| 15 Minutes | | Cast : | Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, Kelsey Grammer | | Director : | John Herzfeld | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 09, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | February 03, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | April 24, 2005 | | Summary | Love letter to America. | Content
 | "I love America. In this country no one is responsible for what they're doing." says Emil, the vicious Chech psychopath after watching the aftermath of a talk show that so many Americans value as their ordinary dog food. Emil and his Russian partner Oleg Razul are played with incredible intensity by two newcomers, and in many respects, they carry the film.
Robert De Niro is at the top of his form as hot shot cop Eddie Flaming. The film allows De Niro's character some very memorable funny scenes, not to mention that he's killed in the middle of the movie. Edward Burns in not too bad, either, and there are two hot sexy Chech females in the film, as well.
If you think this film goes over the top in its portrayal of a country seduced by fame, violence and tabloid talk shows just take a look on how the media treats a national treasure such as Michael Jackson. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 20, 2005 | | Summary | Not Bad, but Not Great either | Content
| 15 Minutes was a bit of a disappointment considering the makeup of the cast: Robert De Niro, Avery Brooks (Star Trek DS9's Commander Sisko), and Kelsey Grammer among others. The film brings to the screen the story of two Eastern Europeans who arrive in the US to pay a visit to an old acquaintance of theirs living in NYC. Things get more complicated when they soon realize that they can use the system to their advantage in order to carry out their sinister plans and get their "15 minutes" of fame.
In short, the acting is pretty good/above average (but nothing great), the plot is about average, while the dialogues are average and sometimes way below average; the common denominator being "average."
On the positive side, the film does shed light on such important current issues as the excessive amount of power, the often manipulative, media and lawyers have, not to mention that it acknowledges several loopholes in the American legal system; all of which being in desperate need of immediate attention.
Moreover, it was a pleasant surprise to see all those "guest appearances," (Charlize Theron, Kim Cattrall etc).
Furthermore, Noelle Evans was definitely "honey" and so were Vera Farmiga, and Irina Gasanova; Well Done!
On the negative side, the fireman (arson investigator) being completely useless became rather annoying rather quickly.
Moreover, the chase outside the hair salon was badly done, with both the police and the villains at the start of the scene with too short a distance between them i.e. realisticaly, the "bad guys" should have been caught with great ease!
Also, kidnapping the prime murder suspect from the midst of the police was a little far fetched!
In addition, it seems like the chemistry between Robert De Niro and Edward Burns is not all that great. To that, one has to add some poor dialogues and some bad choices of lines that the actors are given. The rest of the cast carry out their performances well.
Finally and most importantly, Eastern Europeans, especially Russians, are fast falling prey to those who would portray them as villains (if male) or prostitutes (if female), in part due to their being viewed as "easy" and "convenient" targets. This way one easily avoids the hassle from other more powerful and influential minorities that seem to be running the show lately.
In a nutshell, it's probably not a movie you would want to add to your collection, but it will provide for an evening's entertainment. 3½ Stars
No masterpiece here.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 19, 2005 | | Summary | Couldn't finish watching this movie | Content
| Too many cliches and cliched wisecracks to the point of being annoying. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 06, 2005 | | Summary | good cop movie | Content
| this is more realistic then some may admit. you see it all the time in the stories on tv, reality is twisted to the point where no one knows what the truth really is, best example is michael jackson. everyone has their opinions and the media is a great tool to use if you have the power to get it on your side. that is what this movie is all about.
the movie depicts the evil intentions of 2 immigrants trying to become movie stars by filming their brutal murders. the plot was pretty original. i don't think i have seen any other movie doing this although i may be wrong. it was interesting how they were using the hand held camera video for a lot of the scenes to help with the realism. you can see behind what was being shown on the video he was shooting.
there was quite a bit of satire and irony in this movie. almost to the point of overwhelming, but overall i recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good cop movie. i would say that this is somewhat similar to the movie paparazzi. storylines are a bit different, but both show how the media changes things around to make the better story. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 23, 2005 | | Summary | Too Many Ironies in the Fire | Content
| "15 Minutes" tries to hard to be socially relevant. Many of us think that the media manipulates our society, and I am always up for a movie where sensationalism is exposed. However, you can try too hard to bring together too many elements and the result is not only unbelievable, but reaches a point of being laughable.
Robert De Niro plays a hotshot cop (Eddie Fleming) who has been made into some sort of superhero cop by the media. Fleming explains to arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) that the media can be played if you do it right, and he takes advantage of his super cop status to do just that.
Unfortunately for everyone, including Fleming, Warsaw, and a host of innocent bystanders and police, two nut-jobs from Eastern Europe see Fleming on television and think they can commit a lot of crimes, and then use the media and what they think is a faulty system of justice to get off the hook and become rich and famous.
Unfortunately for everyone, most especially the audiences that watch this movie, there are just too many ironies and too many coincidences. While the core idea of the movie has a measure of plausibility, it is how that idea is developed that changes the movie from being an action movie to being a fantasy. The characters change from being believable to being stereotypical and even cartoonish, and there comes a point where the movie becomes some sort of bizarre parody.
Several scenes in this movie are unabashed in their borrowing from other movies. The most obvious is a scene where De Niro is looking in a mirror and talking to himself similar to a well-known scene from "Taxi Driver."
As a side note, this movie also has a difficult time getting off the ground. It took about half the movie or perhaps a bit more until the pieces started coming together. Once the action started the movie moved along quickly, but then the ironies compounded and I alternated between being amused and being appalled at the violence.
If you are looking for a lot of violence and care little for a plot, this movie could be for you, though expect little until the movie moves well along. For everyone else with a sense of taste, either pass this one by or make it a rental.
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