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A DVD Review of...
  
Images (C) New Line |
Genre: Thriller/Black Comedy
Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, Kelsey Grammar, Avery Brooks, Melina Kanakaredes
Synopsis: In an age when almost anyone can be famous for fifteen minutes, what does fame mean? How far will people go to get it - and what are its rewards? When video and live television give us ringside seats to almost any event, what can or should we show? What are we willing to watch? How do we feel about culture's seemingly insatiable appetite for calamity, tragedy and horrific crime? What ultimately is the price we pay for this indulgence?
Superstar N.Y. Homicide Detective Eddie Flemming allows a young, talented N.Y. Fire Dept. Arson Investigator, Jordy Warsaw to team up with him to track down a pair of Eastern European killers on a rampage through the city. Ferocious, unpredictable and clever, the immigrants quickly learn how to use the celebrity of their pursuers to spin their own stardom into an explosion of media and judicial madness
Film Review: John Herzfeld's "15 Minutes" aims to be a memorable black comedic ultra-violent cop thriller about modern day tabloid journalism and funnily enough for the first two thirds of it, the film succeeds admirably. The story is interesting though its points about the media being exploitive and how criminals are now celebs have been done to death before and this doesn't give any new insight. Nevertheless Herzfeld's directing style is refreshing as he makes this a very hard film to define - one minute its pure comedy, the next a gritty cop thriller, then an ultra violent slasher flick, then an out and out action flick, plus romance and celeb cameos galore thrown in resulting in a mish mash which gels together surprisingly well.
DeNiro gives his standard high quality performance and turns what could've been a thin role into a well toned one, Burns is likable and does ok with what he has but that doesn't add up to much, though Grammar does his best film role ever. Roden (the bald Czech) and Tartakov (the muscled Russian) however steal the show as they alternate between maniac style rage and odd couple comedy, Herzfeld gives plenty of room for them to develop into disturbing yet complex and very human characters. Great supporting work from the likes of Avery Brooks, Charlize Theron, Kim Cattrall and Melina Kanakaredes keep things lively and superb cinematography and music help make the shift of moods and styles between each character's scenes easier.
Herzfeld has a knack for action and doesn't hesitate with the violence either, resulting in some great tense shoot outs and chase scenes to an ultra tense and highly clever 'firetrap' sequence in a loft. The humour too is refreshingly cynical, quirky with the odd dash of slapstick and none is too pointed at any one show or issue so non-Americans will get all the references too. Its a very slick and well produced thriller with a very original style to it that rockets along through till the shocking end of the second act. Then it kind of goes off the rails, loses a lot of the comedy, and turns into more of a straight out revenge flick - situations start to become unbelievable and feel setup, and while the ending is tense its also feels like a rushed cop out. Its a shame really as for at least the first half this was looking like one of the year's best - as is its still a rather unique thriller. - Garth Franklin
"15 Minutes: Infinifilm Series"
DVD Details In Brief (Region 1)
Rating: R
Runtime: 121mins
Versions: 16:9 Enhanced Widescreen, 4:3 Letterboxed
Aspect Ratio: 2.35: 1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 Surround
Language & Sub-Titles: English
Audio: Commentary by John Herzfeld. Trivia Subtitle Track
Documentaries: "15 Minutes of True Tabloid Stars" Featurette, "Does Crime Pay?" Discussion Group Featurette
Clips: Deleted Scenes (with optional commentary), Home Video Footage, Music Video - "Fame", Theatrical Trailer
Other: Script-To-Screen, Website
Region 1 vs. Region 4: No DVD-Rom Features. Standard NTSC/PAL Differences. |
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DVD Review: While not containing as much elaborate extras as the superb first Infinifilm release with "Thirteen Days", the subject matter is actually more contemporary and interesting and while the film's ending may leave a sour taste, the extras most certainly do not - this is a quality release yet again from New Line.
The film print itself is a high quality transfer. Colors are vibrant, blacks are black, the sound FX are excellent, words can be made out clearly and elements such as the digital camera tricks in some scenes come across real well. The commentary track by Herzfeld is solid and while starting off with the usual "introduction of the actors" style thing, it then gets more engaging to hear stuff like the fact that a lot of the non speaking or one-liner roles in this were played by non-actors and in many cases real people playing someone in their professions. There's also interesting comments on the graphic level of violence and how he didn't want to water it down.
The two
big "Beyond the Movie" features are two short documentaries (15 & 20 mins) of sorts which have to rank amongst some of the best I've seen on a DVD as it explores the more fascinating topic of tabloid journalism than some standard old 'Making Of' film doco. The first and most interesting is "15 Minutes of True Tabloid Stars" which is basically spliced together from interviews with the likes of Sally Jesse Raphael, Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, Deborah Norville and so on. What makes it fascinating is its simple style - all are close up interviews with a simple blue background and cuts between the various subjects every 20-30 seconds - long enough to hear out full points of view on cases like Joey Butaffuco to topics like checkbook journalism, yet short enough to keep things interesting. Mixed in with all that are pieces of footage from both the film and real life tabloid shows. Its good interviewing with some of the best in the business discussing what they think of their jobs and each other.
Less engaging is a five person panel discussion with the likes of OJ cop Mark Fuhrman and various novelists and US TV hosts (none of which I'd heard of before) discussing various ways in which criminals become celebrities. Its interesting and while there is a lot of posturing going on, there's some good points. There's also the 'Fact Track' capability similar to "Thirteen Days" and containing the same problems but interesting enough for those who like that sort of stuff.
'All
Access Pass' has six deleted scenes: a comical scene about luggage, Burns talking with an arsonist (with a father's death character detail revealed), the baddies helping a blind woman across the street, an unedited tracking shot of Burns leaving the building on fire, and a longer version of the lawyer and Roden discussion where he shows off his scarred back. The best of them though is 'Lost Chase Scene' a comical yet graphic sequence in which a grime covered Burns breaks into a hotel room where the Russian Taktarov is making out with three hookers, uses them as shields as he escapes and then he and Burns run through Times Square before having a shoot out in a crowded cinema showing "2 Days in the Valley" - all the while Taktarov is dressed only in a small pair of jocks. This sequence has everything - tension, full frontal female nudity, violence, comedy, famous locations, and even Eric Stoltz for christ sake. All the deleted scenes are presented in proper aspect ratio and as high a quality as the complete film with optional commentary from the director.
'Oleg's Videos' has the 'bedroom hooker' and 'DeNiro interrogation' scene shown through the video camera footage the Russian actor was shooting with the handheld during that scene - interesting to see these scenes from a different, more 'voyeur' style angle though both end quite brutally and bloody with no "Cut, that's a take" style pull at the end so these feel frighteningly real. There's the music video from Gods Underwater doing a remix of "Fame" (not that one, the other one) - pretty good music video too with cameos from Grammar and Taktarov. That's capped off with standard biographies and the ok trailer. DVD-Rom contains standard script-to-screen and website stuff. All up this is an excellent DVD, the film in itself may not be up to it but the extras make up for the weakened third act. An excellent disc. - Garth Franklin
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