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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 7.22%
Worth A Look: 20.62%
Just Average: 16.49%
Pretty Crappy: 31.96%
Sucks: 23.71%
9 reviews, 43 user ratings
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| 15 Minutes |
by Bishop
"Could Have Been A TRULY Great Film"
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15 minutes is ambitious, and "in your face" at the risk of being cliche. Think of it as a hybrid of Se7en and Natural Born Killers. It delves into a scathing indictment of the media's depiction of crime and law enforcement. This film with some tweaking, could have been a lot better, but is still pretty good in it's ambition and pull no punches, high velocity style.Well, we have DeNiro (Eddie), he gives an uncharacteristically (just kidding) great performance as a famous NYC cop. Ed Burns is an arson investigator whose path tangles with Eddie's when he arrives on the scene of a fire that has been staged to cover up a double homicide. Burns and DeNiro soon begin working as a tandem, in attempt to catch two Eastern European serial killers who have grown accustom to videotaping their attrocities.
Burns again does an excellent job (see Saving Private Ryan) of holding his own with a big time talent, and he and DeNiro have real chemistry together. I myself am anxious to see more Ed Burns roles such as this one, where he is in the limelight, with another great talent or solo.
There is a huge twist in this film that should under no circumstances be revealed. The film keeps moving at a frenzied pace, although this doesn't necessarily hurt it. What does though is the quality of the villians. These two aren't the criminal masterminds that could seem to thrive as they do, although they do function well on many other levels as their M.O. of videotaping their kills in order to become famous becomes a central element of the movie. The film keeps churning, and going well, dwelling deeper into the realm of the media and the legal system as morally bankrupt systems. The film goes off on certain tangents, and cannot sustain its pace. A relationship between Burns and a witness just falls flat, and the nature of some the police work etc. is a bit suspect.
Although I'm ragging on this film, it is still very good. The possibilites of what it COULD HAVE BEEN are simply mind boggling and that is why I'm a little bitter. I'd love to have seen someone like David Fincher get ahold of this one.
Once again, the ambition of this film is simply staggering, it is ballsy and high speed. Burns and DeNiro are great, not to mention Kelsey Grammar as a sleaze bag tabloid TV show host. I was suprised this film garnered as many negative reviews as it did, the writing and directing could have used some fine tuning, but overall it is pretty damn good. I was apathetic about seeing this film, but after watching it I was very suprised and although it was not a total success in what it aspired to achieve, it really went for it and was not a complete failure and is very admirable on those levels.This film is good overall, with good performances and non-stop action and developing situations. I suggest checking it out and realizing what it could have been if our director had been a little more level headed and fine tuned some things here and there. Still definitely "Worth a Look" however.
link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=4343&reviewer=289
originally posted: 02/16/02 23:08:34
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USA
09-Mar-2001 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
24-May-2001 (M)
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