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15 Minutes (2001) Cert 18. Director - Eddie Flemming. Writer - John Herzfeld. Starring - Robert De Niro, Ed Burns & Kelsey Grammer. |
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Premise - Two eastern Europeans go to New York looking for their bank heist money, but their accomplice has spent it. They decide to use the land of the free's double Jeopardy law to go on a killing spree, claim insanity and sell the movie rights to a bloodthirsty media. Cop De Niro and fire marshal Burns try to stop them. 15 Minutes starts of good enough. We are introduced to the characters, De Niro is a celebrity cop who uses his status to get results, Burns is a fire marshal (who conveniently is robbed early on so we can be told that 'he is just like a cop') and Grammer is a slimy tabloid TV show host. Everything is going fine. Kind of like Backdraft meets The Peacemaker until (and I'm not going to spoil it) something quite unexpected happens. Then the film degenerates into a farce. Ridiculous set pieces come at you one after the other until the most ridiculous final scene I have seen in a long time. Performance wise everybody does well, Burns in particular does a good job considering he is playing buddy with the legend De Niro. He never seems out of his depth. Grammer does well, but I felt like shouting what's Fraiser doing there? Star Trek fans keep an eye out for Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) as De Niros partner. The soundtrack is fairly good although the inclusion of David Gray made my skin crawl. The film is competently shot by Flemming (Two Days in the Valley), but you can't forgive the lunacy of the second half, it just doesn't hold any water. Plot strands fly all over the place in the ending is too convenient and a little cheesy. You can see that they had good intentions with this film unfortunately it wasn't pulled off and that's a shame considering the talent on show. |
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3/10 for 15 Minutes. Poster quote - 15 seconds would be better. |