15 Minutes

15 Minutes is a thriller that looks as if it has something to say, but perhaps does not after all.

The title of course refers to the famous 15 minutes that Andy Warhol once spoke of. Everyone dreams of fame - even if only for 15 minutes. The reason for the fame seems increasingly to be of secondary importance too. That fame can make you rich is a decisive factor for the two Eastern European criminals Emil and Oleg, who have barely set foot in the USA before they commit murder. Oleg films the crime on video, and certain morally frayed TV stations are prepared to pay a lot of money for that footage.

The well-known police detective Eddie Flemming also uses the limelight to get publicity for the crimes he is working to solve. The young fire marshal Jordy Warsaw, who becomes a kind of protégé of Flemming's during the investigation, cannot be bought like that, however, and that turns out to be to his advantage. The media's fixation on Flemming puts him in the criminals' sights.

15 Minutes has quite a few surprises up its sleeve. On the downside, the director spends far too much energy following the two insane murderers and their violent rampage and too little time following the film's actual protagonists, Flemming and Warsaw.