This is definately a case of a movie that is dieing to break out, but is not sure how to do it. Celebrity culture, violence and media complicity are all central themes to the film, but sadly all fail to make it the blockbuster it promises to be.
The title comes from Andy Warhol's famous remark about everyone having their fifteen minutes of fame sometime in their life. Sadly though for this film, the invigorating start gives way to a tabloid flameout that it tries to indict.
"Fifteen Minutes" starts promisingly enough with two eastern european gangsters (played by Karel Roden and Oleg Tagtarov) murdering a fellow collegue and his wife, then setting their Manhattan flat ablaze to hide their crime. This brings a homocide cop and a fire marshal onto the scene (played by Robert De Niro and Edward Burns respectively). De Niro's character, Eddie Flemming, is a celebrity TV cop, who uses his TV status to suit his needs more than for professional use. Burns's Jordy Warsaw has only contempt for TV showboating, and they somehow manage to form an unlikely alliance of sorts, to join forces to track down a fleeing witness to the double murder.
The capers of the two gangsters keeps Hollywood happy with a high body count, as they continue their rampage through the seedier areas of Manhattan.
Writer-Director John Herzfeld keeps things moving by employing in-your-face camera work, staccato tempos and repetetions of glory images throughout.
There is however, an attempt to contrast the media world with softer, more human, relations. De Niro's shy attractions towards Melina Kanakarede's TV reporter, and Burns's more enigmatic attratcions to Vera Farmiga's endangered witness. However, the idea of love amongst the brutal and crude-grained "Fifteen Minutes" is akin to finding a sonnet in a Spice Girls record.
Herzfeld, however leaves it to Roden's gangster character to make headway in delivering the message he may be able to get away with his murders if he plays his cards right, or in this case, if he plays the media correctly.
Maybe a tabloid approach to portraying the media is the only sure fire way to pinpiont a tabliod culture. However, and sadly, "Fifteen Minutes" fails to do this effectively. But if bombs, guns, fires and good ol' De Niro is your choice, then give this a whirl. Otherwise, I'd advice you to stay away, at least until the video comes out.
Maybe the title refers to length of time this film will stay in the memory, but quite frankly, even that is pushing it somewhat.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Fifteen Minutespartners Robert De Niro andSaving Private Ryan's Edward Burns in a thriller ... more
satire on America's "reality TV" industry. De Niro plays celebrity detective Eddie Fleming, who must reluctantly work with arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Burns...
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Fifteen Minutespartners Robert De Niro andSaving Private Ryan's Edward Burns in a thriller ... more
satire on America's "reality TV" industry. De Niro plays celebrity detective Eddie Fleming, who must reluctantly work with arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Burns...
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Some people will kill for their 15 minutes!! now, two of New York's finest must stop the ... more
madness.A seasoned homicide detective (Robert DeNiro) teams up with a young arson investigator (Edward Burns) to hunt down headline-hungry killers who dare to vide...
![15 Minutes [DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78542725.jpg "15 Minutes [DVD] [2001]")
Apr 16th, 2001
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