This was a movie that COULD have been good. Acting aside, this movie had few rewarding elements to it. I did like Kelsey Grammar as a sleazy news show guy, and his line "If it bleeds, it leads" is all too true when thinking about how the news networks arrange their stories. Robert De Niro did a fine job as one of his cop characters, while Edward Burns had a chance to do one better. But the way that they attempted to indict the media was a real misfire. It would have been better as a straight-up cop movie.
Whenever we saw the Czech and Russian, there was the constant, annoying shots of the Russian using his stolen video camera. The handheld camcorder and the various effects he would test out got annoying and dizzy.
The last scene was a nice combination of action and humor, as the Czech finally gets plugged, and Burns punches Grammar when he tries to offer the job of being a media cop.
A movie that did a much better job of media indictment was Brian De Palma's "Snake Eyes." The movie itself was not about the media, but the last ten or fifteen minutes were devoted to the effects of becoming a bit of a celebrity. It went from giving Nicolas Cage a medal for what he did on the night in question, to allegations that he's dealing cocaine, to him trying to sneak out of the courthouse without being seen.
Granted, neither one of these is a GREAT movie, but 15 Minutes just plain sucked.
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Isjke
20 years ago
Is it because America doesn't come off as the perfect country, heaven on earth that you don't like the movie? 'Cause for your information, the effects with the camcorder played a very big part in the movie. It is about two crazy guys who tape all their crimes, it's about two East-European men who arrive in America and can't believe what they see, they're surprised with all these possibilities, which is shown in the possibilities they used on the camcorder.
Finally there's another movie that says 'America isn't perfect, the system in America sucks' and suddenly people hate the movie! Come back down to earth and see that the filmmakers were right to make this movie and make it the way it is but hopefully they understand that the brainwashed Americans will hardly ever understand what they mean!
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I_am_HVR
18 years ago
Sucked!! No way it sucked.This was a first rate action thriller,a thinking man's movie.The media indictment was so justifiable;we have all seen Cops and High speed chase videos."If it bleeds,it leads" thats so bloody true my friend.
DeNiro was the perfect choice to play the media savvy yet a rightous cop;initially it felt like Showtime.But the grusomeness of the two east european guys didn't fit into a comedy scheme.
Like someone said on this forum,this is pure entertainment,yes,but on the other hand very thought provoking.Burns got a very good roll and he did a fine job too
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