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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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15
MINUTES
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Reviewed
by: |
Christopher
J. Jarmick |
| Genre: |
Action |
| Video: |
Anamorphic
2.35:1 Widescreen |
| Audio: |
Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Language: |
English |
| Subtitle: |
French
& English |
| Length: |
120
minutes |
| Rating: |
R |
| Release
Date: |
120
minutes |
| Studio: |
New
Line |
| Commentary:
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Feature
length Commentary from the director. |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
15
Minutes of True Tabloid Stars (15 minutes long) and Does Crime
Pay (approximately 25 minutes long) |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
Cast
and Crew Bio and Filmography |
|
Interviews: |
See
Does Crime Pay Featurette. |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
15
Minutes theatrical trailer is presented in wide screen. |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
6
Deleted Scenes Oleg's Videos gives us extended scenes shot on
video. Disturbing stuff showing the murders in the film from
supposedly the actor's view point. |
| Music
Video: |
God
Lives Underwater's music video of yet another remake of David
Bowie's Fame |
| Other:
|
The
unique, and innovative Infinifilm feature A Fact and trivia
subtitle track called Fact Track. |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Robert DeNiro,
Edward Burns Kelsey Grammer, Avery Brooks, Melina Kanakaredes,
Vera Farmiga, Karel Roden, Oleg Taktarov, Charlize Theron, David
Allan Grier, Kim Cattral, Bruce Cullen |
| Screenplay
by: |
Written by
John Herzfeld |
| Produced
by: |
Keith Addis, David Blocker,
John Herzfeld, Claire Rudnick Polstein, Nick Wechsler (I) |
| Directed
By: |
John Herzfeld |
| Music: |
Score by Anthony Marinelli
& J. Peter Robinson |
| The
Review: |
Maybe 15
minutes will wind up being a guilty pleasure for you. Maybe
you think a film title that references Andy Warhol's famous
quote (". . . we'll all be famous for 15 minutes") has a chance
of being fresh and innovative. Maybe you'd also like to buy
an ownership share for the Brooklyn Bridge…CHEAP. * * * 15 Minutes
is a crass, over-ripe, somewhat disturbing film that you might
quietly or secretly enjoy watching but never admit to liking
in mixed company. It's the type of film a Michael Winner (Death
Wish) or Larry Cohen might have delivered to audiences in the
late 70's if they were given a big budget and were able to attract
a star like DeNiro to the project. * * * Maybe Walter Hill should
have done a film like this around the time of Natural Born Killers
or the superior Man Bites Dog. However, neither Hill nor Cohen
would have staged the lame ending of this film in the incompetent
manner it's done here. The film is interested in delivering
much more than a fast-paced action film, and it insists on repetitiously
hammering home it's overly familiar messages about media irresponsibility,
and how criminals manipulate our justice system to attain a
cult of celebrity. Can you say O.J.? Can you say Bernard Getz?
Most of the movie's messages though are rooted in 1957's A Face
in a Crowd and have been explored in a much more successful
way in 1976's Network or Taxi Driver or Man Bites Dog or if
you absolutely insist Natural Born Killers. * * * * There's
a very slimy manipulative exploitive feel to the film that would
make Michael Winner or Larry (Kids, Bully) Clark proud. There's
some dark comic moments that work on a trash cinema level, but
the film is too well made, too polished, and too careful about
how it presses those buttons (and it has its unforgivable ending
) to recommend except as a curiosity item to watch the entertaining
performances. * * * Robert DeNiro has a few nice moments in
the film, but he's not doing much of anything here you haven't
seen him do in better films several times before. The film really
lets him down. Ed Burns' role and performance is too overly
poised and manufactured to be believable but he's got a very
entertaining charisma and you won't feel the need to hit him
with an over-ripe tomato until the lame ending. The film however
focuses way too much on it's repellant bad guy characters who
play screwed up foreigner psychopaths with all the conviction
of Pacino's Cuban Scarface but minus the fun and audacity. What
we are given here is several brutal misogynistic scenes (even
a gruesome shower scene reminiscent of the chainsaw scene in
DePalma's Scarface). It's ugly stuff and since the characters
alternate between playing clichéd gruesome psychopathic serial
killers and dumb and dumber comic relief, you'll feel like you'll
need to take a shower to wash the film's scum off your skin.
