15 Minutes (2001)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

15 MINUTES is an acceptable modern-day crime thriller that takes time out to satirise the media and take a look at people's penchant for their '15 minutes of fame' which if everything is even more prevalent than it was fifteen years ago when this film was made. Although it features a headlining role for Robert De Niro, given his limited screen time he often feels like a supporting player in his own movie, with the hard-working Edward Burns as the main lead.The scene-stealing roles are given to Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov, who excel as a pair of East European immigrants who arrive in New York and begin a crime spree. The story as it unfolds is resolutely gruesome and fitfully exciting, with some great set-pieces to enjoy, particularly a fiery one towards the climax. The casting director has done well to bring of interesting performers in, including the likes of Avery Brooks and Vera Farmiga, while Kelsey Grammar seems born to play the weaselly tabloid reporter.

When Eastern European criminals Oleg and Emil come to New York City to pick up their share of a heist score, Oleg steals a video camera and starts filming their activities, both legal and illegal. When they learn how the American media can make a remorseless killer look like the victim and make them rich, they target Detective Eddie Flemming and Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw. They are investigating their murder and torching of their former criminal partner, filming everything to sell to the local tabloid TV show 'Top Story'.......Its a wonderful concept, murder someone who has a high profile, film and claim your insane, and not just become rich, become a media darling. It could have been a biting satire on reality TV, and how people take Andy Warhol's famous saying quite literal.But no, the makers go for a really strange mix of comedy and thriller, but the comedy just doesn't work due to the acts of the two criminals, even if they do remind one of Ren and Stimpy.Burns and De Niro are fine, but have zero chemistry together, and plausibility is thrown straight out of the window, so if you are looking for any sort of realism, which would have been very beneficial for this story, you are looking in the wrong place.If the humour was more evident, and the violence toned down, as well as the sinister streak it has, being over the top would have worked.It feels that there are two different versions of the script, and someone on set just bought a different version every other day. So the plot and story stay the same, but the narrative, and the feel of the film just end up very sporadic every now and again.For a throwaway movie, it has a point to the power of media, and how it influences many peoples opinions, but to go any deeper, would just expose the many plot holes this film has.

(59%) A real piece of all over the place Hollywood that shuffles itself around like a deck of cards every other scene. The main focus is not on DeNiro, or even Edward Burns, but on two eastern European maniacs who feature heavily throughout. What makes this so uneven is the tone. It starts as a crime thriller, then there's some breaking news exploitation satire with Kelsey Grammar, then DeNiro comes in turning it more into a cop action movie, then there's a series of quite sweet romantic scenes that come in between footage of the two bad guys filming themselves murdering someone making everything feel more than a little slapdash. Yet it sort of works mainly because everything happens so fast, and there's so much of it to get through. The fact that the cast is more than capable doesn't hurt much either, and it is quite well made too so you just sort of except the flaws as they arrive. It's just action cop movie thrillers, romance, a playful sense of humour, and snuff movies all mixed together doesn't create a great recipe for success.

15 minutes was one of those movies I really enjoyed in a long time. It has a really good and compact script. Like Natural Born Killers which displayed how media becomes a greedy and sickening calling, 15 minutes kind of goes the same way, in how it glamorizes killers, where how they came from poor backgrounds, boo hoo, except these two Russian killers are just scum. How the movie plays out later on, I really liked, with some things you never saw coming, especially Deniro's turn of bad fate. Two Russian immigrants have come to America, with a plan, to document real murders, committed by them, where when they're caught, they will plead insanity. A high profile celebrity detective (De Niro acing a role as usual) and Burns as a fireman, team up together, after a fire consumes a whole building, that's work of the killers who were collecting n a debt, Burns too, making a bitter enemy with a mugger he handcuffed to a tree naked, prefore. The way the story goes is what makes this two hour flick, (a little longish) an electrifying thriller, where at the film ensues with a perfect shoot em' dead ending, we come to see the media for what they really are, especially ex friend of De Niro's here and media media magnate, played by Kelsey Grammar. It was good in how in the second half how Burns becomes the hero, where we solely relied on him to take this manipulative and psychotic two down, especially the really sick and much weaker one. Oh, I love this revenge moments. To, when De Niro, showing his rebelliousness and mettle, when made a hostage, spitting blood back in one of the faces, where his demise saddened and shocked. Truly riveting viewing here folks, don't miss these minutes of viewing.