Rating: 
Summary: VERY BAD. REALLY VERY BAD.
Review: How De Niro is in the middle of this garbage ? Easy to explain: first, the paycheck, of course. He has increased his schedule of work dramatically in latter years, with tragic results mostly. Second: a good premise. The movie really has a good premise to talk about. BUT THE EXECUTION WAS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!! A waste of talent and money. A movie to be forgotten as soon as you finish watching it. Blame it on the director, the technical department, whatever. The result was catastrophic.
Rating: 
Summary: An Action Film with Something to Say...
Review: ...And the Brains to back it up. We get Robert De Niro and Edward Burns giving Top-Notch Performances as the Tough but Likeable Good guys, we get Tense, Realistic Action Scenes and we get an Honest Statement about Media-Fuelled Crimes and our Trash TV Culture.Two Men arrive in America to collect money from a Botched Bank robbery back home, but Instead they decide to go on a Killing spree in New York, and they Plan to get away with it. "I Love America, No one is Responsible for what they do" is the Two men's Philosophy and the Reasoning behind their Killing Spree. After an Episode of "Roseanne" and a Magazine about a Mass Murderer blaming his Therapist, they realise they can Kill, Get Away with it and Profit from it. In come High Profile Detective Eddie Fleming (De Niro) and Fire Investigator Jordy Warsaw (Burns) to Stop the two Crazed Killers. De Niro walks through his role with the Upmost Professionalism. It's a Walk through Central Park for the Screen Icon. Edward Burns holds his own alongside De Niro, which is a Very, Very hard thing to do. But the Best Performances in the film come from Karel Slovak and Oleg Razgul as the Killers. Slovak gives a Crazed, Energetic performance that the likes of Tim Roth and Gary Oldman would Envy. If he plays his Cards right in Hollywood, he could be as Well-known as they are in a matter of Years. Razgul plays a more In-control character; he makes him Naive and Likeable. He Too could Easily have a bright future in America. (As a Director as well) Kelsey Grammer is in Despicable mode as Robert Hawkins, a Trash TV Reporter who is Integral to Slovaks plan. Grammer is a Very Fine Actor, but for Some Reason, when he is acting Serious, I Can't get his "Simpsons" character Side-Show Bob out of my head. This is by No Means his fault, it's all mine. Among the Other great Performances are Melina Kanakaredes as Nicollete Karas, De Niro's Reporter Girlfriend, Vera Farmiga as a Beautiful Eyewitness and Avery Brooks as De Niro's Partner. Kim Cattral and Charlize Theron give Stand out performances in Small Cameos. This is Writer/Director John Herzfeld's Second Film, (the First was the Vastly Underrated "2 Days in the Valley") and he is Obviously Speaking from the Heart, the Issues raised in "15 Minutes" are ones he seems to be Very Passionate about, and with Good Reason. The Film never Lectures to the audience, it Shocks us, Angers us, Speaks to us Intelligently and it leaves us Satisfied, Excited and most Importantly... Entertained.
Rating: 
Summary: Not awful but not great.
Review: First off let me say i surely didn't hate this movie but it mad me mad the fact that Denero had to die. Of course seing the film he becomes the center of the whole movie but if the Writer/Director who i must say did a great job on "2 days in the valley" should have at least let him be in more of it. I thought from seeing the trailers that Denero and Burns would be the 2 bringing the criminals down but i had no idea that he was going to die. Or at least not that early into the film. I thought the movie was real good up to that point but in a way i almost stoped caring. I would recomend this for a rental especially on dvd because New Line does does good dvds. So if you can get an idea of what your going to see and you think you might like it. You most likely will.
Rating: 
Summary: De Niro no defrauda.
Review: Muy buen policial, no solo por la accion, sino porque ademas plantea hasta que punto el periodismo puede llegar a influir en la manera en que es presentada una noticia. Sin olvidar lo que hace un abogado con las leyes si hay suficiente dinero de por medio. Que decir de De Niro, genial como siempre interpretando a un policia de primera pero en el limite de convertirse en presentador de un programa de casos policiales en directo. E.Burns esta muy bien de simple y recto policia de bomberos, pero no por ello menos inteligente que De Niro. No falto nada para que el amante de los policiales violentos se aburra, suspenso, explosiones, persecuciones, ejecuciones etc. En resumen si te gustan De Niro y un buen policial no dejes pasar esta pelicula.
Rating:
Summary: A breathe taking movie that you will never forget!!
Review: This movie was so good. You would never expect to see Robert DeNiro die. He never dies in any movie. I also thought Kelsy Grammer was terrific. He actually seemed like a news reporter. whoever the cop was played a great role. I am not sure of his name though. and Robert DeNiro's girlfriend played a good part also. I thought that this movie was terrific and whoever didn't like it needs to see it over again and realized what went on there.
Rating: 
Summary: What a repulsive movie
Review: The acting talents of Robert De Niro are wasted in this movie about tabloid reporting and bloody murders that make it on the 6O'clock news. After seeing this movie, you will not want to watch your local news ever again.