Add to this mix Kelsey Grammar playing both a host of tabloid
t.v. talk show in much the same way he plays Frazier .* * *
I can tell you the film isn't boring. * * * That sound like
faint praise to you? You bet it's faint praise. DeNiro shouldn't
be making trash like this, and film-makers shouldn't assume
it's as easy to push audiences' buttons as writer/director John
Herzfeld (who previously mimicked a combo of Quentin Tarrentino
and John "Red Rock West" Dahl with 2 Days in the Valley) thinks
it is. Michael Winner got away with this sort of thing in his
original Death Wish film, Don (Dirty Harry) Siegel might have
been capable of making a film like this work, but you need a
lot more originality and freshness when you make this type of
film, then is on display here. * * * Oh Herzfeld has done his
homework. He's cast the film very well, he's written some strong--
good for the previews-- kinds of lines for his actors and he's
paced it fast and furious enough that many might forgive its
Monument Valley sized plot-holes. He even has a scene where
DeNiro talks to himself in the mirror which parodies our memory
of him talking in the mirror in some other film you might have
heard about. The scene comes early in the film and works. .
. too bad it's lost in such a worthless film. * * * The film's
bad guys have been constructed with a top ten list of the most
entertainingly despicable traits and bad guy tics a movie buff
could ever list. I mean you've even got the scene where the
main baddie chews a handful of aspirin (ala Robert Blake from
In Cold Blood) and cackles and laughs in the tradition of Richard
Widmark and Snidely Whiplash. Sometimes the bad guys are dumber
than the crooks you've seen in Three Stooges shorts and at other
times they border on criminal masterminds. Whatever works at
the moment they seem to hurl at the audience hoping some of
it will entertain. * * * The movie wants to be liked though.
It wants to deliver a fast paced roller coaster ride to knock
your socks off and give you some things to think about too.
It tries to push a lot of buttons about media irresponsibility,
and justice system hypocrisy. It pretends it's messages are
fresh and oh so very very important which makes them so stale
the stench emminating from the screen almost demands you take
a fresh air break. * * * I'm not going to spoil a couple of
the film's surprises on the off chance you don't already know
what they are and you are still curious enough about the performances
or about the controversy or about the new DVD features you're
going to watch this film. I will tell you though that while
the twist might be a bit of a surprise, the ending is a cop-out
that is sure to disappoint anyone that has ever watched an action
film ever before. The setting of the finale is staged in such
a ridiculously contrived fashion where most of the film's characters
are together again that I wondered if I was watching a sub-par
message laden episode of t.v.'s Mannix or The Mod Squad instead
of a major motion picture. Perhaps it will ultimately serve
as a one stop education to film-makers of how not to stage an
action film ending for modern audiences too sophisticated to
believe such ridiculousness. * * * As you find it impossible
to resist the temptation of at least renting an over-the top,
wanna-be controversial, action flick with DeNiro ask yourself
if you really want to see a non-essential DeNiro performance
in a film that tries to be part 48 Hours, part Natural Born
Killers and part Lethal Weapon? How bad do you want to see an
excitingly staged foot chase through the streets of Manhattan,
and a well done trapped in a building-on-fire scene? Do you
crave seeing cameos from Charlize Theron in a black wig -as
an escort service madame? Kim Cattral as a network vice president?
David Allen Grier playing an insulting stereotype of a Central
park mugger essentially for comic relief? Do you need to see
real life lawyer, Bruce Cullen (whose voice sounds just like
Danny DeVito) playing himself ? Is watching Kelsey Grammar playing
a slimy, immoral oily producer/host/field reporter of a reality
t.v. show essential to your film-going experience resume'? *
* * * Can you suspend your sense of disbelief to not be bothered
by the idea that the host of a top rated reality show would
be allowed (or even want ) to tag along with a homicide detective
as he tries to make what promises to be a very dangerous life
threatening arrest? Can you over-look how police procedures
are adhered to one minute and then grossly violated the next,
to serve the conveniences of a script setting up the next action
sequence? * * * * * * Get the idea? * * * SO (in the spirit
of a famous obnoxious East Coast t.v. ad) , WHAT'S THE STORY
JERRY? : * * * * As the film begins we quickly meet our villians
as they pass through customs at their airport. We recognize
them as criminal Mutt and Jeffs right from the start. There's
the Czech Emil (Karel Roden) who's a genius compared to his
partner, the Russian Oleg (Oleg Taktarov). Quickly Oleg who
dreams of being able to make a film like It's a Wonderful Life
sees a sign in a 42nd street electronic store advertising a
digital video camera and faster than you say America's Funniest
Home Videos he somehow steals the camera and begins filming
everything Emil and he do. * * * This includes visiting a Russian
immigrant who managed to avoid arrest and keep the money from
a robbery they all participated in, presumably in Prague. Well
Emil goes nutzoid when he learns his share of the money is gone
and as he brutally kills the man and his wife, Oleg films it
all with the video camera. * * * Oh yes, there's a witness who
barely manages to escape leaving behind her purse so Emil and
Oleg can figure out who she is. * * * To cover the double murder,
Emil and Oleg set the apartment on fire. This eventually leads
to our main good guys meeting each other. There's celebrity
Homicide detective Eddie Flemming (Robert Deniro) and anti-media
circus fire marshal Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns). Yes, Jordy
Warsaw later declares himself a polish-American so the film-makers
can't be accused of seeing all Eastern Europeans as slimy criminals.
