15 Minutes came out in 2001. When I saw the previews, I thought it looked like a good movie. The plot, with the bad guys videotaping their crimes, seemed original and interesting. And Robert De Niro was in it, so how bad could it be? Well, I found out. It's not the most awful movie I have ever seen, but it is far from the best. I didn't pick this movie out, but since it was here, I watched it. My expectations weren't that high for this movie because of what I have read about it, but I was still disappointed. Some people may like this movie, but there were just too many things that bugged me about this movie for me to like it.

The movie began showing Oleg and Emil going through customs. Oleg had a small camera and was constantly taking pictures. He wanted to document their trip to America. Oleg was Russian and Emil was Czech. I think both men had been in prison and that they met there, but I'm not sure. I kind of zoned out every so often in this movie. Oleg and Emil were looking for another friend that was already in America. On their way to the friend's apartment, Oleg saw a home video camera in a store window. He bought the camera and started taping everything. They found their friend. Emil was mad at him for spending his (Emil's) money, I think. Oleg was taping the argument, and he kept taping when Emil grabbed a knife and stabbed the man, killing him. He also killed a woman, I think she was the friend's wife or girlfriend. There was another woman in the apartment. She witnessed the murders, but she was able to get away. Emil and Oleg then torched the apartment to cover up the murders.

After this, Emil and Oleg committed more crimes, Oleg videotaping them all. Oleg loved movies and dreamed of being a great director. He saw himself as the director of a great American film. He played with the lighting and camera angles when he was filming.

Robert Hawkins was the host of Top Story, a tabloid tv show. He is just concerned with getting high ratings. There was a woman with the network that wanted to take the show in a different direction, get away from the sensational tabloid stories. Robert was not interested in doing that. Later in the movie, Emil contacted Robert, offering him video of one of their murders. Emil wanted the tape broadcast on Top Story. He wanted to become rich and famous by selling book and movie deals for his story.

Eddie Flemming was a famous cop in New York city that was on the case of Emil and Oleg's crimes. I really don't know how Eddie became so famous, but I think it was because he gave lots of interviews in the past and solved several high profile cases. He was on the cover of an issue of People magazine and had some kind of movie deal. Jordy Warsaw was the fire marshal that was investigating the fire Emil and Oleg started near the beginning of the movie. Jordy found the trigger that started the fire, but Eddie was the one on tv talking about it. Jordy said he didn't care about publicity, he just wanted to do his job. Jordy saw a woman briefly on the street outside the apartment that Emil and Oleg set on fire. For some reason, he assumed she was a witness and started trying to track her down. He gave a police artist a detailed description of the girl and worked with Eddie to track her down. Jordy ended up working with Eddie, even going to another murder scene with him. Jordy was very involved in the hunt for Emil and Oleg.

There were a few subplots going on in this movie, and it jumped around a lot. There were one or two of the subplots that I didn't know why they were even in the movie. The only purpose they seemed to serve was to make the movie even longer. The main plot involved Emil and Oleg and their crimes.

CAST

Robert De Niro - Eddie Flemming
Edward Burns - Jordy Warsaw
Kelsey Grammer - Robert Hawkins
Vera Farmiga - Daphne
Melina Kanakarades - Nicolette
Avery Brooks - Leon Jackson
Karl Roden - Emil Slovak
Oleg Taktarov - Oleg Razgul

John Herzfeld - Writer/Director

This movie is rated R for graphic violence, brief nudity, and graphic language. No children of any age should see this movie.

15 Mintues was trying to be an action movie, but I thought it failed since the movie was so boring to me. I didn’t think the movie was suspenseful at all. I got so disgusted with the movie that I didn’t care what happened. I just wanted it to be over. I also thought that the movie was trying to be a buddy cop type movie with how Eddie and Jordy ended up working together, but I didn’t like that aspect of the movie either.

There really wasn’t a mystery in 15 Minutes. From the beginning, the viewers knew that Oleg and Emil were the bad guys responsible for several murders. The only question was if they would be captured, and that wasn’t enough to keep my interest in the movie. There was a lot of violence in 15 Minutes. Oleg and Emil committed several murders during the movie, and they were shown with all kinds of gory details, including blood being splattered all over the place. The movie was very violent. It could be too violent for some people. Anyone who doesn’t like to see movies with a lot of violence should stay far away from this one.

