director/screenwriter
John Herzfeld
producers
Keith Addis
David Blocker
John Herzfeld
Nick Wechsler
cinematographer
Jean-Yves Escoffier
music
Anthony Marinelli
J. Peter Robinson
editor
Steven Cohen
cast
Robert De Niro (Eddie Flemming)
Edward Burns (Jordy Warsaw)
Kelsey Grammer (Robert Hawkins)
Avery Brooks (Leon Jackson)
Melina Kanakaredes (Nicolette)
Karel Roden (Emil)
Oleg Taktarov (Oleg)
Kim Cattrall (Cassandra)
David Alan Grier (Mugger)
Charlize Theron (Rose)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 119m
u.s.
release: March 9, 2001
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
Official
website
other john
herzfeld films
reviewed on this website:
- 2
days in the valley
|
Just
because Robert De Niro is one of our finest actors doesn't mean
he always has the finest taste in material. Exhibit A: 15
Minutes, a crude and reactionary piece of pulp posing as
scathing media satire. The movie comes on strong; it wants us
to know that TV journalists will do anything for ratings, that
we've created a mollycoddling culture wherein no one is accountable
for his own actions, that important decisions are influenced
by politics and media image rather than truth and justice (throw
in the American Way, too, while you're at it). In brief, it sounds
like some crank on the next barstool venting about how everything
is crap.
Maybe everything is. But movies like this, with its deadening
by-the-numbers script (by John Herzfeld, who also directed),
flatly unbelievable situations, and paper-thin characters, won't
do much to help; if anything, by adding to the atmosphere of
cynicism, it becomes part of the problem. After all, if people
believe that everything is crap and nothing can be done, nothing
will be done. That 15 Minutes is junky conservative
propaganda makes it no better or worse than junky liberal propaganda
like The
Contender; both preach to the converted with an airhorn.
Here, for instance, we learn that honest, law-abiding citizens
can't escape the mistakes of their past, while criminals can
use the misfortunes of their past to get off scot free. They
used to make 'em like this in the '80s, with Sylvester Stallone.
De Niro, he of the erratic taste (his Tribeca company co-produced),
is Eddie Flemming, a star homicide cop -- and I do mean star,
the kind of cop who gets recognized on the streets of New York
("Heyyy, Eddie!") and appears on the cover of People.
Eddie crosses paths with arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward
Burns) when both are sniffing around a fire scene that turns
out to be homicide. It seems two thugs of Russian/Czech extraction
(Russians! Evil Empire! Man, this is the '80s again!)
have murdered a former partner and his wife; now they're trying
to silence a witness to the crime. One of them also has a digital
camera and wants to be Frank Capra (a "satirical" touch
that can mean whatever you want it to mean). Their notion is
to tape themselves committing murder, turn themselves in, plead
insanity, and go free; after all, they've seen the sinners kneel
and beg forgiveness on Roseanne's talk show, and concluded that
"nobody is responsible for what they do."
Edward Burns, a gifted writer-director (The Brothers McMullen,
She's
the One) gradually earning a name as an actor (Saving
Private Ryan), is probably the best reason to see the
movie. An honest and natural actor, Burns gives a weary Gen-X
spin to the dog-eared scenes he's in (he becomes, I think, the
34,492nd movie cop to plunk his badge on the captain's desk in
disgust upon being suspended). You'd think his job would be harder
given that he's up there with De Niro, but De Niro isn't really
up there. As if knowing how cardboard the movie is, he barely
commits himself, except for a ridiculous scene in which he's
tied to a chair and still manages to rough up his captors --
Charlie's
Angels did a similar set-piece slightly more plausibly.
15 Minutes is by no means a serious social satire. Its
maker, John Herzfeld, is known mainly for his previous feature
2
Days in the Valley, which in turn is known mainly for
a spandex catfight between Teri Hatcher and Charlize Theron (who
has a useless cameo here as an escort-service manager). That
film was a Tarantino-esque spree about three years too late;
15 Minutes is a media-evil movie about six years too late.
Both stay stubbornly on the surface and play like inept attempts
to realize some dimwitted Hollywood formula. By the end, when
we get a stand-off between the enraged, gun-toting Edward Burns
and one of the thugs holding a woman hostage, I almost laughed
out loud, not out of contempt but out of relief -- the
movie had kept threatening to go from bad to worse, and, finally,
here it was. If Herzfeld is right and people should be held responsible
for what they do, then he should be held personally responsible
for wasting one hour and fifty-nine minutes of millions of peoples'
lives last weekend. The least he can do is go on Roseanne's show,
kneel, and beg forgiveness. |