Homicide Detective Eddie was made a celebrity by reality show
producer and host Robert Hawkins of Top Story (Kelsey Grammar).
Top Story is a show that makes the worst of A Current Affair
and Hard Copy look like 60 Minutes. I guess it works because
it's become such a tired cliché it needs no further explanation
right?* * * Eddie and Jordy butt heads slightly at the burnt
out apartment crime scene because Eddie shouldn't be investigating
the scene as a homicide until the Jordy, the fire marshal investigates
it for arson. But everyone quickly realizes it's a homicide
and an arson. Eddie makes a no-comment to the t.v. reporters
and Jordy is berated by his boss for letting Eddie grab the
publicity. Media image is EVERYTHING. * * * Meanwhile in a cheap
hotel room, Emil and Oleg are over-dosing on Roseanne Barr hosted
t.v. talk shows, allowing for Emil to spout off lines like:
"I love America, no one is responsible for what they do!" Emil
comically tries to find the meaning of 'self-esteem' in his
dictionary and gets mad again at his partner for speaking to
him in Russian rather than in Czech or English. They go through
the witnesses' belongings and find a card from an escort service.
Quickly Emil figures out what this means and he requests the
escort service send over a Czech or Russian girl hoping it will
be the witness he wants to meet. ** * * A prostitute arrives
at the hotel room but it's not the witness and things quickly
get out of hand and Emil winds up brutally killing the proudly
topless prostitute (in the shower) while Oleg films it all.
* * * * Through another convenience, Eddie and Jordy wind up
at this crime scene together and realize something is up when
its discovered the room has been registered to a Frank Capra,
yet evidence shows two people were involved in the prostitutes
murder. And Frank Capra obviously didn't sleep there. * * *
* Emil and Oleg are just a few steps ahead of Eddie and Jordy
who are hot on their trail. In fact Eddie and Jordy realize
a few scenes later that some suspicious characters are filming
them from across the street. Why it's Emil and Oleg and now
it's time for a genuinely exciting and well filmed foot chase
through Manhattan. Emil and Oleg slash and shoot their way through
the streets of New York and barely escape capture. * * * * Emil
and Oleg realize they are going to get caught, so they decide
they better stack the deck so an insanity plea can be entered
for them. What insane thing do they next plot to do? Why kidnap
a famous person and find someone in the press to help them get
famous for doing that. * * * The film isn't campy enough to
enjoy on that level and I wound up finding myself disliking
it nearly as much as that 95 debacle with Raph Fiennes and Angela
Bassett called Strange Days. * * * The excuse the film makes
for showing too much of the brutality and violencee is of course
the film's message which at this point is obvious and dated.
* * * It may come as no surprise to you when I mention that
this film was originally slated for release in 1999. It was
a problematic film for any studio to market--it's too violent
and gruesome for kids and too familiar and cliché'd for grown-ups.
* * * * * * *Christopher Jarmick,is the author of The Glass
Coccon with Serena F. Holder a steamy suspense thriller which
is now available (glasscocoon@hotmail for details). |
| Image
and Sound |
Visually
the film is presented with a minimum of noticeable defects or
flaws. The film's gritty feel which includes some muted colors
is intentional. The picture is crisp and clear and the black
levels strong which is evident with the details you can easily
see in low-light scenes. Every once in a while you might notice
the edge enhancement, but most probably will not. * * * There
is an exciting audio mix on this film. You really 'feel' the
sound of the city in the audio mix. The dialogue is almost always
easy to hear. The sounds utilize the full spectrum of your speakers
and the attention to the audio on this disc is nothing short
of impressive. |
| The
Extras |
To sound
like Andy Rooney for a moment. You ever notice how they seem
to really add some interesting bells and whistles to mediocre
or below average films? New Line's Infinifilm DVD system's first
public appearance was on the recently released Thirteen Days--It
elevated that above average film into a DVD worth adding to
your collection. In it's second outing, Infinifilm is wasted
on a below average film that's just too mean spirited a mis-fire
to be something most will want to keep. In fact the Inifinifilm
stuff comes off a little desperate given the content. Oh it's
interesting, but it's sloppy and rather trivial. There's no
real historical basis for the film, so we're left with detailed
social commentary about the film. That's appropriate for a genuinely
worthwhile and ground breaking controversial film like a Face
in the Crowd, or Network or even Man Bites Dog…but in support
of a sloppy mis-fire like this one? * * * If you choose to watch
the film with the new innovative Infinifilm feature, then you
get prompts during the film to push buttons which bring up snippets
of interviews, or a deleted scene, or Access to video being
shot by one of the bad guys. You can then go right back to the
movie where you left off. I like the idea of Infinifilm quite
a bit. * * * However it can be improved. I wish you could push
one button and have the various features just pop up for you.
