nan | 楠木

15 Minutes can be seen as a hybrid between a police thriller and a satire. It’s a hard mix of genres, and that’s why in terms of style and tone it is not consistent throughout. But it does make an interesting film that steps out of the boundaries of the average cop flick.

Robert De Niro is Eddie Flemming, a media super star cop of the NYPD. He gets a lot of publicity, and in return he gives the media favors (such as staging an arrest for them). When a gruesome double homicide disguised as an apartment fire happens, he’s the top dog for the case. But since it’s related to arson, the fire department’s own finest also steps in, in the form of fire marshall Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns). It’s not a very plausible setup, but the fireman and the cop team up to solve the crime.

The crime, as the audience has already witnessed, is the act of two Eastern Europeans in town looking to be famous. They have the particularly sick idea of doing so by killing people, and then plead guilty, and then selling the film and TV rights to their life story. Sound familiar? That’s the intention, since from the satire aspect the 15 minutes of fame is exactly what this film is hitting at.

The film is unabashedly violent, and while you could argue that’s for the sake of the satire, it could also be said that this film in and of itself is also an attention seeker. It’s often exploitative in nature, which of course reduces the artistic merit. That being said, the brazen satirical moments of this film sometimes do work, especially the ending.

From the acting department, there’s not much to complain. De Niro is his usual form, and this is the type of characters he could probably play while he’s asleep. Burns is competent but not outstanding. The two criminals are sick, which proves that the two actors (Oleg Taktarov and Karel Roden) did a fine job.

7/10