"'15 Minutes' of Shame"
by Scott Mantz

"15 Minutes"
Robert De Niro, Edward Burns
Directed by John Herzfeld

Time's up for Edward Burns and Robert De Niro in "15 Minutes"

If famed 60's icon Andy Warhol once made the comment that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, then you can count Monica Lewinsky, "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire's" Darva Conger, and "Survivor's" Richard Hatch as among those who listened. Not only are they perfect examples of how 15 minutes can go on for a very long time, but even when they finally fall out of the picture, there's bound to be somebody waiting in the wings to take their place.

Being a celebrity may seem like a gift and a curse, but the film "15 Minutes," which chronicles the rise of a couple of media-hungry psychopaths to stardom, is more like a curse. Sloppy, contrived, and monotonous, the film easily falls prey to the same obsessive irresponsibility that it just so happens to be preaching about. Instead of being a valid statement about the public's destructive fascination with fame, "15 Minutes" comes across like a shameless and ineffective combination of "Network," "Backdraft," and "Seven."

After a mysterious fire investigation turns into a homicide, media-friendly New York police detective Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro) teams up with uptight arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) to find the killers. In this case, they are newly arrived Russian immigrants who are more than ready to take full advantage of the land of opportunity. Since today's media will pay through the nose for anything controversial in an effort to boost ratings, they decide to kill people, film the murders, and sell the gruesome footage to "Hard Copy"-like TV shows. It's only a matter of time before Eddie becomes one of their intended victims, and it's up to Jordy to stop that from happening and put an end to their delusional charade once and for all.

From the opening frame to the closing credits, everything about "15 Minutes" is unbelievably contrived. The Russian immigrants are too stereotypical, cartoonish, and one-dimensional to be taken seriously, and the progression of the story defies any semblance of logic to be even remotely engaging. Eddie and Jordy seem like they were thrown together just to give the film the feel of your average buddy flick, but any insight into their background is too forced to be believed.

Other than Robert De Niro and Edward Burns, who seem to be walking through their roles without any shred of passion, the rest of the cast of "15 Minutes" feels like a refugee camp for overpaid TV actors. Kelsey Grammer plays a reporter who would sell his soul to the devil (and he does) to get good ratings, but its a laughable performance that was done much better by William Atherton, who played the similarly ruthless reporter in the "Die Hard" movies. Melina Kanakaredes plays a rival reporter who is romantically involved with De Niro's character, but her throwaway performance is every indication that she should stay put on TV's "Providence."

Maybe it was director John Herzfeld's intention to turn the camera on the audience and make media-obsessed moviegoers take a good look at themselves, but by talking down to them (as opposed to merely talking to them), he only ends up adding fuel to the fire. If you really want to see a movie that covers the same territory with far more intelligence, then tune into the 1976 classic "Network"-- a film that is actually more significant now than it was when it was first released. Otherwise, the real shame about "15 Minutes" is that it isn't 15 minutes long.

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