Recently, many remarks have been cracked about running times of movies and the title 88 Minutes. "Is it too much to hope for that 88 Minutes will actually be 88 minutes?" our own James Rocchi asked me not too long ago. 88 minutes is a great running time for a movie, especially for busy critics with lots of movies to see and too many deadlines. You're in an out well before the welcome has worn out. Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons is considered a masterpiece at 88 minutes, even cut down from its original 132. Bill Murray knew the power of 88 minutes when he turned in his final cut of the classic Quick Change (1990). The Woodsman (2004) would have been unbearable at anything longer than 88 minutes. And whatever else you have to say about them, Scary Movie, Sexy Beast, Spy Kids, The Big Bounce, Transporter 2, Wristcutters: A Love Story and Horton Hears a Who! never seemed too long.

But, alas, 88 Minutes runs 108 minutes, and it's too long. Al Pacino (with a poofy, rooster-head haircut) plays high-profile forensic psychologist Jack Gramm, whose testimony was almost solely responsible for the conviction of accused murderer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough). Today, Forster is going to the chair, while maintaining his innocence, and while identical murders are still being committed throughout Seattle. At 10:17 a.m., Gramm gets a call, saying he has 88 minutes left to live. That call comes about a half hour into the movie, and the 88 minutes passes by in an awkward, compressed 70 minutes, give or take, followed by the expected conclusion and credits. Couldn't a cleverer filmmaker have set the movie in real time, and then used flashbacks to do all that boring preliminary stuff? Wouldn't the film have been much better if it just started with a bang, with that phone call?

It was a tough race to call, but looking back and realizing that if I had just swapped Prom Night and Street Kings I would have had a perfect prediction, all I can say is "D'oh!" The slasher reimagining took the lead by quite a margin, with the Keanu Reeves cop drama taking the silver. Say what you will about PG-13 horror and/or horror remakes, but Prom Night made back its $20 million budget in a single weekend, so we can probably expect more of the same. Smart People, last week's third new release, came in seventh. Here's the top five:

1. Prom Night: $20.8 million
2. Street Kings: $12.4 million
3. 21: $10.4 million
4. Nim's Island: $9.1 million
5. Leatherheads: $6.2 million

What's new for this week? Glad you asked:

88 Minutes
What's It All About: Al Pacino plays a university professor and an expert in forensic psychiatry, and he's just been informed via an anonymous phone call that he has only 88 minutes left to live. Kind of a cross between DOA and 24.
Why It Might Do Well: Pacino is still the man ...
Why It Might Not Do Well: ...however, his star power may not carry much weight with younger ticket buyers, and a 22% rating from Rottentomatoes.com does not bode well. Also, of this week's new flicks, this one is hitting the smallest number of theaters.
Number of Theaters: 2,000
Prediction: $9 million

I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I have to say that whoever worked on the poster for Al Pacino's new thriller 88 Minutes did one heck of a job on photoshopping the 67-year-old actor -- the man doesn't look a day over 40. The Movie Insider now has the new poster for John Avnet's (Fried Green Tomatoes) film about a man who has the aforementioned 88 minutes to solve his own murder -- a plot that sounds a lot like the noir classic D.O.A, but with just enough differences to avoid a lawsuit.

Pacino plays Jack Gramm, a womanizing forensic psychiatrist and college professor. After testifying against a serial killer and putting him on death row, Gramm receives a phone call from the condemned killer, who tells him that he only has 88 minutes left to live. Gramm is then forced to re-visit the gruesome case in hopes of stopping a copycat and hopefully saving his own skin.

Joining Pacino are Leelee Sobieski, William Forsythe, Deborah Kara Unger, and Alicia Witt -- judging by the sheer number of chicks in the cast, I guess Pacino really is a ladies man in this flick. The script was written by Gary Scott Thompson, who was also the writer for 2 Fast 2 Furious and Hollow Man II. I have to be honest with you; those two credits alone are enough to make me think that this movie might not be up to Pacino's usual standards -- although lately it seems like those have been slipping ever so slightly as well. 88 Minutes hits theaters on April 18th.