Failing to write my reviews immediately after I've seen a movie, is a blessing and a curse. I find it best to write soon after I've watched, because the movie is still In The Moment, if you will; I'm clear, as precise as I get, and certain about how I feel about said flick. But there's something about sleeping on it, that allows one to more carefully examine what seemed Simply Bloody Brilliant the night before, and go "uh...whathell?" The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) Remember in Splash, when Darryl Hannah's mermaid character learned how to speak English by watching television? 15 Minutes exists in an Evil Parallel Universe... Emil Slovak (Karel Roden) and his partner Oleg Ratzgul (Oleg Taktarov) come to America to seek their fortune. No, not the one noted in The American Dream: they want the one for which they served time in the Europe. When their ex-partner Milos, living as a plumber in New York, doesn't come up with the goods, Emil does Bad Stuff to Milos while Oleg, a man who fancies himself a frustrated director, nonchalantly videotapes the act. Somewhere down the road, arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) becomes attached to a case involving a fire set up to mask a double homicide; cue celebrity homicide cop Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro), whose high-profile cases have been spotlighted by scummy TV "journalist" Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer). Jordy doesn't have a lot of respect initially for Eddie's showboating - but Eddie comes to the attention of quick learners Emil and Oleg, who seize the tragic moment that could bring them fame and fortune. There's More Stuff, involving Eddie's partner Leon Jackson (Avery Brooks), a Czech woman named Daphne (Vera Farmiga), Beat Reporter Nicolette (Melina Kanakaredes), and a Cast Of (seeming) Thousands, but you get the drift, eh? The Upshot The bad? Too many characters [did we really need a Seedy TV "Newsman" and a TV Reporter Chick cum Love Interest for Eddie? Uh, couldn't they have been combined? And whathell was Kim Cattrall's character about?], and nonsensical plot devices [one simple change - nixing the fireman angle in favor of a Rogue Youngbuck Cop, would've kept the whathell?s to a minimum], top the list. Edward Burns' constant empty stare would occupy a list space, too, but I was too busy wondering why Kelsey Grammer (who I adore in Frasier) was so busy trying to get us to forget his TV persona by cussin' up a storm, that I was able to effectively block Burns' rather silly character and plot, right out of my view for the first half of the movie. The good? Robert De Niro, in both Tender Mode [call me a softie, but I dug his half of the love story. And by the way, my pal from "Time Slot", Melik, wanted me to note that I failed to grasp the "Taxi Driver" reference when Eddie was talking to himself in the mirror. So sue me.], and during his climatic confrontation with the bad guys. Though it was quite a shocker to me that De Niro wasn't the heart of this movie, when he was the focus of attention, it was close to impossible to notice much of anything else around him. In the world of Stars and Actors, De Niro is the rare combination that disproves the rule. The sublime? The music (more on this below), and especially Karel Roden as Czech National Emil Slovak and Oleg Taktarov as the Frank Capraesque Russian, Oleg Ratzgul. Somebody oughta call the cops, because this duo completely stole 15 Minutes out from under everybody, including De Niro. There wasn't a single scene in which Roden and Slovak participated, that I wasn't captured by [how's that for a double negative?], and in fact, the pivotal scene that I mentioned earlier with De Niro, was made damn near perfect by the fierceness of Roden and the eerie playfulness of Taktarov. Emil's near-insane temper and Oleg's humorous, blind madness, cut right to the "15 minutes of fame" issue in a way that all the intended moralizing by writer/director John Herzfeld about the Robert Hawkinses of this world, never touched. That I found myself laughing at Oleg when my brain told me that what he was doing was no laughing matter, was what made this movie so scary, and immediate. In that, it earned its genre title: thriller. One more thing: I think I have a crush on Charlize Theron. I swear, her eyes go right through me. Not That There's Anything Wrong With That. In The Movie House I had thought about doing a quickie Black Factor here - ok, here's a quickie: Avery Brooks is good, and plenty; Darius McCrary was just more unnecessary flotsam - but decided against it, in favor of praise for the movie's musical score. 9 out of 10 times, movie music irritates me. If it's loud enough for me to notice it, it's usually 1) too daggone loud and 2) not all that good. But as with Finding Forrester before it, the score in "15" was used quite effectively, wonderfully accentuating many a scene (the techie girl in me hurrahed the musical emphasis when De Niro and company went a'chasing the bad guys), and generally adding quite a bit of spice to this flick. Combined once again with Celebration Cinema's awesome surround sound environment, this score left me awed. Bammer's Bottom Line As my pal Melik said, 15 Minutes rocked; at times, it was thought-provoking, and disturbing, and the musical score was brilliantly executed (this will be a good DVD/surround sound flick to pick up). On the neutral-to-negative side of things, Robert De Niro and Edward Burns were just okay; Kelsey Grammer's Slimy Journalist wasn't slimy enough; and some of the silly things the audience was asked to believe, kept it on this side of Best Of 2001 territory for me. But Karel Roden as the Czech and Oleg Taktarov as the Russian, Made this movie. Watch it, if only for them and the score. 15 MINUTES: Another one for the "can't wait till it hits DVD" file. back to top And that's the way I see it. Rose "Bams" Cooper 3BlackChicks Enterprises™ Copyright Rose Cooper, 2001 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com    ICQ: 7760005 http://www.3blackchicks.com/ http://www.evenbetter.com/?partner=1987

Use the feedback form below to send your comments to Bams