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15 MINUTES
Review by Gordon Justesen
Stars: Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, Kelsey Grammer,
Avery Brooks, Melina Kanakaredes
Director: John Herzfeld
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Studio: New Line Cinema
Features: See Review
Length: 121 Minutes
Release Date: August 14, 2001
“I
love America…no one is responsible for what they do.”
Film
****
15
Minutes is
more or less a wake up call, and is also a bold, brilliant, provocative, and
deeply disturbing. Not since Oliver Stone’s film, Natural
Born Killers, has a single movie explored the dark realms of violence and
how the media exploits it to the point where crazed psychopaths have inevitably
become celebrities as a result of it. Unlike Stone’s movie, however, 15
Minutes doesn’t necessarily relate itself to high profile murders that
have occurred in real life, and it stills comes off as a very intense slap in
the face. It works both as a police thriller, and as a thought provoking social
comment on how tabloid television news is more or less helping the insane people
the justice system is supposed to put away in prison.
Robert
De Niro stars as Eddie Fleming, a long time dedicated NYC cop whose dedication
and respect has come mostly from his time in the spotlight, thanks to tabloid
reporter Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer) exploiting many of Eddie’s successful
busts, resulting in Eddie being a bit of a celebrity himself, appearing in such
fare such as the cover of People magazine. For his latest case, which is what
drives the movie’s plot, Eddie is investigating a series of murders that have
been committed by two immigrants, Emil (Karel Roden) and Oleg (Oleg Taktarov),
who have just arrived in the country. The murders are linked because every
killing follows with an act of arson, which attaches arson investigator Jordy
Warsaw (Edward Burns) to the case. Jordy has no respect for the media, and
doesn’t much appreciate Eddie’s presence on this case, but they are paired
together, nonetheless against two men with a rare motive, which is when 15
Minutes really turns into an extremely provocative and original piece.
Emil
and Oleg are insane without a doubt, and they are videotaping their murders,
with Emil killing and Oleg directing what he calls his “first big movie”, in
hopes of becoming famous and profitable by way of sending their filmed murders
to a tabloid news source and convincing the media that they are temporarily
insane, and being that the tabloid news is always in a competitive race to get
their hands on any kind of graphic material, it sounds somewhat possible that
something like this could indeed happen, as outrageous and over the top as it
might seem.
Aside
from the jolting social commentary that separates 15 Minutes from typical Hollywood fare, the movie is also a triumph
of pure cinematic suspense and tension. Such scenes include a knockout foot
chase between cops and the two killers, a bone chilling moment when the killers
have De Niro tied to a chair and explain their truly insane idea to him, and the
standout moment is a scene where Burns and a witness try to make their way out
of an exploding apartment building.
Writer/director
John Herzfeld, who also directed the wonderful 2 Days in the Valley, deserves immense credit for creating a daring,
biting, and truly tension-filled suspense thriller. In an age where our justice
system is frequently questioned and the media seem to glorify as much dirty
sleaze than the country can really handle, Herzfeld made a bold step in
fashioning out this film.
A
thought provoking movie and an adrenaline rush all rolled into one package, 15
Minutes is a mind blowing thriller that is one of this year’s greatest
films.
A
word of warning; the violence in the movie is at times graphic and disturbing,
as it may turn some viewers off.
New
Line is in top form once again, as they prove again that they can load
everything onto a disc, and not have single flaw as a result. Their disc for 15
Minutes is a perfect example, as the video quality is of sheer DVD
perfection. Anamorphically enhanced, consistently sharp, and illuming with
vibrant, fluorescent colors, this is very much one of the best looking discs you
will come across this year.
With
its moments of pure suspense, tension, and its use of dark and slow beat techno
music, 15 Minutes has been issued a
dynamic audio job which enhances its intense feel and at times even makes it
seem bigger than experiencing it at the multiplex. Particularly during crucial
moments of suspense does the sound of this disc display pure top quality, with
background music swerving from speaker to speaker, which very much enhances the
suspense. The whole presentation, in fact, doesn’t falter at all, even when
it’s just dialogue that is being heard.
New
Line has officially taken DVD to the next level with their new infinifilm
series, which began with their recent release of Thirteen Days, and after experiencing the disc for 15
Minutes, I absolutely can’t wait for the next infinifilm release. Included
on this superbly loaded disc are two documentaries, “15 Minutes of True
Tabloid Stories” which includes interviews with such media figures as Jerry Springer
and Maury Povich, and “Does Crime Really Pay” which includes a panel of
experts relating the events in the movie to real life murder cases. Also
included is a running infinifilm fact track, which offers detailed insight into
just about every aspect of the movie, as well as access to brief interview
segments relating to the movie. Also featured commentary by director John
Herzfeld, deleted scenes with commentary, deleted scenes with director
commentary, video footage of several scenes in the movie from the actual
actor’s perspective, a music video of the song “Fame” by God Lives
Underwater, and a trailer.
Without
a doubt one of the best loaded discs of 2001.
Summary: