How Did This Get Made? 88 Minutes w/ Pete Holmes (Classic)
Feb 24, 2026
They tear into a real-time thriller built almost entirely from phone calls. The conversation skewers ridiculous false leads, cartoonish character names, and baffling plot mechanics. Al Pacino’s low-key performance and the film’s continuity failures get roasted. Expect jokes about hijinks, awkward edits, and an implausible copycat reveal.
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Real Time Gimmick Masks Phone Call Drama
- 88 Minutes is structured as a real-time thriller that mostly becomes Al Pacino making phone calls rather than action sequences.
- Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael note the film cheats time and fills runtime with repetitive phone conversations and false leads, making real-time gimmick hollow.
Derivative Visuals And Soap Opera Casting
- The film recycles familiar crime-thriller visuals and character types, making it feel like a low-rent Bourne/CSI hybrid rather than an original mystery.
- Hosts point to the DVD cover ripoff, comic-sans production logos, and CW-style day players to illustrate derivative, TV-like casting.
Pacino Hijacks A Cab And Pays The Driver To Sit Back
- Jason Mantzoukas likens the film's taxi-stealing scene to a bad version of Collateral, with Pacino driving and paying the cabbie to sit in back.
- He describes Pacino hemorrhaging cash and the cabbie appearing in-frame as a baffling, comedic extra.