"In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes." -- Andy Warhol

"If it bleeds, it leads." -- the news anchor of "Top Story," Robert Hawkins (played by Kelsey Grammer)

15 Minutes is a film about the collision of five characters, who all have different explicit agendas. Unfortunately, four of them share the same hidden agenda, and it eventually plays hell with the emotional life of the fifth. I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises this film has to offer, so I won’t go into too many plot details. Ostensibly about two New York cops, two Eastern European criminals, and the TV tabloid bottom feeder that covers them, the movie eventually hits all the emotions we hope for in a film. On the surface, you have a beautifully photographed, hard-hitting action film with (mostly) three-dimensional characters. Seething just underneath is director Herzfeld’s anger with the juxtaposition of a public seemingly starving for all the dirt it can ingest, a media that thrives on numbers instead of values, and the people who want their share of the spotlight. At the end, only one character stands above the fray, but he loses a lot in getting there.

DeNiro puts in his usual sterling performance, showing a multi-dimensional cop in love with fame, liquor, and a beautiful dame. Edward Burns is perfectly cast and acts with depth and with an understanding of his character. Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov steal the show as the Eastern European thugs. As veteran actors in Europe, they will be new faces to most everyone in the U.S. How many other actors can you name that make you forget De Niro is on the screen? These guys pull it off. Director John Herzfeld keeps the story moving but takes time for some touching moments and a few laughs that give us a needed respite from the action. The only disappointment is Kelsey Grammer’s portrayal of newsman Hawkins. Maybe I’ve grown too accustomed to seeing him as Frasier. The problem is that he ends up a caricature, a comic book villain on par with Boris Badenov.

The DVD is stuffed with extras. Best of all is a fifteen-minute (appropriate, eh?) interview with Jerry Springer, Sally Jesse Raphael, Deborah Norville, and Maury Povich about the role of tabloid and exploitive TV. The other great extra is the unedited videotapes shot by the criminals, which are as creepy as anything I’ve seen in film. We also get deleted scenes with audio commentary from the director, filmographies, previews, and all the other usual suspects.

New Line’s Infinifilm DVD rendering is state of the art. My wife and I see a lot of movies, both at home and in the theater, and she hardly ever mentions the quality of the picture. As we watched 15 Minutes, she kept saying that she had never seen a DVD that looked this good. Colors are deep and true. The constant transitions from film to high-definition video, replete with saturation effects, are stunning. Sonically, we have a true sub buster. Even at 10dB down from THX reference level, my whole house shook like there was an earthquake in the neighborhood. This DVD should come with a safety label on the front warning you to "turn it down." Your speakers are in peril. You have been warned.