Rating:
Summary: A Promiscuous Virgin
Review: Once upon a time there lived an opaque man who didn't do much. His paintings were lousy, and his movies even more so. He was worshipped. Books have been written and movies have been released that have made this manufactured God immortal. Andy Warhol is best remembered for the following statement: "In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes." Sounds good. Catchy. Doesn't mean much. And now, over two decades later, comes the film, 15 Minutes; a confused satire about the sleazy media, violent crime and their symbiotic relationship. At least that's what the people behind this junk think it is about. Disparate in tone, devoid of logic, it rambles from genre to genre looking for a reason, any reason to justify its existence. It has, by virtue of its title, been grouped with Network and A Face In The Crowd as a film about fame, and the depths some to which some would crawl to bathe in its light. Rubbish. 15 Minutes, for the most part, is the story Emil and Oleg's adventure in America. Emil, a Russian, is your garden-variety sneering homicidal maniac. Oleg, the Czech, is a simple man; he wants to come to America because that is where Frank Capra is from, and he really liked It's A Wonderful Life. Emil, is should be noted, doesn't like Oleg's "disgusting language", and, for the audience's convenience, forbids him from speaking in Russian, which is therefore a good (or rather terrible) excuse for them to speak English. When they meet, mutilate, film (It's A Gory Life by Oleg) and burn a friend from the old country, their reasons are given entirely in Russian. Those reasons are perhaps too complicated for writer/director John Herzfeld to explain. Despite having more screen time than the stars on the film's poster, Emil and Oleg are entirely the creatures of the plot. You really shouldn't be surprised when Emil has to look up the word "self esteem" in the dictionary, then, what seems like several ours later, exhibits and a conniving mastery of the American "double jeopardy" law. Don't know what that is? Ask the Russian. On the other side of the law, and seemingly in a different film, are celebrity detective Eddie Flemming (De Niro) and Arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns), who are now on the killers' trail. Flemming is the old guy, Warsaw is the new guy, and this is now "Lethal Weapon 49". At the periphery is Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer, who would be the star of the film had it really been about the media), he is the host of an exploitative "Top Story", where the top story is the one with the most body parts. Hawkins is friends with Flemming and depends on him for much of his material. Hawkins is also the one dimensional mouthpiece for the director's observations, "if it bleeds it leads," he says. This being the exceptionally shallow film that it is, every character thinks he or she knows the meaning of life, and is therefore able to distil that knowledge into such a statement. This is the kind of catchy, arty, frivolous, trite culture Herzfeld is supposed to be exposing. Instead he duplicates it. I haven't even mentioned the romantic interludes. There is no room for that here, but Herzfeld sure stuffs it into the movie. As was the case with his similarly overwritten and overcooked Two Days in The Valley (though that was admittedly a little better), Herzfeld can't seem to stop himself. He wants fights, chases, romance, satire, comedy, and pathos in one piece, but lacks the skill to gel those elements into a coherent narrative. He is technically competent, and is, I presume, partially responsible for the film's one redeeming feature, the soundtrack, but he has nothing to say, so he lashes out in every direction, making bits and pieces that have nothing to do with each other. A few critics have made the paper thin argument that Herzfeld is satirizing the exploitative media by making an equally exploitative, meaningless film. But that doesn't excuse it being tedious, implausible and just plain boring. And it most certainly does not excuse the ending, where Oleg reveals some hitherto untapped discernment (he must also like Rain Man) to set up the film's tired climax. The actors, De Niro included, seem lost or bored by the director's indecision. Here the man whose presence used to be the stamp of quality from the 70s till the early 90s is phoning in, long distance, yet another performance. But the performances could have never amounted to anything anyway, because the film they occupy functions like a Tabloid article; a stentorian headline followed by a short vague text. Have you ever wondered why tabloid articles are so brief? Because reading garbage is only fun for a while, then it gets tedious or repulsive. In the case of 15 minutes, it is both.
Rating:
Summary: The Worst 2 Hours in 15 Minutes
Review: Let me start off by saying that Robert De Niro is probably the best actor of the latter half of the last century. With films like Godfather Part II, The Deer Hunter, and the whole Martin Scorcese series (including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull) under his belt, his career is nothing less than phenomenal. "Fifteen Minutes," however, is HORRIBLE. I will say this: when I was watching the first half, I thought, "Well, the story is decent...It's just everything else that's bad." That is, the acting, directing, writing, and almost every other technical detail behind the camera. Then, there was this fairly cool apartment fire scene, and I thought things were looking up for the remainder of the film... I was GRAVELY mistaken, and the film only got worse as it went on. The motive of the filmmakers seemed to be to show some sort of "real look" at America and American justice--a kind of deep, eye-opening social commentary about how far people will go for their "15 minutes" and how America responds to such dramatic actions. The film, however, was exaggerated and jumbled, and the message was lost somewhere between David Alan Grier trying to mug Edward Burns and Kelsey Grammar airing the unexciting, lackluster killing of a major character on the mammoth screens of Times Square. Fifteen Minutes has ZERO substance, and it tries to make up for this by having big names in the cast. But the film is so terrible it is beyond salvation--even at the hands of Ed Burns and Robert De Niro. The filmmakers put in a noticeable effort to create yet another potentially imitated De Niro bit to follow others such as those of "you talkin' to me?" from Taxi Driver, "I heard things" from Raging Bull, and "what? Charlie, what?" from Mean Streets. They might have been successful with the "come on" proposal to the mirror, but the seemingly endless and completely unnecessary "are you sure you get it?" bit between De Niro and Burns was PAINFUL. I can only hope that "Fifteen Minutes" is the worst film of 2001. It is almost unbearably overrated by critics such as Roger Ebert and other credible names in the business, and it would be tragic if there were ever to be a sequel to this film. It would be an even greater tragedy, however, if this film reflects the integrity of Robert De Niro's future works.
