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15 Minutes
New Line Cinema
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong violence, language and some sexuality
Starring
Robert De Niro,
Edward Burns,
Vera Farmiga,
Kelsey Grammer,
Melina Kanakaredes,
Tygh Runyan,
and
Janean Christine Mariani
A thriller seen through an eye-popping new lens - that of the media's hunt for shocking imagery, no matter the cost. In 15 Minutes, as the cops chase the murderers, the media chases the cops, and the whole thing fuels an escalating firestorm. (New Line Cinema)
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
John Herzfeld
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
John Herzfeld
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 14, 2001
Video: August 14, 2001
Theatrical: March 9, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
120 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
The surprise here isn't that 15 Minutes isn't a masterpiece; it's that the movie works at all.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A cynical, savage satire about violence, the media and depravity. It doesn't have the polish of "Natural Born Killers" or the wit of "Wag the Dog," but it's a real movie, rough edges and all, and not another link from the sausage factory.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The picture is more impressive as it goes along, revealing a symmetry of construction underneath the rudiments of a thriller.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Both audacious and unwieldy, exciting and excessive, this dark thriller is too long, too violent and not always convincing. But at the same time, there's no denying that it's onto something, that its savage indictment of the nexus involving media, crime and a voracious public is a cinematic statement difficult to ignore.
70
Mr. Showbiz
Larry Terenzi
Boasts a fine cast and makes enough cogent points that it rises above standard cop fare.
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
A first-rate Hollywood entertainment--at least if one can accept the schizophrenia of combining a cop/buddy action thriller with an angry satire about the shamelessness of the media.
70
Dallas Observer
Andy Klein
It's a fast, entertaining ride.
63
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
In a season mostly given over to unwatchable movies being cleared off studio shelves, it's at least about something. And there's no denying the lurid urgency with which it jumps off the screen.
60
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Big, loud and lurid, but no less entertaining for that.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
A fairly hypocritical exercise -- and one that's so flamboyant and overbearing that it comes perilously close to being a classic awful.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The premise is promising, but Herzfeld cares more about sensationalism than substance, and portions of the picture are far nastier than they had to be.
50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Less the blistering satire it imagines itself than a blustering, bloody, blundering melodrama about bottom feeders nibbling each other.
50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The Czech Republic and Russia, the respective homes of Emil and Oleg, should sue.
50
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Less a movie for intelligent moviegoers than a suggestion that we're all brainless chickens.
40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A thriller more contrived than it is exciting.
40
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Herzfeld's sophomore movie is one long howl of rage over the relationship between criminals, journalists and thrill-hungry audiences.
40
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Too busy trying to make remarks to be much fun in the end. But it really only has one remark, which it reiterates about a thousand times, and it's not all that remarkable: Fame is overrated.
38
USA Today
Mike Clark
Clumsy urban thriller.
38
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
Works just fine as a generic but fast-paced - and rather ugly - cop buddy flick.
38
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The unearned air of moralism that wafts through 15 Minutes pollutes its entertainment value.
30
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
15 Minutes settles into Richard Donner-style goulash.
30
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Herzfeld also wrote the screenplay, and so its leaden and obvious tone and the resulting dearth of delicacy rests squarely on him.
25
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
It's the poster child for bad taste, not to mention bad construction.
25
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
It takes a concerted effort to make a movie as relentlessly stupid and grating as 15 Minutes.
25
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Is less an end in itself than an excuse, a jumping off point for showy, contrived, borderline exploitation sequences that fail to tie together because they're not really there to do anything but sell themselves as money shot thrills.
20
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
John Herzfeld, the writer-director, attacks America's lust for voyeuristic sensationalism by aping the very tactics he decries.
20
Film.com
Ernest Hardy
15 Minutes is simply a bad movie.
20
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
It's fleet- footed, merciless entertainment. But the mixture of laughs, bathos and brutality is a big turnoff.
20
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
They (De Niro, Burns) look good together. But what a staggering pity they chose such a nasty, hackneyed movie to demonstrate their chemistry.
0
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
Isn't just rotten -- badly acted, badly written, badly conceived -- it's dead inside.
0
Slate
David Edelstein
It all adds up to one of the most brazen pieces of blame-shifting in exploitation-picture history.
0
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
If Detroit had produced an equivalent lemon, we might have been seeing the world's first one-wheeled, square-tired car with no cooling system, steering wheel or brakes.
 The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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