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By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2001
The tasteless film leaves even Robert De Niro fans short-changed.
15 Minutes (R)
A pair of Eastern European sociopaths are loose in New York City, and celebrity detective Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro) is on their trail. Flemming's symbiotic relationship with a tabloid TV reporter (Kelsey Grammer) and an overzealous fire inspector (Edward Burns) are sloppy subplots in John Herzfeld's tasteless movie.
First impressions: ". . . a sadistic, simple-minded thriller that plans to rub our noses in everything that's wrong about the media and serial violence. Instead, John Herzfeld's movie becomes part of the problem, skirting the boundaries of taste and becoming a kind of artificial snuff film.
"Certainly, there is little in 15 Minutes suggesting that the writer-director is doing this for his art. This is the most soulless, needless waste of dramatized life since Joel Schumacher's 8mm, which also had the temerity to lecture about morality while displaying none itself. . . .
"(The film) idly sketches heroes and indirectly celebrates killers, just like the tabloids Herzfeld props up as easy targets. Ideas are raised, given cursory attention, then dropped for the next violent wave to wash over the audience."
Second thoughts: Home video is a better outlet since viewers can take showers after the sleazy show.
Rental audience: De Niro fans, although they'll feel short-changed.
Rent it if you: Compulsively trace the careers of serial killers or believe everything you see on tabloid TV.
Jude Law (A.I., The Talented Mr. Ripley) plays a World War II sharpshooter whose specialty is killing German officers, a skill trumpeted by a Russian propagandist (Joseph Fiennes). Ed Harris co-stars as a sniper assigned by the Nazis to eliminate the assassin with extreme prejudice. Rachel Weisz (The Mummy Returns) adds a needless love interest angle.
First impressions: "It's a cat-and-mouse game, a love story, a class-struggle commentary and a history lesson, all rolled into one. Jean-Jacques Annaud, the French-born director of Seven Years in Tibet and The Name of the Rose, manages a misfire, despite those potent raw materials. The intrigue, with few exceptions, isn't nearly as suspenseful as it ought to be, and the romantic triangle is less than compelling. . . .
"(Harris) turns in the most impressive work here, with a nearly wordless performance as the polished Konig, an expert marksman with a sly smile and a heart of stone." (Phillip Booth, Times correspondent)
Second thoughts: The sniper sequences are tense enough, but the political and romantic subplots are dull.
Rental audience: War movie buffs only.
Rent it if you enjoy: Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line.
New and noteworthy for digital players
DVD versions of Brian DePalma's Carrie and Dressed to Kill provide new insights into the popular thrillers.
Carrie: 25th anniversary edition
Dressed to Kill: Special edition
(Both available on Aug. 28) Brian DePalma is seldom credited for being a filmmaker with original vision, with good reason. Everything he did well is typically and rightfully credited to someone else. Hitchcock is an obvious, persistent influence, but imitations of Eisenstein, Welles and others constantly draw attention to themselves in DePalma's movies.
DePalma admits to a few such cribbings during interviews included on new DVD tributes to two of his most popular works. For example, the hand emerging from Carrie White's grave at the climax of Carrie is lifted from John Boorman's Deliverance, and the razor near Nancy Allen's eye in Dressed to Kill comes from Luis Bunuel's Un chien andalou.
Neither DVD includes alternate audio commentary tracks, so DePalma never speaks off the cuff about his borrowing techniques. That's the only drawback of these otherwise informative and well-designed discs. Finely composed making-of documentaries are almost enough.
Carrie contains a wealth of information beginning with the featurette Acting Carrie. This one-hour documentary features each main actor except, unfortunately, John Travolta. However, Sissy Spacek speaks in lively fashion about playing a tormented, telepathic teenager whose first menstrual cycle leads to a high school holocaust. Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, P.J. Soles and Nancy Allen don't settle for glad-handing comments, either.
The choicest bit of trivia is that much of the cast was hired during auditions DePalma shared with another filmmaker casting his next movie. DePalma took the leftovers from George Lucas' search for actors to play Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in Star Wars.
Buckley, who played Carrie's gym teacher, adds another dimension on the short film Singing Carrie about the rise and demise of a musical version of Stephen King's story in which she played the girl's demented mother.
The disc also includes a text-only history of King's development of the novel, an animated photo gallery with Pino Donaggio's Psycho-derived music and the original theatrical trailer. Watch for the misspelling of the author's name: "Steven King." That's how unknown everybody was when the tidy thriller was made.
Dressed to Kill includes three similarly styled documentaries with Allen, Angie Dickinson and Dennis Franz. Like Travolta, Michael Caine decided to skip this celebration.
The most inventive bonus is a shot-by-shot comparison of several scenes from the film's unrated, R-rated and network TV versions. For example: Dickinson's steamy shower scene includes more frontal nudity by her body double in the unrated version and mostly closeups of the star's face for television audiences. Changes in dialogue or eliminating gore clean up other segments for a textbook example of self-censorship.
Wonder where DePalma got that idea?
Videos worth another look
St. Petersburg's favorite daughter has produced an impressive body of work.
Happy 43rd birthday to Boca Ciega High School graduate Angela Bassett. Over the past decade, she has become one of Hollywood's most respected actors for her vibrant portrayals of multidimensional characters.
It's in her eyes, with their perpetually determined look. It's in her voice, which makes each line sound authentic and dreamed up on the spot. It's also in her choice of roles. Angela Bassett doesn't do junk.
(Come to think of it, there was Supernova, but, hey, you've got to pay the bills.)
Nobody bats an eye these days when Bassett gets equal billing with screen legends such as Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando in The Score. That's a long way from her 1985 debut in the TV movie Doubletake, when she was billed as "Prostitute at headquarters."
Trace the career rise of St. Petersburg's favorite daughter in these home video selections:
Boyz N the Hood -- Bassett's first meaty role, playing the mother of a budding gangsta (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) left behind while she attends college. John Singleton's film and Do the Right Thing are still the standard to be reached by movies about urban culture.
Malcolm X -- Spike Lee's biography of the Black Muslim leader is an epic finding its heart in the marriage between Malcolm (Denzel Washington) and Betty Shabazz (Bassett). Trivia note: Bassett played Shabazz again in 1995's Panther, directed by Mario Van Peebles.
The Jacksons: An American Dream -- Bassett's wrenching portrayal of Katherine Jackson, mother to pop icons and wife of an abuser, lifted this musical biography above typical TV quality.
What's Love Got to Do With It -- Bassett had never seen Tina Turner perform, but you wouldn't know it from this Oscar-nominated imitation. Onstage, Bassett played Tina as a force of nature; offstage with husband Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne) as a brittle victim.
Waiting to Exhale -- A milestone in African-American cinema and movie-female empowerment in general. Four black women deal with various males, but Bassett's vengeful torching of her cheating lover's sports car was a crowd pleaser in this chic adaptation of Terry McMillan's novel.
Strange Days -- Bassett flexed her well-toned muscles in James Cameron's futuristic adventure. Ralph Fiennes co-starred as a street hustler sorting out a police conspiracy.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back -- Another adapted McMillan novel and another choice role for Bassett. Stella solves a midlife crisis by romancing a younger man (breakout star Taye Diggs) during a Caribbean holiday.
Contact -- Scientist (Jodie Foster) investigates radio signals from outer space, looking for signs of intelligence and settling for this script. Bassett was fine, however, as a White House adviser expecting hostile aliens.
Music of the Heart -- Bassett plays a headstrong high school principal who doesn't think her students need a classical music teacher (Meryl Streep). Like much of Bassett's best work, it's based on a true story.