15 Minutes (2001)

A homicide detective and a fire marshal must stop a pair of murderers who commit videotaped crimes to become media darlings.

Director:

John Herzfeld

Writer:

John Herzfeld

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, Kelsey Grammer

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	Detective Eddie Flemming
Edward Burns	...	Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw
Kelsey Grammer	...	Robert Hawkins
Avery Brooks	...	Detective Leon Jackson
Melina Kanakaredes	...	Nicolette Karas
Karel Roden	...	Emil Slovak
Oleg Taktarov	...	Oleg Razgul
Vera Farmiga	...	Daphne Handlova
John DiResta	...	Bobby Korfin
James Handy	...	Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Declan Duffy
Darius McCrary	...	Detective Tommy Cullen
Bruce Cutler	...	Himself
Charlize Theron	...	Rose Hearn
Kim Cattrall	...	Cassandra
David Alan Grier	...	Mugger in Central Park

Storyline

When Eastern European criminals Oleg and Emil come to New York City to pick up their share of a heist score, Oleg steals a video camera and starts filming their activities, both legal and illegal. When they learn how the American media circus can make a remorseless killer look like the victim and make them rich, they target media-savvy NYPD Homicide Detective Eddie Flemming and media-naive FDNY Fire Marshal Jordy Warsaw, the cops investigating their murder and torching of their former criminal partner, filming everything to sell to the local tabloid TV show "Top Story."

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Plot Keywords:

criminal | detective | media | camera | homicide | 

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Taglines:

America's had enough

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, language and some sexuality

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English Czech Russian Greek Afrikaans

Release Date:

9 March 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fifteen Minutes

Filming Locations:

King Edward Hotel - 121 E. 5th St, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,523,154, 11 March 2001, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$24,403,552

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$56,359,980

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Industry Entertainment, New Redemption Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

To prepare him for filming, John Herzfeld told Oleg Taktarov to watch On the Waterfront (1954), Spartacus (1960), East of Eden (1955), The Third Man (1949), and Moby Dick (1956).

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Goofs

When the Emil and the Oleg are in the diner, the length of the ash at the end of the Emil's cigarette gets longer.

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Quotes

Oleg Razgul: [after filming Slovak shooting Korfin] Perfect! Cut! Print!

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Crazy Credits

A film by Oleg Rasgul is superimposed over the final clip of footage from Oleg's camera near the end.

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Alternate Versions

InfiniFilm DVD includes deleted scenes with commentary: Emil forces Oleg to carry their baggage to the apartment; Jordy is visited by an annoying arsonist at his office; Emil helps a blind woman cross the street; extended, uncut scene outside the apartment fire set up for Jordy where the annoying arsonist returns; Jordy chases half-naked Oleg from a hotel across Times Square into a movie theater showing 2 Days in the Valley (1996) and mistakes on-screen gunfire for actual gunfire; extended scene of Emil in prison, explaining why he helped the blind woman.

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

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Soundtracks

Carmen Queasy
Written by Maxim Reality (as Keith Palmer), Skin and Alan Price
Performed by Maxim Reality (as Maxim) featuring Skin
Courtesy XL Recordings and Virgin Records Ltd.
Contains a sample of "House of the Rising Sun"
Traditional, arranged by Alan Price
Performed by The Animals
Under license from EMI Records Limited

User Reviews

Surprisingly good

Considering the critical drubbing this movie received, not to mention the fact that it's by the writer/director of Two Days in the Valley, I expected it to be pretty terrible. Surprisingly it turned out to be an exciting and occasionally quite funny thriller about two media obsessed thugs from the former Soviet Union who decide to become celebrities by committing a series of murders and videotaping the crimes. The movie is definitely not without serious flaws: for instance, nobody ever points out that it's almost impossible to mount a successful insanity defense in the US legal system. In a land where Jeffrey Dahmer and New York's highly delusional subway shooter are certified as sane these guys wouldn't have a shot in hell of making their case, and an insanity defence is the linchpin of their whole plan to profit from their crimes. Movie also ignores the fact that laws have been on the books to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes by selling their stories since the 1960's. Also, given the legal and ethical ramifications involved it's hard to imagine any credible scenario under which a news program, even a sleazy tabloid news program, would pay a million dollars cash to an at large murderer for a videotape of one of his crimes and then broadcast the thing live on television. Obvious flaws aside, 15 Minutes has several shockingly well-staged action sequences, great acting (except for the guy who played Ed Burns' boss--his grating one note performance went way over the self-parody line) and occasional welcome touches of black humor, like the very funny death scene of the thug who fancied himself a film director and manufactures the final shot of his movie for maximum emotional impact. All in all 15 Minutes is a dark and funny thriller and certainly a lot better than most of the schlock Hollywood churns out.