The last horror, thriller or suspense film you watched

Some movies come along that make you wonder if existence is but a cruel joke played on us measly mortals by capricious gods.

88 Minutes (2007, dir. Jon Avnet) is a good piece of evidence in favor of that theory.



This is fabulously, fantastically bad. Every single thing in it is so unintentionally hilarious that it seems like director Jon Avnet, writer Gary Scott Emerson, and 19—count ’em, 19!—other producers, executive producers, associate producers, line producers, and co-producers were trying to get it wrong.

Do I even need to say Pacino is dreadful? He gives a long monologue on his sister’s death and then snaps, “OK, time to go home.” Somehow, his performance here is even worse than in the equally bad—but less fun—Hangman (2017), in which he’s clearly there just for a paycheck. Here it feels like he’s sorta trying in some scenes but failing to deliver a single good moment or even line reading.

Speaking of lines, I don’t know Gary Scott Emerson, but he apparently thinks human beings speak in shouty exposition to each other. (It’s not only Pacino who gets to get shouty either!) Pacino has this one gem of a line when a university dean, whom he knows well, enters the room: “Ah, Dean Johnson.” She gets to speak the equally scintillating “Someone called in a bomb threat. Everyone evacuate the building immediately. Thank you.” That thank you just adds the perfect, beautiful bad-movie touch.

Avnet’s direction is so bad that, as the late, great critic Ken Hanke pointed out in his review, the viewer thinks it took nine years for a seaplane to take off. Note that the seaplane has nothing to do with the movie. It is in there simply to make the flick seem more artsy. The pretentiousness, needless to say, is just the icing on the cake.

This is a masterpiece of bad movie making. It should be used in the dictionary to define “so bad it’s good.”

EDIT: Forgot to note that I know why Pacino agreed to the project. He gets to surround himself with hot women, all of whom find a 67-year-old, disco-haired, paunchy, unshaven psychology professor the man of their dreams.

They covered this movie on How Did This Get Made? and it's one of their funniest episodes. It made me sit down and watch this. I had a good time. 

The Hidden Hand 1942 with Milton Parsons and Cecil Cunningham as siblings, he has escaped from an insane asylum with her help, to scare other relatives away who is just waiting for her to die and inherit money. She lives in a big house filled with trap doors and secret passages. The hero is played by the future star of 1950'sTV-series Peter Gunn, Craig Stevens.
This is mostly played for laughs, and is quit entertaining for it's 65 minutes or so.

This actor Milton Parsons (1904-1980), is one of those actors whose face seems to be made for playing insane characters, though maybe not in all 99 movies he acted in.

The City of the Dead (1960) aka Horror Hotel. Atmospheric B&W horror about devil worshiping witches in a small (and very foggy) New England town who must make 2 human sacrifices a year. Christopher Lee has a supporting role. 6/10.

Surprisingly not a bad flick. Slow to start but a decent thriller. 6/10

Horrible but almost charming its so bad. Gory as hell but the guts all looks like raw chicken. 2/10

A refreshingly demented experience. Susan Tyrell knocks it out of the park as the crazy aunt who loves her nephew just a little too much, while Bo Svenson just spews filth everywhere, increasing the "ick" factor by at least 50% every time he is on screen. This film also features a badass logging truck death that predates Final Destination 2 by two decades as well as a surprisingly competent portrayal of a gay man who is just... a character in the movie and not a source for cheap jokes.

8/10