, original action movie with Al Pacino desperately trying to find the means avoid to be murdered. Acceptable thriller full of intrigue and tense, this is a fast-paced, stylized action-suspense film. The tension of this picture keeps snowballing as the clock ticks ever close for continuous killings. The tale appears to unfold in real time as the many on cellular calls will verify. Most unusual is the device of having the victim play desperado and hunt the killer, and saving himself, as time runs out. The flick is well filmed in Seattle, Washington State and Vancouver ,British Columbia , Canada. Casting is frankly magnificent, Al Pacino as tormented psychiatrist, unsettling when approaches his last minutes of life, though Neal McDonough takes honors as a psychopath who attempts to turn the tables on the victims before Pacino can save them. Plus, a good secondary cast, such as William Forsythe, Deborah Kara Unger, and Stephen Moyer, among them. Adequate musical score accompanying the action by Ed Shearmur and inventively photographed by Denis Lenoir, both of whom share his skills in the following John Avnet's movie ¨Righteous kill¨ also with Al Pacino and Trilby Glover who again plays a defense attorney. The motion picture is regularly directed by John Avnet because of it contains some gaps and flaws. Avnet is a nice director who achieved his greatest success with ¨Fried green tomatoes¨ and ¨Up close and personal¨ and failures as ¨The war¨. He directed and produced some hits, though today also making TV movies as the excellent ¨The uprising ¨ and television episodes.

I don't think that Al Pacino is a bad actor. I know he can act and he can do it well. Maybe he was just annoyed with the quality of the script. Or maybe he needed a quick buck. I have no idea what happened in this film, but the results were dreadful.

Let me start with the plot: typical race thriller. Personally involved strong character (usually a cop) is on the clock to solve some problem or else. No one helps him, sometimes they even stand in his way, while he battles the odds. In this particular version the hero is personally involved, but does not show it, the people around him try to help, but they are either completely incompetent or pushed away by the very person they are trying to help or (most of the time) Pacino's character doesn't even tell them he is in need of help. As for the time limit, it is an arbitrary time limit that he can completely ignore if he really wants to. And as for the strength of the thrill... I guessed the killer in the first 10 minutes of the film. And not just by looking at the cast or reading magical runes. It was blatantly obvious.

Then the acting. Everyone acts sub standard, but Al Pacino is the worse. He doesn't seem to care a bit about anything in the movie. He is supposed to be a rational FBI profiler that puts logic before his feelings, but he comes out as slightly bored by the badly written intricacies of the plot.

So, shame on people that use clichés and aging famous actors to win some easy money, but even more shame to people that can't even get a cliché right. Watch some movies first, then make others. Gee!

I think that what people read our reviews is to find out whether or not the movie is worth the time or whether they should watch it so lets cut the crappy "I need attention" reviews okay... Yeah its worth the watch... it was fun and suspenseful to some people. Bottom line here is that it will not bore you. Have time on your hands? Need to watch a movie you haven't seen? then just got for it. You will not be blown away but you will be entertained for the hour and 42 minutes it runs.

I mean truly, its a movie... Heres how I seen it, Did the movie entertain you through the time? yes. Was a bit predictable? yes. Did it at least attempt to come up with a good plot twist? Yes! I mean this is not Pacino's best, but a decent watch none the less. I may not watch this twice on my own but if a friend didn't see it, I'd watch it with them. This isn't being soft on the movie either, it's being realistic... It had a plot, wasn't in my worst top 10, though it wasn't in my best but truly, it wasn't as painful as most threatened. Yeah we all wish that we can see another God Father or Scarface but less we forget, Pacino's an amazing actor, NOT in any way shape or form A producer/ Writer. He played his character well but some feel the script could've been made a little batter or not at all... Sorry to say I think this had a better twist then Righteous Kill. The bad scripts are still scripts none the less, if anyone thinks they can do/ write that much better then maybe you should bring your ingenious script writing to Hollywood, till then, we will watch what we have. Not so bad of a movie OK, worth the watch in my honest opinion, please feel free to respond!