The line-of-sight velocities and [ OIII ] 5007 Å expansion velocities are measured for 11 planetary nebulae ( PNs ) in the Virgo cluster core , at 15 Mpc distance , with the FLAMES spectrograph on the ESO VLT . These PNs are located about halfway between the two giant ellipticals M87 and M86 . From the [ OIII ] 5007 Å line profile widths , the average half-width at half maximum expansion velocity for this sample of 11 PNs is \bar { v } _ { HWHM } = 16.5 kms ^ { -1 } ( RMS = 2.6 kms ^ { -1 } ) . We use the PN subsample bound to M87 to remove the distance uncertainties , and the resulting [ OIII ] 5007 Å luminosities to derive the central star masses . We find these masses to be at least 0.6 M _ { \odot } and obtain PN observable life times t _ { PN } < 2000 yrs , which imply that the bright PNs detected in the Virgo cluster core are compact , high density nebulae . We finally discuss several scenarios for explaining the high central star masses in these bright M87 halo PNs .