15 Minutes is, I think, a well-meaning film with lofty intentions, but it comes off more than a bit contrived and about as subtle as Jesse Ventura. What is supposed to be a damning indictment of criminal celebrity and the forces that aid said criminals (i.e. the media, entertainment industry, justice system and law enforcement) instead comes off as a weaker version of Natural Born Killers.

15 Minutes focuses on the actions of two Eastern European criminals – crafty Emil (Karel Roden) and beefy Oleg (Oleg Taktarov) – who, as the film opens, arrive in New York City to meet up with a partner they believe is holding onto their share of a bank robbery that the three men committed back in the old country.  Problem #1: The partner has spent every dime from the heist.  Problem #2: Emil, the group's ringleader, is a stone-cold nutter.  He kills his (former) partner and torches the building, but a witness (Vera Farmiga) watches everything go down.

Because the crime is a homicide and involved arson, the city's police and fire departments butt heads over the investigation.  In the blue corner is Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro, Meet the Parents), a media-savvy homicide dick who has become a national celebrity because of his involvement in a recent high-profile case.  In the red corner is Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns, Saving Private Ryan), an arson investigator for the NYFD.  As long as he gets the job done, Jordy couldn't care less what the public thinks of him.

The film's hook is that the It's-a-Wonderful-Life-loving Oleg, who stole a digital camera from a Times Square electronics shop, is filming everything that he and Emil do.  At first, he does it for kicks, but as the two men become accustomed to the ways of the Western world (via daytime television), they realize that robbing banks is a waste of time and energy.  The real money, it seems, isn't in committing crime, but in selling your story after you're caught.  Once apprehended, all one needs to do is whine about an abusive childhood and you're virtually off the hook.  And what better way to sell your story than with video evidence of your crime spree?

Other than the presence of Oleg's video camera (which is lifted from the superior French film Man Bites Dog) and the heavy-handed message, 15 Minutes is full of every cop-flick cliché you can think of.  You've got your old cop/young cop thing happening, as well as the good guy/bad guy race to get their hands on the lone witness (and the obligatory romance that follows). And, of course, you've got the hot-headed police captain who screams until he's blue in the face.  The last 30 minutes offer a couple of surprises, but it takes way too long (ironically, about 15 minutes too long) to get to the inevitable conclusion.

DeNiro does decent work here, but it's nothing too special for someone of his stature.  He seems better in comedies lately, and does get one funny scene that's a takeoff on his famous monologue from Taxi Driver.  Burns is merely adequate, showing that it takes more than just puppy-dog eyes to excel as an actor.  Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) logs in a nice – albeit brief – performance as the anchor of a popular tabloid television show, but his character disappears for 90 minutes.  Providence's Melina Kanakaredes plays a news reporter and Eddie's girlfriend, but her part seems to be included only to add a human touch to DeNiro's character (or, possibly, to waste time).  The real star here is Roden, who easily creates one of the scariest and most believable screen antagonists in recent memory with this breakout role. And just in case you weren't tired of seeing Charlize Theron in, like, every movie, she appears in one scene as the manager of an escort service.

15 Minutes was written and directed by John Herzfeld (2 Days in the Valley). He does a decent job with the picture's pacing and, thanks to cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier (Cradle Will Rock), is able to get the most out of using two different sources of film (the normal film stock and Oleg's digital footage).  A film made only of Oleg's footage (like Man Bites Dog) would have made for a more interesting and thought-provoking film.  15 Minutes also seemed to let the various evils (the media, et al.) off the hook way too easily, which kind of undermines the whole point of the picture.

The scene I found the most interesting was the one that got the largest response from the audience.  After being wounded in a shootout, Emil pops open a bottle of Excedrin, pours half the contents into his mouth and crunches on the chalky pills at top volume while the moviegoers groaned and grimaced.  This same audience didn't make a peep for the two charred bodies or the hooker who was cut up like Swiss cheese, but, God forbid they're forced to watch a guy chewing aspirin. It's a great, and probably completely unintentional, example of America's desensitization to violence.

1:58 –

for strong violence, language and some sexuality (nudity)