# 15 Minutes (2001)

### reviewed by
Jerry Saravia

    15 MINUTES
    Reviewed on March 13th, 2001
    By Jerry Saravia

Something shocking happens in "15 Minutes." It is so shocking and unexpected that it will leave you coming up for air wondering why the filmmakers went through such lengths to shock the audience. And yet its shocking twist results in a final half-hour of ridiculous implausibilities squandering its initial premise.

Robert De Niro plays Eddie Flemming, a New York City homicide cop who loves to be surrounded by the media (he also dunks his head in ice water to sober up). Eddie is a celebrity cop, having had his hide splashed on the covers of People magazine. The latest murder in town involves arson, and Eddie is there ready to mingle with the press while solving the crime. Trouble is that an arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) has solved the crime first, realizing it was actually a homicide than an accidental arson case. Eddie knows it too and gets all the credit. You do not have to be a film buff to know that Eddie and Jody become partners in what appears to be a buddy-buddy cop flick, only Jody is no cop and realistically, he would not have been allowed to follow Eddie everywhere since the subsequent murders do not involve arson! We will allow logic to be suspended for now since their banter is occasionally intoxicating.

The latest string of murders are committed by two European thugs. One is Olgen (played by Olgen Taktarov), a bald-headed and grins uncontrollably and his partner, Emil (Karel Roden), who also grins and shoots their murders with a stolen digital camera. Their motives remain unclear at first but afterwards, their intent becomes clearer - they want to publicize their snuff videos on television and become celebrities. Olgen's idea is that in America, nobody is blamed for what they do and everyone is a celebrity for at least fifteen minutes. Andy Warhol might have wished his words were not used synonymously with murder.

"15 Minutes" is nothing new, and its theme of how amoral and devalued our country (and the media) has become has been explored in everything from Sidney Lumet's "Network" to Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" to Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" to the blackly comical "Man Bites Dog," which this film so closely resembles. But what the film says is that someone crazy enough would be willing to create a snuff film and try and sell it to the media in return for some exposure. Sure there is jail time served but who can say no to book rights, movie rights and the right lawyer who can negotiate a percentage of the profits (Olgen's lawyer is played by real-life Gotti lawyer Bruce Cutler).

Most of "15 Minutes" has a jazzy, immediate feel to it, and there are some terrifically choreographed scenes. One involves a gruesome murder seen from a witness's point-of-view. Another involves a shootout on the streets near Central Park that is hair-raising and frenetic. I also liked a long scene involving an escape from a burning building. But "15 Minutes" lacks much thrust or purpose. It seems to evolve from one type of genre to another. First we get some harrowing scenes of violence from a camcorder's point-of-view. Then we get the buddy schtick of De Niro and Burns at odds with each other. Then there is a developing romance between De Niro and a reporter (Melina Kanakaredes from TV's "Providence"). Then there is the brief satire of the media (such a cliched attack at best) where Mr. Frasier himself (Kelsey Grammer) plays a famous TV tabloid reporter whose sole purpose in news is summed up in one line, thanks to actress Kim Catrall: "If it bleeds, it leads." At this point, I was confused since the film doesn't stick close to any consistent tone or style.

De Niro has some bright, lively moments but it is mostly a thankless role for someone of his stature. He does have a touching scene, however, where he fills out a card to his possible bride-to-be written in a different language. Edwards Burns is not always up to the task and I had a hard time believing him to be an arson investigator (ironically enough, De Niro did wonders with a similar role in "Backdraft"). The two thugs are so inhuman, callous and pathetic that nothing registers them as anything but cartoonish, jocose villains whom I did not care for in the slightest.

"15 Minutes" has that unexpected twist in the middle (which will not be revealed here) that leaves the rest of the film without much soul or interest. Let us just say that another pile of cliches follow, including the obligatory turn-in-the-badge scene and a host of other predictable scenes from the "Dirty Harry" school. And the ending is so melodramatically silly and over-the-top (similar to the finale of the remake of "Shaft") that it ruins its thought-provoking premise. This is the kind of film possibly written by one person that is then run through a full-scale committee turning it into your average Hollywood run-of-the-mill thriller, satire, commentary, or whatever the heck it is.

For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml

E-mail me with any questions, complaints or general comments at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com

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