Rating:
Summary: A dilly of a chiller!
Review: Robert DeNiro is good in this pyrotechnic-laden thriller about a couple of thrill-chasing cops and a couple of loveable criminals who cross paths during a ceremonial "virgin sacrifice" conducted on the internet and broadcast on the Times Square billboard in such an uncaring, New-York state of mind, that we all want to rush over the security counter and grab Frasier by the throat until he turns blue and can't speak. The adrenalin rush during the "Curly Sue" homage sequence was worth three times the price of admission. Not to mention the hormonal release I felt from America's recent school shootings (and which were, I firmly believe the inspiration for Edward Burns' "tears of a clown" scene.) Fifteen Minutes is the finest shoot-em-up explosion film this year, so far. But when Robert DeNiro speaks Mandarin and chases people over rooftops (and treetops!) bare-assed and naked to the world, I'll believe that Crouching Tiger has a real shot at Best Picture this year.
Rating:
Summary: More Than Just Another Action/Drama
Review: At what point does news cease to be news and become mere exploitation and sensationalism, and where do you draw the line? Not a new question, certainly, but in light of all the "reality" television shows currently in vogue, "15 Minutes," written and directed by John Herzfeld, is a timely and pertinent examination of just how much is enough, and how far you really have to go to satisfy a public with an apparently insatiable appetite for violence. Then again, is this really what people want to see, or is it a matter of unscrupulous network executives purposely feeding the curiosity of the masses and justifying their actions with ratings numbers? In the 1976 film, "Network," a programmer negotiates with terrorists to give them their own show; in this movie, the host of a tabloid news program is willing to broadcast live footage of the most repugnant murder and mayhem, claiming it is his "responsibility" to show it because it is "news." The story centers on veteran New York City detective Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro), who enjoys a certain celebrity due to the fact that many of his cases have been featured on "Top Story," the "news" show hosted by Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer). Flemming's notoriety actually facilitates his job to a certain extent, as people open up to him because they know him, or "of" him, at any rate. But when a pair of criminals-- one a Czech, the other a Russian-- arrive in New York to settle a score after having just been released from prison in their own country, Flemming finds himself involved in a case more bizarre than any he's ever encountered. For after noting the "success" of a murderer featured on Top Story, the two decide upon a career path for themselves; one that will lead them to fame and fortune. And their plan is very simple: They will film their crimes and sell the tapes to the station or show that will pay the most-- and they intend on giving Mr. Robert Hawkins first crack at them. For the audience, it becomes quite a wild ride, and Herzfeld delivers it all with heart-pounding, adrenaline pumping action, enhanced by a driving soundtrack that keeps you on edge right up to the end. There's a relentless intensity to this film that never wavers, and there's just enough character development to keep it interesting, along with a couple of plot twists that are so unexpected it is almost unnerving. Suffice to say, this is not your usual formulaic action/crime drama. As always, De Niro, the consummate professional, turns in the kind of performance we've come to expect from him. He pursues his craft with such finesse and skill that very quickly you know who Flemming is and what he's all about. Few actors have the ability to so succinctly convey character definition as De Niro does here, and it goes a long way to making this so much more than just an average cop show. Edward Burns gives a notable performance as well, as Jordy Warsaw, the arson investigator for the Fire Department who teams up with Flemming in pursuit of these psychotic killers who have apparently come to regard violence as an acceptable way of life. Burns works well with De Niro, and most importantly, he makes his character believable. The supporting cast includes Vera Farmiga (Daphne), Melina Kanakaredes (Nicolette), Tygh Runyan (Stephen Geller), Sebastian Roche (Ludwig) and Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov as the killers. There is such high tension in this film-- the scenes involving the killers are especially frantic, and some of the violence is extremely graphic-- and there is such a pounding rhythm to it that it negates the emotional involvement of the audience to some extent, and at least one element of the plot is so shocking it may leave you nonplused; but in the final analysis, "15 Minutes" is an absorbing, action packed drama that is something of an indictment of the purveyors of sensationalism for it's own sake, as well as those who allow it to proliferate through irresponsible acquiescence. Not for the faint of heart, but for those who like it served up hard, this will be a satisfying movie-going experience; and one that will stay with you for some time to come.
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