What didn't I like about 15 Minutes? Where do I start? The pace of the movie was very slow at times, making it very boring in places. Yes, there was some action in this movie, a chase or two, an explosion or two, but the movie was boring between the action scenes. And after a while, even the action scenes were boring to me. At times the pace was faster, but for most of the movie, the pace was very slow. I kept checking the clock, wondering when it would be over.

Eddie was a very famous cop. He was known all over the country and was on the cover of an issue of People magazine. He had a movie deal. I just didn't see how Eddie became that famous, all over the country. I could see him being famous in his own city if he gave a lot of interviews and solved a lot of cases, but I did't see how he became that famous all across the country. He just solved crimes in one city, not all over the country. Maybe he was involved in solving a huge case in the past and I just zoned out when that was mentioned. If it wasn't mentioned, there should have been some explanation as to how Eddie became so famous. He was a cop not a movie star or rock star.

Jordy was a fire marshal that worked on the case of the fire from the beginning of the movie. He ended up working on the case with Eddie. Jordy went tracking down a possible witness, and went after Emil at one point. Since when do fire marshals work on murder cases? I could see him getting in contact with Eddie a few times about the fire, but Jordy got very involved in the actual murder investigation. Since when do fire marshals go looking for and bringing in witnesses to murder? She knew nothing about the fire that was set. She took off after Emil killed the people, but before the fire was set. And how did Jordy know just by looking at her for all of two seconds that she was a witness? And how could he have described her so perfectly to the police artist when he only saw her for a few seconds? I know cops and fire marshals are very observant, but that seems to be stretching it a bit.

When did fire marshals start carrying guns and arresting murder suspects? Does a fire marshal even have any authority to arrest someone? I thought that the fire marshal just investigated the fires, and if there is evidence of arson, the evidence is turned over to the police, who actually go out and arrest the suspect. It just didn't make any sense to me that Jordy was as involved in the murder investigations as he was since he was a fire marshal and there was only a fire related to the first murder. I could have seen that happening, if there were more fires connected to the murders, but there weren't. Also, it seemed like Eddie and Jordy met for the first time at the scene of the fire - at least it did to me, but I may have zoned out briefly again - from the way they were acting towards each other. Then later in the movie, Jordy was acting like Eddie is his best friend, and he knows Nicolette, Eddie's girlfriend. When did they meet?

Who told Edward Burns that he can act? The sum of his acting talent seemed to be yelling at the top of his lungs every five minutes for some reason. OK, it wasn't every five minutes, but he yelled a lot in 15 Minutes. I don't think I have ever seen him in any other movie - maybe I blocked it out since his acting is so horrible - so maybe his acting in 15 Minutes was a fluke. I won't be checking out any of his other movies any time soon. I would rather beat my head against the wall than watch him act. That would be more enjoyable than his acting. I didn't like his character at all. I didn't care about his character. He could have disappeared completely from the movie, and that would have been fine with me. His character annoyed me, so much so, that I was hoping he would run into Emil and Oleg and be killed. I couldn’t stand him.

Robert De Niro was considered the big star of 15 Minutes, but he wasn't in that much of the movie. Edward Burns was in more of the movie than De Niro - Oh the horror. Eddie was supposed to be a brilliant cop, but he did something incredibly stupid. He was in his apartment, alone, when there was a knock at his door. When he went to answer it, there was no one there. Then he went walking up and down the hall, with his back to his OPEN apartment door more than once. I just didn't believe that a cop would do something that stupid. They are supposed to be very aware of the crime rates in the cities they live, and know that anyone can be a victim. For that matter, I would hope that anyone that lived in a big city, like New York, would have enough sense not to do something that stupid. Some people may think I am nitpicking a bit with this one thing, but it just really bugged me. It was just a minor thing that happened, but it really bugged me. It made me doubt that Eddie was as great of a cop as he was considered to be.

