Review: 15 Minutes

Cast: Robert De Niro, Ed Burns, Kelsey Grammer

Director: John Herzfeld (Two Days in the Valley)

Reviewed By: Clay

Plot: This movie is a morality tale about Americans’ obsession with fame, violence and misplaced blame. Two insane eastern European criminals decide to film their exploits and become rich and famous, American style.

DVD Special Features: Commentary by director John Herzfeld, Theatrical trailer(s), Deleted Footage with director's commentary, God Lives Underwater "Fame" Music Video, "True Tabloid" and "Does Crime Really Pay?" documentaries, Interviews, Robert De Niro/Edward Burns rehearsal footage, "Oleg's Video," actual video footage captured from actor Oleg Taktarov's perspective, Fact and trivia subtitle track.

A boatload of special features, but do we really care about any of them is the question. The tabloid stuff is funny because you get the sleaze kings (Jerry Springer, Sally Jessie, etc.) justifying their art form. Don’t waste your time, these clowns are worse when they are serious than when they are talking to interbred lesbian killers.

The Good: The eastern European psychos were good. Without Emil Slovak and Oleg Razgul, this movie would have even been more of a nightmare. In typical Hollywood fashion, these guys don’t get shit for billing in this movie.

The Bad: This movie is one of the worst De Niro movies in years. The plot sucks, the dialogue is awful, none of the characters are believable and you don’t really care who dies after the first fifteen minutes. I think that’s why they named it 15 Minutes--because that’s about how much good film there is in this flick.

Ed Burns blows in this movie. Either he is the worst pretty boy actor since Tony Danza, or the script was so bad that there was nothing he could do. I don’t know who is to blame, but dammit, this movie sucked.

I can’t even begin to break down how heavy-handed and poorly articulated the movie’s point is. Kelsey Grammar’s character is supposed to represent all that is evil in the media, but in the end I could only marvel at how bad his acting was.

If you want to see this topic addressed check out Man Bites Dog. Its French but it really kicks ass and should provoke some good discuss with who ever you watch it.

Bottom Line: This movie taste of Ed Burns’ ass.

Rating: Four Boxes of wine.