The pushing of various buttons and aiming of the remote isn't
what's exciting about Infinifilm at all. If you chose the Inifinifilm
feature than I wish the features would just pop up during the
film, play, then we would go back to the film to watch it where
it left off. You could design it so if you didn't want to watch
a particular pop up that appears that you push a button to skip
over it. Or you could give viewers a choice or manually clicking
on the extras and pop ups when prompted or just letting the
DVD run all the features. For more complex features you could
have prompts for button pushes if technically necessary.* *
* I enjoyed the facts and trivia subtitle feature a great deal
as well. There was some very interesting and fun information
contained there. * * * Now it is possible to access the featurettes,
music video, Oleg's video feature on their own as well. * *
* 15 Minutes of Tabloid Stars is a 15 minute long (isn't that
clever?) little piece where folks like Jerry Springer or Maury
Povich defend what they do or accuse others of being sleazier
than they are. * * * Does Crime Pay consists of statements and
interview snippets from all kinds of people who have become
much more famous because of reality/tabloid t.v. People like
Gloria Allred, and Mark (I found OJ's glove) Fuhrman pop up
here to say pretty much what you would expect them say. It's
interesting that once in a while the journalists are inacurate
with facts such as the Son of Sam killer's name being 'Sam'
Berkowitz. * * * * The way these features are edited for the
Infinifilm experience means that if you choose to watch them
on their own, they fade to black every 10 to 20 seconds and
then continue. This makes for an odd viewing experience to say
the least. * * * * I guess you could say the Infinifilm process
is a bit clunky at this point. A good idea, but it needs a little
fine tuning, a little more work, and it should be used not to
get to people to want to collect lousy movies, but to enhance
the experience of watching very good ones. * * * The 6 deleted
scenes can not be played all at once. You have to watch them
one at a time, go back to the menu and then watch the next one.
If you want to watch them with Herzfeld commentary you have
to go back through the process all over again, deleted scene
by deleted scene. What a pain. The deleted scenes are also utterly
extraneous. * * * The DVDROM features on the disc are what you
would expect. You can toggle between the script and the film,
you can access various website links. * * * * * New Line has
produced an impressive package. Why they did all this for such
a lousy movie I couldn't tell you. |
| Commentary |
Director
John Herzfeld's feature length commentary has some interesting
information. Sometimes John is unnecessarily describing what
we are watching (and can see for ourselves) and sometimes he
sounds a bit bored and tired,-- but if you are interested in
decisions he made as a writer and filmmaker he does a good job
explaining it for you. * * * His commentary on the deleted scenes
however is useless. |
| Final
Words: |
I understand completely if the prospect
of a decent DeNiro performance makes this film an irresistible
temptation that proves impossible to resist. It's an ugly
film though and for most of its running time it's too well
acted and filmed to enjoy as camp. If you aren't disgusted
with it, you won't be bored. You will also be able to check
out a DVD that comes packed with some brand new innovative
features. The features however don't quite have the sizzle
you might wish they have. The film is an empty rather ugly
experience and features that discuss the themes of the film
feel like post political speech analysis as much as fun additional
features. Still Infinifilm is a great idea and with a little
fine tuning it would make a great package out of any above
average film. The Fact track is also a winner. If you're not
a fan of the film, be sure to rent this DVD before you buy
it.
* * * * * * *Christopher Jarmick,is
the author of The Glass Coccon with Serena F. Holder a critically
acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller. For information on Author
readings/signings or availability of special autographed editions
of the novel email: glasscocoon@hotmail for details. * * *
Original portions of this review Copyright© Christopher J.
Jarmick 2001. The above work is protected by international
copyright law.
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