One of those genre movies that really exist to Say Something Important. This one comes from a time when some people in America thought the gravest threat to this country was Fast Food Media ala "A Current Affair". Anyway, two criminals one Czech and one Russian (the movie makes a big deal of distinguishing them, though it makes absolutely no difference in the plot), come to America to kill a partner of their's. They soon become immersed in the world of talk shows, and decide that the quickest route to fame and fortune is to kill somebody famous, plead insanity, go to the mental home, say they're not insane, then get out and write a best selling book and make a movie. Or something, it's not exceptionally clear although presumably that's the point. (Although the movie has to allow its criminals enough smarts to be able to plot deadly arson traps and track down witnesses in a foreign country, which is unbelievable in the extreme.) Their target is Robert De Niro, an improbably famous NYC cop who they see on the cover of "People" Movie suffers in part from having its bad guys way out-act the nominal protagonists, De Niro and Ed Burns, both of whom have the charisma here of dead fish in a dying pond. So much so that I spent a lot of the time hoping the bad guys would win. Movie also suffers from a truly terrible script. Characters spout clichés as a way to Illustrate the Point ("If it bleeds it leads!" Kelsey Grammar's character says, as though it had never been said before). Oddball situations arise for essentially no reason and the script has to do a ton of backfilling in order to explain them, such as why Ed Burns, a fire inspector, is basically De Niro's partner, or how a crazy Czech killer knows enough to rig an apartment to burn up. Characters scream at other characters about something or other, but it never seems to mean anything in the long run. Etc. (The script does deserve to be commended for one very neat plot twist halfway through, though.) And the movie's oddly repellent. It wants to preach to its audience about the dangers of mass media, but besides the general hypocrisy of having a movie, of all things, tell me this, there's a specific vibe here that glories in the same thing it's denouncing. There's a completely gratuitous murder of a prostitute here, for instance, that's excitingly shot and performed and seems to exist only to gin the ratings up to an "R": I'd rather not be lectured on morality by a movie that does that.
In general, 15 MINUTES is a secret sharer in the very thing it denounces. Avoid.
In general, 15 MINUTES is a secret sharer in the very thing it denounces. Avoid.