15 Minutes (Infinifilm Edition)

15 Minutes (Infinifilm Edition)
by John Herzfeld

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Movie Reviews of 15 Minutes (Infinifilm Edition)

Movie Review: Adrenaline Ride in NYC
Summary: 5 Stars

Imagine if you came to America as an outsider, without any knowledge of its values and morals, and your first look into American culture was through the television screen, to be more accurate, through daytime talk shows, tabloid journalism and sensational news programs, what would you think?
As I see it, John Herzfeld's second film, starts and ends at this point. The media as a reflector, or a creator of American society.

15 minutes evolves around Oleg and Emil, 2 eastern Europeans (Russian and Czech) who come to America for the first time to collect some money from an old friend. As it turned out, the vacation becomes a bloody road to their 15 minutes of fame. Both of them have an obsession for being famous, Oleg as a film creator who documents their trip to America, and Emil as a celebrity murderer. Emil gets the idea that in America "no one is responsible for what they do" (gee, I wonder where he got that from...) and plots to get away with murder by pleading insanity ... sounds familiar?

The 2 roles are played brilliantly by Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov who are both eastern European actors. John Hetrzfeld's real life approach is eminent throughout the entire movie, which makes it all more believable and tense.

As things start to get nasty, enter Eddie Fleming, played by Robert De Niro, a celebrity detective who's here to stop Oleg and Emil from doing more killings. Eddie loves the media and the media loves him back. Plus, there are couple of movies about him and he's not at all camera shy. He's friend with the media and he definitely uses it to his advantages.

Kelsey Grammer plays a hard core news anchor man, who's thirsty for rating, and what brings rating? Right, violence, sensation, sex, scandals- pretty much everything we see on television today. Kelsey is perfect for the role of the charismatic, slick news presenter, and he doesn't over do it.

Jordi Warsaw (Edward Burns) is an arson investigator who joins Eddie in his chase. The partnership between the two so very different characters is born almost out of coincidence and from the hectic course of events. To me, Burns' character is the sole of the film. He's moral, professional and sensitive (he doesn't watch TV...). Their partnership evolves into a true bond and even a father-child relationship.

Aside from the excellent performance of the main actors, as well as the supporting roles, the movie's strength lies in it's realistic feel. Herzfeld's approach, which I mentioned earlier, was to keep everything as close to reality. Starting from the authentic eastern European actors, the real locations, the use of the actors instead of doubles in many of the tense and difficult scenes and the use of the camera. As he explains in the great commentary track, he used mostly panning and long cuts most of the time, instead of fast cutting between shots. We actually see everything as it happens and I think this is a right approach not only to this kind of "realistic" film , but to any movie.

Although the movie is categorized as an action thriller, there is a lot more in it then that. We are talking about mixing genres and breaking formulas. It is obvious that 15 minutes was a film hard to market because of the crossing between action, drama and social-cultural satire. I think most of today's audience is reluctant to accept the break of conventions and New Line really deserves the credit for undertaking such a film.
The good news is that the DVD is very popular and I think the film gets its well-deserved recognition from both the public and the critics.

The DVD:

This impressive package is the second in New Line's Infinifilm series, that promise to take you beyond the movie and delivers.

Menus:
The menus are a real treat, looking like news broadcast of the fictitious Top Story, with clips from the movie and Kelsey Grammer's character as the reporter in the main menu.

Extras:
First and foremost, you get a full length commentary by director john Herzfeld. Great stuff, the man talk about many the film aspects, behind the scene info, ideas, realization, working with the cast and pointing out friends & family. This commentary is an experience by itself.

Deleted scenes: 7 deleted scenes, all of them could have stayed in the final cut, and they give us more info and understanding of the characters. Watching them with the optional commentary of Herzfeld, gives you an insightful look into the film. Really good stuff.

These are the features that really completes the film experience.

Besides that you get couple of scenes taken with Oleg's camera during the film, a music video (I really like musiv videos on DVDs, they are a part of the film's marketing efforts and you get them with excellent video and quality) and the theatrical trailer.

For the Beyond the Movie promise included are 2 interesting documentaries about tabloid media and celebrity criminals and fact subtitles.

And last but not least, Infinifilm: watching the film with additional clips, footage and info. Good job!

DVD-ROM features includes:script-to-screen access and some weblinks.

Overall, very solid package, worth buying for the commentary and deleted scenes alone.

Summary of 15 Minutes (Infinifilm Edition)

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by director John Herzfeld
DVD ROM Features
Deleted Scenes
Documentaries:"True Tabloid" and "Does Crime Really Pay?" documentaries.
Featurette:"Oleg's Video," actual video footage captured from actor Oleg Taktarov's perspective.
Interviews
Music Video:God Lives Underwater "Fame" Music Video
Theatrical Trailer

Robert De Niro stars as Eddie Flemming, a hotshot homicide detective whose current double-murder case teams him with arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns). Their investigation leads to a pair of Eastern European nut-jobs (one Czech, one Russian) who've embarked on an impromptu killing spree--all captured on video by the Russian, who fancies himself an auteur of the American dream. In a pileup of contrivances, a reporter (Melina Kanakaredes) is also Eddie's girlfriend, and a tabloid TV host (Kelsey Grammer) seeks the killers' video with the scruples of Adolf Hitler. Blink and you'll miss Charlize Theron in a throwaway role, but that's nothing compared to the killing of a major character--a scene devoid of emotion that's more grist for the media mill. With appalling bloodlust, 15 Minutes sheds a sickening light on America's twisted character, but instead of illuminating, it only darkens the gloom. --Jeff Shannon