Nicolette was Eddie's girlfriend and a reporter. I really don't know why she was even in the movie. She didn't show up until about half way through the movie, and she was only in about ten minuets, maybe twenty. She did nothing for the plot of the movie, much like Angela Bassett's character in The Score. Angela also played De Niro's girlfriend, and she had very little screen time. Though she did have a little to do with the plot of The Score in that she wanted him to quit and not do the last job. Maybe this is a trend in DeNiro's movies. Get a young, beautiful actress to play his love interest and then she only gets about ten or twenty minutes of screen time. The actress playing Nicolette did do a good job with what she was given.

There were a few good scenes in 15 Minutes, but not enough to make me like the movie. There were some action scenes that help keep your interest, but there were too many scenes that were boring. There were also too many scenes that had no purpose and did nothing for the plot. I remember thinking, more than once, what does this have to do with anything? Why is this even in the movie? All those scenes did was make the movie even longer.

De Niro was great in his role, he just wasn't in enough scenes. Edward Burns was awful. You do not want to see this man attempt to act. It was painful to watch. None of the characters in the movie were very well developed. They all seemed flat to me, and I didn't care about any of them. Kelsey Grammer was pretty good in his role as Robert Hawkins, but I didn’t like his character etiher. It was a big difference from Fraiser.

Something happens about half way through 15 Minutes that I didn't like. No, I'm not saying what happened. I won't spoil the movie for anyone who might actually want to see this thing. After that happened, I lost all interest in the movie. I no longer cared about what was happening or how the movie would end.

CHARACTERS

Eddie Flemming - Famous cop in New York city. He had a movie deal and had been on the cover of an issue of People. He was working on the murders committed by Emil and Oleg. He was considered to be the best cop in the city, but he did some stupid things at times. He was dedicated to his job.

Jordy Warsaw - Fire marshal that got very involved in the murder investigation. He said he was only concerned with doing his job and didn't care about publicity, but he seemed more than willing to jump in front of television cameras when the opportunity arose. He fliped out a little at one point in the movie.

Emil - Czech man that arrived in the country at the beginning of the movie. He had a temper. He bossed Oleg around. He murdered people while Oleg videotaped the crimes. Emil had plans to make money on book and movie deals about the crimes he committed.

Oleg - Russian man that arrived in the country with Emil. He loved movies and wanted to be a director. He taped the murders that Emil commited. He saw the tapes of the crimes as his great movie. He thought he was the director.


Robert Hawkins - Host of Top Story. He was only concerned with getting high ratings. He would air anything if it meant he'll get high ratings. Emil contacted him to broadcast a tape of one of their crimes.

Daphne - Witness to the first murder Emil commits.


Nicolette - Reporter. She was dating Eddie.

DVD EXTRAS The DVD of this movie contains some extras. There was something called Infinifilm on this DVD. There is an explanation of what it is. The way I understood it, you can watch the movie in the Infinifilm version, and when the movie is playing, something will pop up you can click on that will take you to one of the extra features. After the extra feature was over, you could return to the movie. The extra features can also be accessed from the menu. I don't think I would want to interrupt watching a movie, especially if it is one I am enjoying, to watch the extra features. I would rather wait and watch them at the end.

I didn’t try out the Infinifilm version of 15 Minutes because I had no desire to sit through that movie again.

The Beyond the Movie section includes 15 Minutes of True Tabloid Stars and Does Crime Pay. The first has people like Jerry Springer and Sally Jessie Raphael talking about tabloid tv shows and how far some of them are willing to go for ratings. It lasted 15 minutes. The second extra feature has five people, including Mark Furhman, talking about when crime does pay for some criminals - the ones that have gotten book and movie deals, and who benefits from those deals. This one was just over 21 minutes long.

Something called Fast Track was also listed. When I clicked on that, it started the movie again, so that must be another way to start the Infinifilm version of the movie. There is a commentary with the directory, but I didn't listen to that. Like I said before, I wasn’t going to watch the movie again. There are also some deleted scenes, Oleg's videos, a music video, theatrical trailer, and cast and crew filmographies.

I really didn't like 15 Minutes. I can't believe that I wasted 121 minutes of my life watching this movie. I could have spent that time doing something much more productive and enjoyable. Like scrubbing the grout in the bathtub with a toothbrush or cleaning the litter box. Not even the performance of De Niro made this movie worth watching. I don't recommend this movie to anyone, unless you are a die hard DeNiro fan that has to see everything he does. Otherwise, avoid this movie. There are so many better movies you could watch instead.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age